Watchdog atheist group suspends student Bible clubs

'[T]hose clubs are not bona fide student-initiated religious clubs and should be dissolved.'

Spiteful atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a formal complaint against four Ohio school districts, which allow students to hold Bible study clubs.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Despite the fact that Bible studies of any kind do not interfere with atheists in any way, FFRF demanded the clubs stop including pastors and other church officials.

The Dispatch reported the FFRF penned a letter to Lancaster City Schools Superintendent Steve Wigton, reading: "Public school districts must ensure that student religious groups are genuinely student-initiated and student-run, and that outside adults do not regularly participate in the clubs."

Similar letters were sent to eight high schools, junior high schools and middle schools, resulting in temporary suspensions of student Bible studies.

Youth Pastor Aaron Green of Faith Memorial Church told The Christian Post, that church leaders and school administrations worked together to help the groups "thrive" and "be encouraged in a special way during the school day."

Green insisted he had no idea any of the school's administrators were bothered by his involvement in the Bible clubs. He explained each school asked pastors to step back and allow the clubs an opportunity to be student-led.

"Both youth leaders and schools are aware of the sensitive nature under which these things operate and need to be extra vigilant about rules governing separation of church and state," Green stated.

Ryan Jayne, a legal fellow with FFRF, claimed student Bible studies taking place on school grounds during lunch breaks and before class is a violation of the separation of church and state if they are led, or attended, by local pastors.

media id="18801"]The atheist group, which has charged itself with keeping an eye out for any breaches in the separation of church and state, caught wind of a newsletter posted to the Fairfield Memorial Church in Lancaster website, which said the groups were "led by volunteers or community youth pastors."

The newsletter has since been removed.

Reverend Jonathan Morgan, a pastor at Faith Memorial, shrugged off the complaint, saying it was "much ado about nothing," and that the newsletter was not worded accurately.

He explained that the students from the Bible studies invite speakers to attend on occasion and thus far no concerns or complaints have cropped up among administrators, principals, parents or students.

"The districts are meeting with building principals and reviewing the parameters of the federal Equal Access Act," attorney Sue Yount wrote in response to the FFRF's letter.

"This Act provides for the right of students to hold religious activities on school grounds during non-instructional time, so long as the activities are student-initiated and student-led, with non-school persons not directing, controlling, or regularly attending."

Two of the four school district superintendents reported that the suspensions of Bible studies until the conclusion of the law firm review negatively impacted the students, but that they understand rules are rules.

Speaking from the heart, Morgan stated: "As a pastor, when we are doing our best at the request of others to be of assistance in the lives of others, it's frankly repulsive where we are today - that an individual can bring such undue and unfounded criticism."

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