Lifewise: Bible-based instruction during the school day

Tim J. Clark Uncategorized

LifeWise gives parents a fully legal way to bring Bible-based character classes into their child’s weekly public school routine, without any extra scheduling. And if your school doesn’t have a program yet, our proven 10-step process makes it simple for a community to start one together.

Post at Brown County Matters

As of July 30, 2026. Brown County School Corporation is at 19 signatures right now and needs to reach 50 signatures or more! 

The churches that are represented in the community interest list so far are:

Legal Basis

Zorach v. Clauson – Wikipedia. Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306 (1952), was a release time case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a school district allowing students to leave a public school for part of the day to receive off-site religious instruction  did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.[1]

  • Religious Accommodation: Writing for the majority, Justice William O. Douglas famously stated: “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.”  The Court reasoned that government accommodation of religious practices does not constitute an unlawful “establishment” of religion as long as public resources aren’t directly funding or conducting the classes.

The landmark Supreme Court decision in Abington School District v. Schempp (1963) prohibited government-sponsored devotional Bible reading and prayer in public schools. It did not prohibit teaching about the Bible. In fact, Justice Tom C. Clark, writing for the Court, made an important observation that is frequently overlooked:

“It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”

The Court recognized an important distinction between religious instruction and academic study.

The Ten Commandments and American History: Why Biblical Literacy Belongs in Public Education, By Tim Clark

Additional Resources:

1. What is LifeWise Academy?: A brief overview of LifeWise.

2. Program Overview  Robust brochure with 10-step process, Statement of Faith, curriculum link, and FAQs

3. OSP on Angel Studios (direct link): LifeWise documentary. It’s Awesome!! You will need to create an Angel account, but it costs nothing to do so.

4. Impactful stories:
Connor’s Story
Christian’s Story This one is my favorite.

5. All of our most popular videos in one place:
https://lifewise.org/videos/

6. Catholic students do participate in LifeWise. We consider them a denomination but are welcome to join a LifeWise program.

7. Social media,  LifeWise Academy Facebook Page

 

 

Leave a Reply