This is personal

I’m a lifelong atheist, which wasn’t an easy thing to be while attending school in rural, religious Iowa. 

There was the pastor/coach/substitute teacher who mocked me in front of my peers. Behind my back, he encouraged my friends to “save” me. They stuffed my locker with Christian tracts and threats of eternal damnation. 

I was an ‘A’ student, a band geek, a good kid. Even so, an adult singled me out and said I was inherently bad. So I know what it feels like to be the kid who doesn’t belong, and no young person should have to endure that. 

That’s why the proliferation of Released Time for Religious Instruction (RTRI) laws is personal to me. Because these programs will subject many, many more children to religious coercion, stigma, ostracization, and harassment.

I’m incredibly proud that American Atheists is leading the charge against RTRI. Will you please donate to help us protect the kids who are made to feel less-than, as I was, simply because we think differently?

When RTRI was first introduced way back in 1905, it was actually intended to honor the separation of state and church. But in 1952, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a huge blow to Jefferson’s wall in Zorach v. Clauson, permitting religious instruction during the school day so long as it occurred off public grounds and without public support. 

If you’ve ever seen the Grand Canyon, you know even gradual erosion leads to gaping holes. And today’s RTRI proponents aren’t content to stay off campus and preach only to willing participants. LifeWise Academy, the biggest purveyor of these policies and programs, says its goal is to target “unchurched students in public schools with the gospel.” 

They pull students out of class for religious instruction they claim is “nondenominational” but is actually Evangelical Christian. Kids return to school with candy, prizes, and incentives to proselytize to their peers. 

Writing for American Atheist, Molly Gaines of the Secular Education Association described the impact like this: 

The classroom splits along an invisible seam. The ones who stay are reassigned to ‘study hall’ or handed extra work as their teacher tries to run two classrooms at once — the lesson that was building momentum now scattered to the corners. This isn’t a special assembly. It isn’t a field trip. It’s every Tuesday at 10 AM. Then Thursday, too. It can happen during core instruction or during the ‘specials’ that spark talent — art, music, PE. The losses compound, week after week, year after year.

The kids who stay in school are not unaffected. They feel the divide daily. I certainly did. Who gets candy and who doesn’t. Who is saved and who needs saving. RTRI is no longer just religious instruction. It’s a recruitment pipeline that relies on coercion, stigmatization, and ostracization. It has no place in our public schools. 

But the proselytizers’ playbook is to continuously push limits. And when legal lines are inevitably crossed, they’ll leave schools — and taxpayers — holding the bag. 

In recent weeks, we’ve received reports of LifeWise representatives entering public schools during lunch to “build relationships” with students — and without parental consent. We’ve reviewed documentation that appears to show dozens of districts have provided LifeWise with school resources — including security badges, technological support, buses, and staff — and unprecedented access to school property. 

Can you imagine the blowback if a mosque or a synagogue sent strange adults roaming the halls of your local elementary school? 

And yet it’s exactly what LifeWise does. And they’re spreading rapidly. In Ohio, 43% of public school districts already have an active chapter. 

But American Atheists is pushing back. This year alone, our policy team opposed 20 RTRI bills across the country. Only three of them became law. Now our legal team is digging in, too — sending cease-and-desist letters and filing multiple public-records requests to expose what’s happening.

I won’t sugarcoat it, though. Every part of this work costs money. And last year, LifeWise raised many, many times more than we did — like $37 million more. 

Still, time and again, our team has proven that, with your support, we can take even the most powerful groups on — and win. A donation of $25, $50, $100, or whatever you can give today will help us defeat these laws, safeguard student rights, investigate abuses, file legal challenges, and organize our community. 

Most importantly, your gift helps us fight for every nonconforming and nonbelieving kid sitting in a classroom today. So they know they’re not alone or evil or damned. So they know American Atheists is here for them. 

In solidarity,

Melina Cohen
Director of Strategic Communications & Policy Engagement