LifeWise Academy: The Project 2025 Connected Religious Release Program in Public Schools

Straight White American Jesus

Axis Mundi Media: Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller

News, Politics

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ Brad interviews activist and parent Natalie Hastings, LifeWise Academy, a religious release program in public schools that takes children out of their school day for Bible study. Hastings provides insights into the program's growth, its impact on students, and its connections to larger political movements such as Project 2025. The discussion highlights concerns about the program's effects on school resources, inclusion, mental health, and the push for policies mandating such programs in different states. Natalie Hastings is a public school parent who began tracking the efforts of national extremism on public schools when her own district elected four new board members who promised to “fight CRT,” canceled an opt-in Racial Diversity Awareness Day, and passed a “Culture of Kindness” resolution to restrict teaching and discussions on race, gender identity, and inclusion. She educates and activates local communities to protect the rights of every student through Honesty for Ohio Education, an alliance of 70+ nonprofit organizations and its Honesty Teams Network, a partner in HEAL Together Race Forward’s #PublicSchoolStrong initiative. Hastings also manages research for Ohioans Against Extremism, (OHAgainstExtremism.org) a new website launching in August 2024. Other links: Policy across the US: www.schoolministries.org Parents Against LifeWise respectpublicschools.com 00:00 Introduction to LifeWise and Personal Journey 01:07 Overview of LifeWise Program 02:44 Interview with Natalie Hastings 03:38 How LifeWise Operates 05:38 Challenges and Controversies 07:45 Expansion and Legislative Push 30:51 Connections to Project 2025 39:26 Community Response and Resistance 47:41 Conclusion and Subscriber Segment Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Axis Mundi So I was a stay-at-home mom at the time when Life I was life I was just getting
0:19.2	started here in Jonathan Alder and but I had previous teaching experience and so somebody from the steering committee reached out to me and asked if I'd like to be involved in some way and it was I had never heard of life wise met for coffee. She told me about the program and I was I was all in. I said absolutely whatever it takes I want to be involved. We're wrapping up my second year of teaching for Lifewise and so it's been really fun to see the growth.
0:46.0	We are over 300 students this year which is just amazing.
0:50.3	We're not a huge district and so seeing the growth but really also seeing the excitement really among the ones that are coming as we're finishing up the year. I've had to say goodbye to some of my students this week and
1:01.0	There's tears and there's what are we going to do all summer
1:04.4	without Lifewise and and it's and having done our review lesson.
1:09.1	It's amazes me. They're just sponges. They soak it up and they they're all telling me they're going to read their
1:14.6	Bibles this summer and it's it's amazing to see the way that they are it's really
1:20.3	transforming children. Today I speak to Natalie Hastings about LifeWise,
1:24.8	a program that takes children out of their normal school day
1:27.5	so that they can attend Bible study
1:29.4	and learn about Christian teaching.
1:31.2	And it's one of those things that perhaps appears to be harmless and
1:34.4	yet once you dig in and think about it, you realize the insidious force it is in our public school system.
1:40.6	Life-wise takes resources and attention away from public school
1:46.0	curricula. It takes kids out of their normal school day and it treats certain
1:50.9	school subjects as non-essential and to be done away with. and it's
1:54.0	to be done away with in favor of kids going off to
1:58.0	non-vetted teachers without credentials to learn
2:01.0	about a religious text.
2:03.3	And I should mention it's connected to Project 2025.
2:09.1	At the end of today's show, I have a couple of minutes
	...

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