Judge Halts Blatant Christian Discrimination in Washington State School District

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]Well, Joel Penton from Lifewise Academy.

[00:00:02]It's good to have you here with us. I know you've been here several times on on CBN. There's a case in Everett, Washington. We've covered this a little bit here at CBN. Uh but tell us a little bit about what is happening because and how y'all got tangled up in this case.

[00:00:16]>> Well, to provide context, we provide Bible education for public school students during school hours. We do so under Supreme Court ruling from 1952, Zorak v. Clawson that said public school students can be released from public school during the school day to attend religious classes if three criteria are met. Off school property, privately funded and students have parental permission. And so we started this program in 2019. It has spread rapidly.

[00:00:42]We're serving over a thousand schools across 37 states. And in almost every instance, it goes very smoothly. Yeah.

[00:00:50]>> We have honestly minimal >> push back. Uh people like it and it's a parental choice.

[00:00:57]Well, in Everett, Washington, uh just outside Seattle, for a year, things went very smoothly and had dozens of families involved. But somewhat recently, things have shifted and one particular school board member has come out publicly opposing our efforts, honestly, calling us names and things, which does that doesn't bother us. Um but they have the school has now changed their policies and in at least three different ways. Number one, whereas most groups, classes, clubs, in fact any one I've ever heard of, the parent signs a permission slip at the beginning of the school year and then their kids signed up for the year. Well, now with Lifewise and only Lifewise, a parent has to bring in a permission slip every single week to for their child to be enrolled, which is a major obstacle for families.

[00:01:50]Secondly, certain events where other secular where secular groups can go and promote their organization. We used to be a part of those. Now we've been excluded from those. But then the most perhaps um uh I guess you could say comical is that when we send things home with students um whether it's worksheets or even Bibles, if we send a Bible back with students from our class, the school says it has to come back in a sealed envelope. Um, which of course gives the impression that it's somehow dangerous or or that it it certainly gives the impression that kids need to conceal their faith to a certain degree. And so for these reasons, we tried to talk to the school quietly. We tried to say, "Hey, this isn't constitutional. Hey, you can't treat us differently than other groups."

[00:02:37]>> They remain steadfast. And so now we've entered into a lawsuit with them.

[00:02:41]>> Hey there. Sorry to interrupt, but we wanted to give you the latest information. A judge with the US District Court of the Western District of Washington has issued a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the school district from keeping students from participating in extracurricular faith-based activities that we're talking about here in this interview with Lifewise Academy. The judge said in late April the district likely violated the Christian organization's constitutionally protected rights to religious freedom. Okay, now back to our conversation with Joel.

[00:03:15]>> Well, and the the ironic thing is is you have to hide, conceal your Bible, which as you said is is not a dangerous book.

[00:03:23]It certainly is offensive. It's offensive to our human sinfulness, our human brokenness, but there's nothing that needs to be censored in the Bible, but there are books you can check out from the library that are full of offensive content and harmful content for children. So, tell us a little bit about that dichotomy. Yeah. Well, we were curious, you know, what type of literature is permissible in the school.

[00:03:48]And when we just did some basic searches of their website, it was kind of shocking to see the content, the titles and things that are readily available to students and in on topics that are highly controversial.

[00:04:05]Whereas the Bible, even though some, you know, believe it is God's truth as we do and some don't, >> no one can begin to argue that it hasn't been absolutely central to the formation of our society, you know, and it's it's the most influential book ever written.

[00:04:23]And to to think that >> uh students should be shielded from exposure to the most influential book ever written is quite preposterous.

[00:04:33]Well, and you work in public schools around the country, and you've even said that in the beginning of our conversation that it's largely been fine partnerships uh with the school systems, but I also think there is a thread of of ideological animus that seems to exist uh toward organizations, not necessarily just life-wise, but just organizations that are coming in with a Christian perspective. Have you experienced any of that more broadly?

[00:04:58]>> Yeah, we do experience It's everywhere but in a minority. So I talk about the 10 1080 principle or 108010. And in my mind 10% of people out there love lifewise so much that they will make donations, they will volunteer, they will do anything they can. Um there's also a 10% that do not like the Bible.

[00:05:24]You know, they don't want kids to have access to the Bible. They would go as far as to say parents shouldn't be allowed to make the decision for their own child. Yeah.

[00:05:33]>> Whether they can study the Bible. Um, however, I just that's not the majority.

