A Word From Reverend Jensen About the Importance of America's Multi-Faith History

Back in early February 2025, Respect Public Schools - WA held an informational session about LifeWise Academy. Since the local LifeWise directors did not host a public meeting where questions could be asked about the program, we opened the session with a presentation about LifeWise using research from the organization’s national website, newspaper articles, videos, and the Facebook pages of other chapters. A few local Clergy members were also invited to share their concerns with the program.

Reverend Carol Jensen spoke to attendees first. Rev. Jensen is the chair of Faith Action Network - a multi-faith nonprofit organization of powerful voices of faith and conscience advocating for a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world. She spoke about our nation’s rightful history as a refuge for multiple faiths, and today’s ever present call to continue to love and respect all people, regardless of differences. Her words are shared below: 

“Those of us who are parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles, or anyone who teaches or mentors children all want those kids we care about to learn the values that are important to us. For many of us, our core values come to us from our religious traditions.

The religious traditions in America have been diverse from the very beginning. Indigenous peoples, Jews, Muslims, and Christians have been here since colonial times. Our nation’s founders wisely saw the danger of favoring one religion in our government and the institutions of our government – which today includes public schools. They wrote into our nation’s constitution that no one religion should be established by the government.

As a religious leader and as a citizen I am opposed to any instruction by a religious group during the school day even if it is off campus, though I am aware that it is currently protected under the 1952 court case.

It is very clear LifeWise regards American public schools as a mission field, that is as a context for recruiting children to a particular religious point of view. Students are being offered a free lunch and a midday break away from school to hear a particular interpretation of the bible. That interpretation condemns certain lifestyles and beliefs as sinful, which may have repercussions for other children in the school whose families do not share the LifeWise teachings. It may lead to children who are part of this program to bully or condemn a classmate who has two parents of the same gender or who practices another faith.

My faith tradition – I am a Lutheran Christian – teaches that God loves everyone, no exceptions, and that followers of Jesus are called to love others as God loves them. Love means respect for differences and appreciation of diversity.

Teaching kids a narrow, judgmental version of Christianity in the middle of the school day can undermine the efforts of our schools to promote respect for pluralism which is essential for our community life.

But there is a bigger, more dangerous agenda related to LifeWise right now. Many political leaders in our nation have committed themselves to Christianizing all the institutions of our society – the government, the schools, the cultural institutions. We call that Christian nationalism and it is a threat to the very foundation of America. As Christian clergy, I am committed to the rights of those who are not Christian to practice their faith, but more than that. The public institutions of our society should not privilege one particular religious view over any other. It is inevitable that groups like LifeWise are privileging a particular narrow version of Christianity in our schools.

I believe that is dangerous to our schools, to religious freedom, and to our democracy.”

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This is the first post in a series of three, where we feature the words of our charter Clergy members. Each of them was featured in a recent Everett Herald article, where their robust perspectives were merely summarized and weakened. We wanted to showcase their strong views in their own words.