School Sends Sheriff to Tell Seven-Year-Old He Can’t Hand Out Bible Verses

According to Liberty Counsel, this young boy’s mother would pack Scripture verses and notes in his lunch. At school, during the lunch period, he would read them aloud to his classmates. Apparently his friends started asking him for their own verses, and his mother obliged, including “short stories from the Bible to provide context” for her son to hand out at lunch.

Well, when a teacher at the California school heard about this, “‘separation of church and state’ was the response, and the notes were banned from lunchtime distribution.” Apparently the young boy was publicly reprimanded by the teacher twice for “talking about religion [and] sharing his mother’s notes” and was told that he could only hand out notes after school on a public sidewalk. The family obeyed, but later that day a Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff arrived at their home and told them to stop sharing the notes because “someone might be offended.”

This is a clear violation of this young man’s constitutional rights.

This is a clear violation of this young man’s constitutional rights. During their free time, students routinely swap birthday invitations and holiday cards and talk about all manner of different subjects. But this boy is being told he can’t hand out Bible verses to students who have asked for them? Where does the US Constitution forbid children (or anyone for that matter!) from talking about their faith or providing Bible verses to those who ask?

It’s ironic that while this teacher is upset about a few Bible verses in a public school, a different religious view—a naturalistic, atheistic worldview—is being taught to the students all day long in the classroom! But very inconsistently, she doesn’t seem upset about the fact that she is imposing a nontheistic religion on the students!

Although freedom is increasingly coming under attack, we praise God we still have relative freedom to preach the gospel and publicly live out our Christian beliefs. But if things continue the way they are, these days of freedom are numbered. Despite these disturbing developments, we need to be bold in standing on God’s Word and preaching the gospel to a lost and hurting world. The world needs the hope that Jesus offers!

That’s why we are building Ark Encounter (opening July 7 south of Cincinnati). It will stand as a massive testament to the truth of God’s Word and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s an evangelistic outreach that we pray will reach millions with the good news of the gospel. Please join us in praying for the on-going construction, and bring your unbelieving friends and family to come and see it so they can hear the gospel.

Learn more and plan your visit at ArkEncounter.com.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.