Missionaries in Public Schools Edd Doerr Americans for Religious Liberty Silver Spring, Maryland Religious pluralism and the constitutional principle of separation of church and state require public schools to be religiously neutral. This article shows how that neutrality is being violated on a large scale by fundamentalist missionaries being allowed to operate in public schools. American public schools are required to be religiously neutral by both the richly pluralistic nature of our society and the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. If the schools prefer one or some religions over others, they violate the rights of conscience of both students and their families. Neutrality does not prevent schools from teaching about religion in an objective, academic manner (e.g., comparative religion, religious literature, etc.). Nor does it mean that students are prohibited from exercising their religion or speaking about their faith in a way that is not disruptive of the educational process (e.g., reading religious literature during free time, private prayer). It does mean, at least, that the schools cannot proselytize or allow other adults to do so on campus. Probably the least reported, least analyzed, least well understood threat to public school religious neutrality is the intrusion into the schools of sectarian proselytizers. According to a survey in 1983 by Education Week, some 4,500 trained missionaries were then operating in U.S. public schools. Since then the number has surely increased. In an article in USA Today in 1987, I referred to this as "the invasion of the soul snatchers." The proselytizers who use our public schools and compulsory school attendance laws would surely agree with evangelist Jerry Johnston of Shawnee Mission, KS, who declared in a promotion piece for his Life Public School Assembly program that, "In the public school junior and senior high school age bracket there are approximately 40,000,000 [sic!] teenagers in the United States. This large group of young people represents one of the greatest virgin mission fields existent today and yet by and large, they are unreached by the Christian community." In the same piece, Johnston urged fundamentalist "youth pastors" to use the Equal Access Act passed by Congress in 1984, and later upheld by the Supreme Court, to gain entry into public schools. (The Equal Access Act allows non-curriculum related student groups, including religious clubs, to meet before and after school in secondary schools. They must be student-initiated and outsiders may not attend on a regular basis. The Supreme Court upheld this law in 1990.) Johnston boasted that by the mid-1980s he had already spoken to more than two million students in more than two thousand public schools. His technique is to put on assembly programs in secondary schools during school hours on teen substance abuse and suicide, and then invite students to attend an evening meeting to hear the rest of his "message." For example, in Pinellas County, FL several years ago, Johnston used assemblies to attract about 4,000 public school students to the Russell Stadium with promises of free pizza. Later, kids complained in letters to the editor that they had to sit through what they described as a two-hour revival service before they got their free pizza. There are other proselytizers and other methods. Young Life is one of the largest groups, with over 400 missionaries. Their method is to contact students in school during the school day and invite them to social gatherings outside school hours and off the school premises. Typically, Young Life missionaries get permission from local school authorities to "hang around" school corridors and lunch rooms to contact students one at a time. Northern Virginia Young Life director Chuck Reinhold told a Roanoke gathering, in justification of their activities, that 85% of all conversions are made by age 18. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes has chapters in hundreds of public high schools. It has 168 paid missionaries and some 3,200 volunteers. Appealing to youthful interest in sports, the FCA sends well-known sports figures across the country to promote conservative evangelical Protestant Christianity in school settings, though some such activities may technically be legal under the Equal Access Act. Sports World Ministries has gained access to public schools in nearly every state and claims to have reached over a million students. Its answer to teen problems is Christian fundamentalism. SWM has at least 14 former professional athletes on its circuit, and has been endorsed by NFL commissioner Pete Rozzell and former HUD secretary Jack Kemp. School officials in Williamsburg, VA, and North Haven, CT, have complained that SWM speakers turned required attendance assemblies into religious services, with prayer, calls for acceptance of Jesus as savior, and the passing out of cards to obtain names and addresses of potential converts. Sports World Ministries and an ancillary group called "Children's Bible Ministries" were forced out of public schools in Claiborne County, TN, when a local parent and the ACLU complained. Federal District Judge Thomas G. Hull issued a restraining order prohibiting the groups from "conducting prayer, Bible teaching, Bible reading and/or proselytizing for fundamentalist Christian beliefs in the public school system for Claiborne, Tennessee [the groups' home base], during school hours." Athletes in Action is a similar group. Its Cincinnati chapter even got a $23,000 federal grant to pay for a school assembly program featuring players from the Bengals pro football team who would "discuss the detrimental effects of drug abuse and share Christian principles which they have found meaningful in their lives." (Complaints by Jewish groups forced Athletes in Action to present a nonreligious program, which was why the grant was made in the first place.) The fast-growing Pentecostal denomination, the Assemblies of God, has set up a "Youth Alive" movement to proselytize in public schools. They have been successful in the South, particularly in Texas. According to Pentecostal Evangel, 325 of 350 students who attended an anti-drug seminar at a public school in Lufkin, TX, "accepted Christ as Saviour through the meetings." Don Brazile of Texarkana, TX, has addressed numerous rallies in public schools. He gives an altar call and provides "salvation packages" of follow- up literature to those converted at the rallies. The National Educators Fellowship, made up of evangelical teachers, encourages its members to "witness" for their faith in the classroom. They are often supported by the Rutherford Institute Campus Crusade for Christ puts on religious assembly programs in public schools. Its handbook warns its missionaries to be cautious in communities with ACLU chapters .. Another proselytizing gimmick has been uncovered in St. Mary's County, MD. Fundamentalist missionaries become substitute teachers in public schools and use the opportunity to promote their religious message among students. Still another kind of missionary activity involves the holding of religious or Bible study classes in public schools, taught by religiously biased and academically uncredentialed personnel. These programs are especially popular in the South. In Bristol, VA, a devout Methodist couple protested fundamentalist-slanted Bible classes in their community's public schools. Students were pressured to "come forward and be saved or face eternal damnation." A fourth grade teacher showed Billy Graham films, while a first grade teacher read Bible passages to her students every day. The couple, aided by the ACLU, won a federal court suit in 1983. The classes were stopped, but upset neighbors made life unpleasant for the couple Virtually all of this proselytizing activity is carried out by conservative Protestant fundamentalists, to the best of our knowledge. Catholics, mainstream Protestants, Jews, Unitarians, and Humanists apparently are never involved. This writer has personally spoken with parents whose children have been proselytized in public schools and with some whose children were converted to other religions by in-school missionaries. Although there is no way to prevent students from discussing religion among themselves or attempting to convert classmates, public school staff have no business whatever allowing or encouraging proselytizing in public schools either by school personnel or outside adults. Schools and school districts should have enforceable regulations to bar such activity. Violations of the religious neutrality of public schools should be protested by parents, religious leaders, or civil liberties organizations. If protests alone do not resolve the problems, litigation should be considered. Keeping our pluralistic public schools religiously neutral and free of sectarian divisiveness is in the interest of the religious liberty of all children and parents of all persuasions. ___________________ Edd Doerr, executive director of Americans for Religious Liberty,P.O. Box 6656, Silver Spring, MD 20916. This article is based on a chapter in a book written by Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr (ARL, 1991). =================================================== How to Win: A Practical Guide for Defeating the Radical Right in Your Community Copyright 1994 by Radical Right Task Force Permission is granted to reproduce this publication in whole or in part. All other rights reserved. For more information contact: Pat Lewis National Jewish Democratic Council 711 Second Street, N.W. 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