LifeWise Academy CEO Joel Penton and Biblical Education for Students

LifeWise Academy CEO Joel Penton joined ALCAP President Greg Davis on Priority Talk Radio to share about the program’s impact across America since 2019 and its attempts to be more active assisting local churches and parents in Alabama. Penton began the conversation by describing the purpose behind LifeWise:

“LifeWise provides Bible education for public school students during school hours and it’s under a little-known Supreme Court ruling way back from 1952, Zorach v. Clauson, that said public school students can, in fact, be released from public school during school hours to receive religious instruction if the program is off school property, privately funded, and students have parental permission. It’s called release time and sadly this opportunity has kind of just been under-the-radar, under-utilized for 70 years. We all know that the Bible has been removed from public education but few people are aware it can be reintroduced through this thing of ‘release time.’ So what LifeWise has done is put together a plug-and-play program… so that any community can implement a local LifeWise program to teach their public school students the Bible during school hours and it started in 2019 and it has really started to take off all across the country, including in Alabama.”

The two also expressed their dismay that legislation in Alabama requiring school districts to adopt a policy concerning religious release time during school hours has struggled to make it through the state legislature. Representative Susan DuBose sponsored a religious release time bill that died in its House Committee, which was surprising and saddening for supporters of religious liberty. This struggle is occurring in Alabama despite less conservative states across the United States passing similar requirements. It should be noted that the Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Senator Shay Shelnutt, passed its committee and is awaiting a vote on the Senate Floor.

For more information, listen to their entire conversation here.