Most of the pushback we see comes from three things, and they're all just misconceptions. And it's people thinking that happens in the school and thinking that happens on taxpayer dollars and that it's mandatory, right? And all three of those are not true. It's off school property. It's privately funded, and it has to be parent permitted. Those are the three criteria outlined in the Supreme Court ruling from 1952 that allows for this whole thing. Welcome to the show. Nate. Well, we are so excited to talk about your documentary, which I think is a topic that is going to really intrigue a lot of our listeners who are Christians. Yeah, it's called“Off School Property.” Yep. And it's a film about what. It's essentially about the relationship between the Bible and public education. Oh, that's a controversial one. Let's dive into it. All right. So. So what? How did you get the inspiration for this documentary? What inspired you here? Yeah. So I've been working for an organization called Life Wise Academy for a number of years. And life wise basically establishes a optional Bible class for public school students during school hours. And most people hear that and they think, is it before school, after school? And it's during school hours. So this is happening during the school day. You guys have like a bus that comes and picks up. Yeah. Or they can walk. If it's close by, it's off school property. It's privately funded. Students have to have parent permission, all that stuff. Yeah. And I it's been spreading very rapidly. And prior to coming to life wise, I had been working on documentary films. And so as I was watching the story of likewise unfold and just seeing this ministry grow so rapidly across the country because people are seeing that there's a way to reintegrate Bible education into the public school day. I thought, we have to make a documentary about this, because the biggest issue we have is that people just simply don't know this as possible, right? They don't know that it can be done, that people say separation of church and state. And everyone's like, oh, they just throw up their hands like there's nothing we can do. But yeah, so I thought, man, we need to make a movie that tells the story of both. You know, how we got to this place, a little bit of history on how we got to this place where the Bible and public education are separate, and then why that's such a big deal, which I wanted to go into a bit of why the Bible is such a big deal, just how formative it is to our worldview, to our world, to us as humans. And then ultimately, okay, here we have this problem where the most transformational book in all of human history is separate. It's banned from the one place where we educate 90% of our population. You know that that's a big problem. Yeah. It is. And so what can we actually do about it? And having been a part of this ministry and watching it grow and seeing it re-integrate the Bible into public education in a way that we think is sustainable and impactful and works for public educators and families who want Bible education for their students. And all around, it's just works very well. We just thought, man, if we, you know, this movie would be a really good way to get the word out because I've just personally, I've being a part of documentaries and watching other documentaries shape our culture so profoundly. Thought we're we're equipped to do such a thing. We should do it, you know? So that's where the movie came about. It makes sense. I love that you walk through the history to kind of like, how did we get here? Because, yeah, I think a lot of people maybe forgot or don't know that at one point the Bible was allowed in schools. And this change is rather recent. I mean, recent is in a few decades, but yeah. And so when they watch this film, are you. Do you take them all the way back? Like you take them back to pre you know, what was the 1960s when the was it 19. 50, 1963 is when the Supreme Court ruling happened that banned the Bible in prayer in public schools. We actually it's a very brief overview, but we actually go all the way back to the 1600s. Oh my gosh. And start by just simply saying, you know, when when America early American education, one of the driving motivators for people to be educated was so they could read the Bible. Yes, exactly. At a very like. Yeah, it was there from the very start. And so we kind of do a general overview of, you know, what the rise of science and secularism and as. Yeah, as, you know, as America got established and things got more formalized and whatnot, kind of just the how through one stepping stone after another, we get to this place where we're in the total opposite situation. Crazy. Yeah. It's really it's hard to believe that we have come here. There's so much allowed in school that it's hard to believe that the one thing that really can be a light and a healing to so many is fan. But, you know, I want to say that in my home community, there was kind of a controversy about bringing likewise in, like we actually had school board members that were fighting against that. Is that something that's common, or is that just in my area? Because I'm pretty sure this is actively going on where we're at. Like, they don't want to let kids have the option to to do this? Yeah. I mean, there are school boards that have said, no, there's a handful for sure. But in the grand scheme of things, it's a very, very small percentage of communities that have that sort of good. I mean, my own hometown was the very first school board to pull the policy that allows for this. Yeah. So I know very well that yeah, that what that's like. But yeah, it's overall it's a very small percentage. It is. Okay. Good. Yeah. But but it does happen. And a lot a lot of state laws are also changing that are basically saying that it's just going to be a part of the policy. You have to allow it. If the community wants it, you have to say yes, right. You can't stand in between the community and what they're asking for. Right. So yeah, so that a lot of. So returning the power to the local people to decide. Yeah. Yeah. And it also helps like you still have where superintendent is all about it. But their school board is like some of the people on school board aren't necessarily about it. And so it just it helps just kind of it just provides a lot of clarity so that they can just say, hey, this is just what we do in this state, you know? Yeah. Makes allow this to be an option because that's the that's the crazy thing is like at the end of the day, if school board is saying no, they're denying parents the option to have this. It's not it's not. Not mandatory. Most of the pushback we see comes from three things. And they're all just misconceptions. And it's people thinking that happens in the