[00:05:38]Most of the people are in the middle somewhere, the 80% that frankly they're just living their lives and they want their kids to behave. They want their kids to have be well-rounded. And it's that group in the middle that we primarily want to speak to to say, "Hey, this is a good thing." whether or not you're currently engaged in church, you should include your children in this program. And frankly, the the noisy 10% that is so opposing our our program, well, frankly, they kind of help us because they shine a spotlight on what we're doing. And most people look at us and say, "Oh, that looks pretty cool."

[00:06:14]>> Yeah. Well, there are some people who are just completely closed off to the public school alto together, right?

[00:06:19]They're they're just never they're they've written that off a as a failed experiment. And then there's some people like you like life life-wise who are let's find a way to partner with to work within the system to bring about positive change. So what would you say to the parents or just I'm writing off the public school there's no value there whatsoever.

[00:06:37]>> Yeah I would let them know that I'm personally supportive of any decision you know a parent would make. Um I mean personally we homeschool our children because we can. Um and then our children participate in the public school sports.

[00:06:51]One of my kids is in a engineering class in the public school. So we kind of have a hybrid thing going on and so we say, "Hey parents, do whatever you want." In my mind, including one's own children in the public school is optional. But I tend to think engaging with your local public school.

[00:07:09]>> Yeah. shouldn't be optional for Christians because the truth is 90% of the next generation in our nation is in the public school and those kids need Jesus.

[00:07:22]>> Yeah.

[00:07:22]>> Th those kids need the word of God. And as more and more Christians exit the public school, which is their right, >> it only takes out that many more, you know, from from the school that would be able to to share that good news. And so we need to engage. We need to be plugged in and Lifewise is one of those ways we can do that.

[00:07:42]>> Yeah. Well, you know, a lot of times we're when we're having you on or others on, it's to talk about the difficulties and the push back and the friction that exists, but we also want to hear about the great things that God is doing and the ways that God has blessed Lifewise Academy. So, tell us a little bit about what you've seen God do just in the last year at Lifewise.

[00:07:58]>> Oh, I appreciate that. I mean, a lot.

[00:08:01]Uh, I think I might have even mentioned already our goal is 25 schools by 2025 and now we're going to be serving over a thousand schools this school year. And the I think the real vision and dream for Lifewise is that it could be a truly foundational part of the community that it is the thing where churches come together, the Christian community comes together and says, "We're going to make Bible education available to our local students in large numbers and for a for generations." And we are starting to see that really take root in many communities across the country where yes, the churches are coming together, the the families, the businesses, and even the school leadership is everybody's linking arms to say this is important. We want this to be part of our community. We want the Bible to be part of our culture. And for example, I just saw in my Google news alert because something about Lifewise uh building dedication ceremony for the new Lifewise building in in a particular community and I thought I didn't even know they were doing this. This community raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, got the property beside the school, built a brand new facility to be a a permanent educational facility to do life-wise.

[00:09:17]And there's been many other communities who have done the same thing, but now it's at the scale that I didn't even know that was happening. And that's kind of the idea.

[00:09:24]>> It's growing without you now, right?

[00:09:26]>> It's growing and it's really taking root and communities are looking multiple generations into the future.

[00:09:33]>> Yeah. Well, the last question I want to ask you is we've seen a lot of data recently, especially in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination showing that Bible reading and interest in scripture is up, but we're seeing the number of people who understand scripture, the number of people who see the authority of scripture, that's actually trending downward. And I know that Lifewise does a lot to expose kids to scripture, like to teach them how how do you read the Bible? How do I understand the Bible? Obviously, they're children, but it's establishing that foundation. Talk about the importance of establishing an understanding at that age of how to read scripture and how it sets them up for success.

[00:10:10]>> Yeah. Yeah. It's critical. And it's one of the things I'm most excited about about LifeWise is how deep we can go with students because it isn't just a one-off event, as great as those can be.

[00:10:23]It isn't just an 8week Bible study, as great as that can be. But our typical programs, kids start in first grade and they go in for five years in elementary school and they go through the entire Bible. We start in Genesis and over five years each and every week we're studying through scripture. We talk about head, heart, hands, head, what's the information on the page? What does the Bible say?

[00:10:45]>> Heart, how does it connect to the bigger picture story of the gospel message? How does it point to Jesus and hands? How does it transform our character? And so by the time these kids have been through just elementary school, they have a working knowledge of the entire sweeping narrative of scripture. And it can really form that biblical worldview, which is not just surface level, but it's that which then makes sense of all the rest of the information they're getting.

[00:11:12]>> Yeah. Well, Joel Penton, thank you so much for being here. Hey, thanks for having me.