While speaking about restoring Ten Commandments displays in our public schools recently, a person in the audience raised a complaint about public schools since they kicked the Bible and prayer out of schools…. At that moment, I was reminded that too often it’s the church that believes and even spreads that lie. Please stop saying that!
For example, did you know that the United States Supreme Court has acknowledged that public school education is not complete without the Bible? In the 1963 case that many point to as supposedly taking the Bible out of school, here’s what the Court actually wrote:
[I]t might well be said that one’s education is not complete without a study of comparative religion or the history of religion and its relationship to the advancement of civilization. It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.1
Moreover, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that efforts to cleanse public schools of prayer violate the constitutionally protected right to pray at school.2 Amplifying that right, on March 9, 2026, a federal appeals court ruled that a school principal violated a teacher’s free exercise of religion by directing the teacher not to pray at school in the presence of students.3 In fact, the federal Department of Education recently issued guidance which states:
Public school teachers and other officials and employees do not forfeit their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate and need not pray behind closed doors. They must be permitted to pray while at work on the same terms as students, unless such prayer acts to coerce others into joining in or affirming their prayer, or functions as the official speech of the school as an institution. Visible, personal prayer, even if there is voluntary student participation in such prayer, does not itself constitute coercion.4
Why does this matter? It matters because the church should stop believing that a lie is true, and the church should stop saying things like they kicked the Bible and prayer out of school! When the church perpetuates that lie, it chills the exercise of religious rights on campus. Instead, churches should encourage Christian public school educators in their important kingdom ministry. In fact, pastors should visit campus prayer and Bible study gatherings and see firsthand how those Christian educators are used by God to impact their school campus. I’m so thankful for the many Christian public school educators who walk as ambassadors for Christ before the next generation on campus.
1Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203,225 (1963).
2Kennedy v. Bremerton, 597 U.S. 507 (2022).
3Barber v. Rounds, No. 25-20125 (5th Cir. 2026).
4DOE Guidance on Constitutionally Protected Prayer and Religious Expression in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools (February 5, 2026).