school and thinking that happens on taxpayer dollars and that it's mandatory, right. And all three of those are not true. It's off school property. It's privately funded, and it has to be parent permitted. Those are the three criteria outlined in the Supreme Court ruling from 1952 that allows for this whole thing. Yeah. So once people, the vast majority of people, once they understand that those things aren't true and they understand to like the reality behind the separation of church and state that it's really meant to protect the church from the government and not the other way around. They they're like, oh, this seems fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little bit of education and people are okay with it. Yeah, yeah. So back to the documentary. What what are some of the driving, like, the hopes that you have for people that watch this? What do you hope that they walk away with? Yeah I appreciate that question. Yeah I hope that people are both challenged and encouraged. Okay. Like the movie, I wanted to make it so that if you are coming at this from somebody who excited about an opportunity like this, then you'll be super encouraged. But I also want I think there's a lot of people, a lot of Christians who just also don't quite know the power on which they're standing in terms of like both the law and also just the depth of the impact of the Bible in the world. And I wanted to equip believers with just a really thorough understanding, even though it's only a limited amount of time. We have to, you know, talk through all this stuff, go into just how unbelievably impactful the Bible is. Not just it's not just that we're getting a few ideas about the Bible through literature or something like that. Like the way we even think about anything, the way we think about time, the way we think about progress, the way we think about the value of human life. Like, all those things come from a biblical worldview. And those create like ecosystems by which, like, all these other things are born that are good. So I wanted to really I mean, I've grown up in a Christian home my whole life. I lived in Israel for a time, and I dug into a lot of this stuff. But even in making the movie, I learned things that like layers deeper about the impact of the Bible in the world that I did not. I was, I just didn't know. And it was still blowing my mind. And so I want to equip in and challenge and encourage people with all that and also just, yeah, encourage them with like, hey, here's something you can practically do. Like a lot of people are frustrated by situations in their hometown about like, man, I feel stonewalled by like, and you have a lot of parents who they can't afford to have private school. They can't. Maybe their single parent homeschooling is a tough option for them or whatever. So they feel a little stuck in this one lane, and they don't really have a clear option to get reinforcement from the community to, you know, for biblical education and whatnot. So I just wanted people to realize, like, there's something you can actually do. A lot of documentaries sound the alarm about an issue, but don't necessarily have a practical. Yeah, here's exactly what you can do to run with it. Call that. Is poisoned. But sorry, I can't help you with that solution. Good luck dying slow from all that poison food. But yeah, we wanted to. I wanted people to have a very clear here's how in anybody could get involved. There's all kinds of ways to get involved, you know. Yeah. That's amazing. So even like when. So when you watch this film, you actually are going to walk away with some ways that you can actually bring this into your own community, into your own district. That is so great because, yeah, you're right. A lot of times in documentaries you're left kind of feeling like, oh my goodness. The world is scarier than I thought. And I thought it was scary before. I went off this. Yeah. Give me off. The the planet, please. Thank you. Right. I love that. And where do people find the documentary? Where is it at? Yeah. Streaming on Angel Studios. Okay, so. You have to be a member of Angel Studios. Yep. Or if you know somebody who is a member, they have a feature called Share free Access. Oh, nice. So, you know somebody who's a guild member, they can just click that link and it will it'll generate a link that you can watch it for free. Okay. Using their account you don't need to be paying. You will like have to create a username and password. But you don't pay for the platform and you can watch it for free so anybody can share it. The same way you can share a YouTube video. Nice. If you've got a if you know somebody who's got. Access, great. So now my kids just heard this and now they're going to want because my grown adult children don't have Angel Studios, but I do. So they're going to be like, oh, can you just share that? Totally totally great. Just like the, you know, Disney Plus login. They won't be able to watch anything. They'll only be able to. Watch only. That one thing that they. Share hearing that. So we're not going to be sharing the oh my goodness I love that. We're going to put links in the show notes so people can figure out how to get to the angel. I mean, they should know by now. We've had them on our podcast in the past, but that way they know where to look for getting off off school grounds, right? School property. Cool property if I can get the name right. Oh my goodness. Oh good. But this is a great documentary. And I think this is something that parents should definitely take a watch. Because if you're struggling, if you have kids in public schools, you don't know how to, you know, engage, you know, bring the Bible back into the school. Well, you don't have to know how because there's an organization likewise does this. They can work with you, help equip you, and then you can know the history, too, because when you go to the school board to ask for the program, you got to have your knowledge, you got to have some background, you got to have some history. And this documentary can give you that, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And once you, you know, plug in with life wise specifically. Likewise you can find your school. You can see if there's a life wise there if there's not. Likewise is designed to help communities walk through a step by step process to be able to establish a chapter like this. I. Love that. Yeah. Well, great. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thanks for doing the documentary. Equipping parents like we are all about equipping parents. So thank you so much I. Appreciate it. Yeah. My pleasure. Thank you. Well, listeners, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you on the next episode of the Covenant Eyes Podcast. Take care. God bless.