When Bill Hahn first heard about LifeWise Academy, he parsed through the organization’s site to learn more. 

With two children in the Quakertown Community School District, he was curious about the Christian-based educational program that is enrolling for the upcoming school year.

“I was reading the frequently asked questions. It was interesting to me that the first one was like, how is this legal?” Hahn said. “And then, is this really legal?”

LifeWise Academy is preparing to launch at Quakertown Community Elementary School, the organization’s first offering in Bucks County.

While LifeWise states they have no political agenda, there are concerns that the program, and its larger goals, will further blur the line between church and state in public education. For example, one of their promotional videos from LifeWise Summit 2026 states:

“If we can get children to develop a Biblical worldview, this spiritual war that we’re talking about, the war is over.”

Bringing back Bible studies to public schools

LifeWise Academy argues that the explanation for all time highs in anxiety, depression and suicide amongst youth can be traced back to low levels of Bible literacy, church attendence and professions of faith. In fact, this alleged correlation led Joel Penton to found LifeWise Academy. 

The current CEO was a founding member of Cross Over the Hill in 2012, a program that used released time to bring religious education back to public schools in Van Wert, Ohio.

A 1952 Supreme Court case Zorach v. Clauson allows released time for religious instruction during the school day, as long as the program is off school property, privately funded and parent permitted. 

Under Pennsylvania law, districts must excuse students for up to 36 hours per school year for religious instruction, if requested by parents.

READ: The Push Is on for Evangelical Time-Release Programs

There are currently at least 12 states — including Pennsylvania — that have laws legally mandating that public schools allow for students to leave for programs like LifeWise.

In fiscal year 2024-25 the organization spent $208,000 on lobbying, working to expand released time religious instruction legislation across the country.

Cross Over the Hill would rebrand into LifeWise Academy in 2018 and by 2022, the program served 133 schools across four states. Currently, there are 267 chapters in the organization’s home state of Ohio.

Nationwide there are 531  live chapters in 40 states and the organization estimated it would serve 100,000 students in the 2025-26 school year.

Legal and ideological concerns

The expansion of LifeWise Academy has garnered concern and opposition. In some schools, educators and administrators have potentially sidestepped the law with their promotion of the program.

“That gets kind of tricky because if schools want to promote other things like Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts or local softball, they can’t discriminate against religious institutions,” said Sara Rose, deputy legal director at the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

To her, whether or not LifeWise Academy is acting within legal bounds in Quakertown comes down to if students feel an obligation to partake in the religious classes.

Parents at other schools with LifeWise programs have reported that children are “pressured” to get others to join.

“The main thing the schools need to be cognizant of is ensuring that students do not feel coerced to participate in these programs,” Rose said.

Aside from legal worries, advocates have voiced concerns about the program’s conservative connections.

“Their plan — in my opinion — long term is to divide, defund and ultimately destroy public education and then replace it with a semblance of what they already have going on, which is a private Christian organization.” – Secular Education Association Co-founder Molly Gaines

LifeWise has been linked to right-wing, Christian nationalist organizations, receiving legal support from America First Legal and allying with Moms for Liberty.

Molly Gaines co-founded the Secular Education Association in 2023 to raise awareness about LifeWise Academy’s growing influences on public schools. 

As she dove deeper into what the organization was, Gaines said it became more apparent that LifeWise was seemingly connected to larger conservative initiatives, such as Project 2025, a plan designed to reshape the American government to serve a right-wing agenda.

The Heritage Foundation — authors of this blueprint — awarded LifeWise a 2025 innovation prize, an accolade given for “creative solutions to the most pressing issues facing America.”

“Their plan — in my opinion — long term is to divide, defund and ultimately destroy public education and then replace it with a semblance of what they already have going on, which is a private Christian organization,” Gaines said.

LifeWise Academy in Quakertown

Mahri Coen started to pursue opening a LifeWise chapter in Quakertown in the winter of 2025, after a church member said the program would be implemented in the nearby borough of Souderton, Pennsylvania. 

