Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. The Bible has been the book that's held together the fabric of Western civilization. Civilization we possess could not come into existence and could not have been sustained without it. That quote from HG Wells opens the new documentary Off School Property, which premieres in theaters october twenty third.
The film aims to correct the record on one of the most misunderstood aspects of America's storied history. the separation of church and state. Specifically, the film attempts to convince Americans that it is not illegal to teach the Bible to public school kids. Off-school property was produced by the team at LifeWise Academy, and it highlights something that many Americans simply do not know. As the film website puts it, quote, while the Bible was being removed, an obscure 1952 Supreme Court ruling paved the way to bring it back.
This solution has been sitting right under our noses for 70 years, and it allows students to study the Bible legally during the public school day. The goal of LifeWise Academy is to expand Bible instruction to as many of America's 50 million public school kids as possible using a network of red buses, off-site class spaces. and a growing number of trained teachers. And yet, in addition to all of the logistical challenges in this work, the most difficult task is still to correct the false assumption that there's no place for God or the Bible in government-run schools. It's an assumption that's based on an enduring myth that the freedom of religion that's guaranteed to us in the First Amendment.
is really meant to be the freedom from religion. This interpretation relies on a phrase from Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist, the first reference to the so called wall of separation between church and state. But this interpretation of both the First Amendment and Jefferson's letter gets it all exactly backwards. And that's because in the vision of America's founders, religious freedom is not about keeping religion out of government. It's about keeping government.
out of religion. By the mid-twentieth century, the correct interpretation was almost fully replaced by an outright hostility for religion. People were expected to leave their faith outside the voting booth, outside the courtroom, most notably outside the schoolhouse door.
So when Madeleine Murray O'Hare pushed for Bibles to be removed from public schools, she never did it by appealing to neutrality. Instead, she declared, and I quote, we are atheist. As such, we are foes of any and all religions. We want the Bible out of school because we do not accept it as being either holy or an accurate historical document, end quote.
Now, ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. American students have been told for generations that life has no meaning, that truth is an illusion, that moral claims are impositions of power, that they're only animals, and that God is a matter of personal private preference. In The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis argued against this approach to education, something that he called making men without chest. His essay ended with this classic line, in a sort of ghostly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function.
We make men without chest and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and then are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings be fruitful.
Well, Off-School Property is a documentary that corrects the record about the separation of church and state as applied to America's government-run schools. In 1952, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that teaching the Bible during the school day was in fact legal if it was privately funded, if it was conducted off school property, and if it was done with parental permission.
Well, Lifewise Academy has now built a national model. To launch and resource Bible education to public school students during school hours that meet these requirements. The Lifewise model is plug-and-play, and it's already been implemented in over 150 school districts across the country. Off School Property premieres in theaters october the twenty third. If you visit lifewise.org/slash off-school property, that's lifewise.org.
Slash off school property, you'll find more information and where a theater near you will be airing the film. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
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