Ministries Push to Restore Religious Freedom in Public Schools Through Bible Distribution
Tim Todd and AFA continued its ongoing efforts to restore religious freedom in public schools and lead youths to Christ by encouraging teenagers to distribute youth Bibles to their non-Christian friends at school.
The fight for the nation’s children is still raging as Christians and homosexual activists each push for Bibles and pro-homosexual materials in public schools, ministry leaders say.
Over the past ten years, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has been active and present in around 4,000 public schools nationwide. Partly in response, Christian ministries such as Tim Todd Ministries are working to put Bibles and Bible clubs back into schools.
As part of its ongoing efforts to restore religious freedom in public schools and lead youth to Christ, Tim Todd Ministries partnered with American Family Association/American Family Radio for a third year to promote Truth for Youth Week – a national campaign that encourages teenagers to distribute youth Bibles to their non-Christian friends at school.
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During Truth for Youth Week, Aug. 19 – Sept. 2, Tim Todd Ministries allowed teenagers aged 13-18 to receive one free copy of the The Truth for Youth Bible it publishes to give to unbelieving friends outside of school hours.
The Bible consists of the entire New Testament in the God's Word version and colorful comics that address many of the tough issues that young people face today, including evolution, sexual purity, homosexuality, abortion, pornography, drugs, drunkenness, peer pressure, school violence and secular rock music.
Tim Todd, director of Revival Fires International based in West Monroe, La., said the national campaign was a response "to the ill effect the liberal agenda - promoted aggressively in America's public schools - is having on young people.”
"Many public schools have allowed Planned Parenthood to establish clinics where condoms and birth control pills are being distributed to students, and yet Bibles are forbidden," said Todd. "The National Education Association is promoting a liberal agenda to have a homosexual lifestyle, and many are teaching that abortion is just the slopping off of a mass of tissue and that abortion is a woman’s choice."
"My Bible is not politically correct," he admits, "but it is biblically correct."
According to Benjamin Lopez, lobbyist for Traditional Values Coalition, the challenges to ministries such as Tim Todd Ministries are numerous. Lopez contrasted the free-going activity of GLSEN with Christian students who are restrained.
“There has been an influx of Gay Straight Alliance Clubs (pro-homosexual clubs) in America,” he said. “Any person can come in during any lunch hour and talk to children about the homosexual stance [but] if a student expresses a religious objection to homosexuality, they are told in the classroom that they are discriminating and hateful.”
While Christian attorney Mathew D. Staver of Liberty Counsel said it is legal for students hand out the Bibles during non-instructional school time, a list of Student's Legal Rights on Public School Campuses is displayed on the back cover of The Truth for Youth Bible to inform school administrators and officials of their rights.
And so far, the effort has been successful.
During the three years AFA and Tim Todd Ministries have been working together to sponsor Truth for Youth week, close to one million copies of the youth Bible have been distributed with 155,000 of the Bibles being given away in school.
According to AFA, at least 148 young people have sent decision coupons, emails or letters confirming they have come to believe in Christ as a result of the campaign.
AFA and Tim Todd Ministries aim to reach 53.8 million teenagers.
Christian leaders that have endorsed The Truth for Youth include Pat Boone, the late Bill Bright, Jerry Falwell, T.D. Jakes, Actor Dean Jones, Art Linkletter, William J. Murray, Rod Parsley, and Michael Reagan.
