Protesters speak out against LifeWise Academy’s Bible-based education program

GROVE CITY, Ohio ( WCMH ) – Around 20 parents and children stood outside a Grove City church Wednesday evening chanting and holding signs that read “Keep Church and State Separate” and “Our Public Schools are not Mission Fields.”

The group was demonstrating against the Bible-based education non-profit LifeWise Academy , which was holding its largest conference of the year with around 800 LifeWise directors and employees from all over the country in attendance.

Zachary Parrish is a father who lives in Fort Wayne, Ind., but made the three-hour drive with his daughter to voice his disappointment with the organization.

Parrish wanted to know what his daughter would be doing at school instead of the LifeWise program. LifeWise CEO Joel Penton said it’s up to the school to decide how the program is implemented.

“They said she’d be going to a study hall to read by herself and to work on making it work, and I mean, that’s just not right,” Parrish said. “Your program is costing my child’s education.”

On top of missing out on “real” educational opportunities, he said she is being ostracized and judged by other students.

“She’s been told she’s going to Hell for years, things like that,” Parrish said. “I mean, that’s super common. We see a lot of kids, is not just my daughter, was going through it.”

Alan Limke was also protesting against LifeWise Wednesday.

“I was a STEM teacher from kindergarten through fifth grade and once a week, students would miss my class,” he said. “Sometimes, a few students would miss my classes, so some students would miss music. Some would miss art.”

The group chanted slogans like “Separate, Church and State. Separate, Church and State,” and “Yes to education. No to indoctrination .”

Limke complimented the LifeWise staff he encountered, saying, “The people that were involved, likewise at my school, are lovely people. They got great friends and great kids. But in this one area, we disagree.”

LifeWise Academy touts itself as “Bible-based character education.” Skeptics, like Limke, aren’t sold.

“I’m not too sure what amount of it is character, education and what amount of it is actually indoctrination of this very narrow interpretation of the Bible,” he said. “If it was just about character education, I’m fine with that. I’m fine and responsibility of being accountable for your actions. We do a lot of that in school already, and kids need to be in school. We do a lot of that in school already, and kids need to be in school, willing to work together, learn how to collaborate. We do that in public school very well and we’re very trained to do that. We’re fingerprinted and we are vetted vigorously, so that we are, we’re qualified to do that. I’m not too sure all the LifeWise teachers are.”

LifeWise founder and CEO Joel Penton spoke with NBC4 after the two-day summit. When asked about the protesters, he said, “We respect others’ rights to have their own beliefs. We respect others’ rights to express their beliefs. We believe in what we’re doing, providing Bible-based character education for public school students across the country. If there are some that don’t like that, they are entitled to that belief. But we see the impacts every day, and so we’re going to keep going. “

Penton has grown the organization from only two schools in 2019 to more than 350 schools in 26 states in 2024. That number is going up. He said LifeWise confirmed a 27th state Wednesday and will have more than 500 programs next year.

“I would just invite anyone who is curious to look into it, to look into LifeWise, go to life outside of work,” Penton said. “You can watch videos. You can learn about the program. You can see the curriculum. We’d love to engage with anyone who’s curious.”

LifeWise uses an outcomes report to show schools and legislators the success it is having. The results of the study have been questioned for validity by Honesty for Ohio Education.

“A lot of the impact is invisible,” Penton said. “A lot of the impact is planting seeds that you won’t see the fruit of for years. But you can certainly quantify something, and we see attendance go up for schools that have LifeWise. We see disciplinary issues decrease.”

As for the protesters, Penton maintains the program is completely optional.

“I would encourage them to consider that our program is entirely optional, that only parents that want to enroll their children do enroll their children, and I would encourage them to look at what’s happening again, the rapid growth across the country and hundreds of people there today from nearly 20 states to see that parents really do want this for their kids,” he said. “Parents for years have been longing for an opportunity like this, and we simply want to give all parents the option.”

A lawsuit filed by LifeWise Academy against Parrish has not yet been settled. Parrish posted the LifeWise curriculum on a website without permission. It was removed by the website host, WordPress. LifeWise has since made its entire curriculum available by request.

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