In Reality check stories, Star-Telegram journalists dig deeper into questions of facts, consequences and liability. Read more. Story idea? RealityCheck@star-telegram.com.
When he heard that his son had been forced to attend a religious meeting at his high school, Jon Luna immediately went to the school to take him home for the day.
His son had received an email from a Mansfield Lake Ridge teacher stating that his class would be attending a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The student recorded audio of a preacher leading students in prayer and asking if they accepted Jesus.
His son, who is not Christian, was confused about what happened and why he was told to be there, Luna said.
A spokesperson for the school district told the Star-Telegram that it had reviewed the communications students received and found that they did not include the words “required” or “required.”
“Participation in FCA is a voluntary activity for Lake Ridge students who choose to participate,” the district said in an emailed statement. “The ability to attend FCA during advising is a recent scheduling change on campus. In the future, the teacher will ensure that students understand that their participation in such a meeting is completely optional, and that alternatives will be made clear.”
Still, his son was told to go to the meeting, and he didn’t feel like he was free to leave despite his discomfort with the situation, Luna said.
He also wondered why someone who was by all appearances a Christian preacher was allowed to deliver what seemed like a sermon to students on a public high school campus.
The district spokesperson said the person leading the event was “an adult with FCA,” but did not specify who it was or whether he was an ordained minister.
The event naturally raises questions about its legality and the issue of the separation of church and state. What types of religious activities are allowed on public school campuses? Should pastors lead students in prayer and ask them to accept Jesus on school grounds?
The establishment clause versus the free exercise clause
The separation of church and state is not explicitly codified in US law. Proponents base their beliefs on what Thomas Jefferson called a “wall of separation” between church and state, enshrined in the first ten words of the Bill of Rights.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” the First Amendment begins. Known as the Establishment Clause, it is the legal basis for the government’s prohibition on establishing a religion.
It is immediately followed by what is known as the Free Exercise Clause – “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” – and the two often come into conflict in debates over the separation of church and state.
So while students have the right to voluntarily organize and gather for FCA and other religious activities on campus, forcing teachers or administrators to do so violates their constitutional right to freedom of government-sanctioned religion, said Hirsh Joshi, a legal fellow at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and protecting the separation of church and state.
The event at Lake Ridge High School raises “tremendous concerns” about its legality, Joshi said, calling it “a beautiful violation of church and state under the Establishment Clause.”
“You just can’t force someone to attend a house of worship or a place of worship,” he said, adding that the event was very similar to a worship service or a Sunday school class.
“This person seemed to be delivering the sermons, and the student didn’t really have a choice as to whether or not he wanted to receive the sermons. They were told to be there. In terms of legality, there is a violation here.”
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The FCA said in a statement that all its activities are voluntary and everyone is invited to attend.
“For more than seventy years, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes has steadfastly held to the ideal that every athlete has the right to choose or refuse to participate in religious activities and to express their faith according to their individual beliefs,” the organization said.
The FCA was founded in 1954 as an organization through which athletes could express their Christian faith and now has a presence in 115 countries.
Aside from the fact that such an event is mandatory, bringing a pastor on campus to lead students in prayer and ask them to accept Jesus also undermines the wall of separation between church and state, Joshi said.
“To allow this kind of thing, several additional safeguards must be followed,” he said. “Religious clubs, for example, should be run and orchestrated by students. They should also take place during free periods when no instruction is expected. Even at a basic level: consent forms must be signed by parents.”
The broader context of church-state issues in Texas public schools
Luna wondered whether non-Christian religions would have been allowed such freedom of expression on his son’s campus.
“There are plenty of Muslims who go to my child’s high school, but none of them wear their prayer rugs because… that would be a shame,” he said.
The concern is also a top priority for academic researchers focusing on the issue of religion in schools.
Regardless of the teacher’s motives for telling students to attend, the event underscores “the need for public schools to refrain from endorsing or promoting any particular religion,” said David Brockman, non-resident scholar from the Baker Institute’s Religion and Public Policy Program at Rice. University.
This is “not only because such behavior is unconstitutional, but also because it makes students and parents of other faiths or no faith outsiders in their own public schools,” he said.
Brockman placed the Lake Ridge FCA meeting in the broader context of “recent moves by Texas lawmakers to inject Christianity and the Bible into public education.”
He pointed to a Senate bill in the Texas Legislature in 2023 that proposed requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms, and what he called a “Bible-infused” elementary reading curriculum, which is being considered by the State Board of Education.
Citing a policy brief he published at the Baker Institute in September, Brockman said: “Educational policies must address students’ needs for access to accurate and balanced information about various major religious traditions they will encounter in an increasingly diverse society. ”
Joshi, of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, reported a case in Tennessee in which a Satanic Temple-sponsored “After School Satan Club” was met with “overhostility” by the school district and county school board, according to a lawsuit filed by the Satanic Temple.
