Indiana Mom Blasts ACLU Attack on Release-Time Religious Training Program -- GOPUSA

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Indiana Mom Blasts ACLU Attack on Release-Time Religious Training Program
By Jim Brown
AgapePress
October 31, 2006

(AgapePress) -- A Christian mom in Indiana is praying the American Civil Liberties Union will not succeed in shutting down a release-time religious education program in her children's school district.

The ACLU recently filed a lawsuit challenging a program in the Mooresville school district that allows third and fourth graders to leave the classroom for one hour a week to learn about topics such as the creation, the flood, and key figures in the Old Testament. A parent objected to the fact that the classes are held in a trailer on school property and teachers hand out enrollment cards to students wishing to participate.

The ACLU claims it does not have a problem with the release-time program itself. Rather, the civil liberties group says it objects to the fact that the religious classes are held on school property and that teachers are involved in collecting parental permission slips from students who enroll. But according to one of the community parents, the lawsuit is not sitting well with the majority of Mooresville residents.

Jacoba Ballard has lived in Mooresville all her life, and one of her children attends the release-time program at Neil Armstrong Elementary, the school at the center of the controversy. She says many people in her community are deeply involved in this issue, as they believe in God and support the religious education program.

"Most of the people here do," Ballard notes, "and it's just pretty sad that one person is going to change that for all of us -- and hopefully they don't." She says the release-time program is helping to teach her son moral values and the importance of loving God.

Besides, the Christian mom contends, the ACLU has no legal standing to interfere with or to protest the program, she contends, because the school is not subsidizing it. She points out that those providing the religious instruction even offered to pay rent for the use of school facilities.

"The school does not fund the program in any way," Ballard says, "and nor does our tax dollars." The money comes from churches and other donors, she asserts; so, along with other community parents who support the release-time program, she is hopeful that the ACLU will not be able to shut the religious education classes down.