The former Central Bucks educator turned kids director and outreach coordinator at Morning Star Fellowship Quakertown, decided it was time to bring back religious education to her community.

“Anybody can see the decline in the way that children are acting in the world, the disrespect, the anxiety, all of the issues that we see with the kids in my opinion stems back to the Bible being out of the schools,” Coen said.

After completing the 10 steps needed to launch the program — including collecting 50 signatures, fundraising a suggested $500 and obtaining school approval — the LifeWise’s Quakertown program is now taking enrollments for the upcoming school year.

READ: PA Family Institute’s ‘City on the Hill’ Camp Is Training the Next Generation of Christian Nationalist Lawmakers

Coen now serves as a board member of LifeWise Academy’s first chapter in Bucks County. 

The organization is working to expand its footprint in the county, currently in the planning stage in four other school districts: Bensalem Township, Neshaminy, Council Rock and Central Bucks.

“We’ve only seen positives for the community, positives for the schools, because the goal is to not do something different from what the schools are doing necessarily, but to partner with them,” Coen said.

LifeWise Academy is not trying to teach anything that contradicts what is taught in Quakertown Community Elementary School, according to Coen. The program is still going to teach about “generosity or kindness,” just in a biblical way.

“We’re not trying to sway people or change curriculum,” Coen said. “We’re simply trying to offer to families who want the ability for their children to learn biblical truths of a solid foundation.” 

Relationship with the elementary school

LifeWise chapters function by transporting enrolled students — usually in red, branded buses — from their school to nearby off-site facilities, like local churches. Unlike other locations however, Quakertown elementary school students will — escorted by LifeWise volunteers — walk to the nearby Morning Star Fellowship Quakertown church.

While held during the school day, the Ohio-based organization has noted that the religious instruction does not interfere with essential learning: the Bible study classes are during non-academic periods like lunch or electives.

Missy Hartney, director of communications for the district, said the program reached out to Quakertown Community School District this past spring.

“This is a completely voluntary program. Children may only attend if they have parental permission.” – LifeWise Spokesperson Christine Czernejewski

“While the district has been in contact with staff from the LifeWise program since then, at this time there is no definitive start date,” Hartney said.

She also clarified the district maintains “no formal affiliation” with the religious education group. Although there is no firm start date for the program, off-site transportation and other specifics have already been sorted. 

Christine Czernejewski, a spokesperson for LifeWise through Firefly PR, explained students who choose to enroll in LifeWise Academy at the elementary school will attend the religious instruction during either their specials rotation — art, music, physical education — or lunch and recess depending on grade level.

“Finally, this is a completely voluntary program,” Czernejewski said. “Children may only attend if they have parental permission.”

“This is entering a gray area if nothing else”

Hahn considers himself a Christian. He grew up Catholic and has read — and continues to read — the Bible.

Even as someone raised and continues to live a life guided by these traditions, Hahn is concerned about the prospect of LifeWise Academy running a program in Quakertown. 

Above all, he believes that the separation of church and state — whether you practice religion or not — is of the utmost importance and said LifeWise Academy is creating a “gray area” in place of that separation.

From what he has learned about the organization, they seem to have a fundamentalist view of the religion.

“It’s concerning how Christianity and Christian nationalism is being used for political ends. I am concerned that would be part of this organization.” – Quakertown School District Parent Bill Hahn

Many Christians, according to Hahn, believe in science, evolution and LGBTQ rights. LifeWise teaching children a strictly fundamental view of the Bible could clash with the education they receive from their own households.

“I would be certainly concerned about the idea of smaller children who might be confused or otherwise not know how to deal with it,” Hahn said.

When asked about these concerns  — that LifeWise Academy could blur the line between church and state, all while fueling Christian nationalist agendas — Czernejewski said that the program just “teaches the Bible, plain and simple.”

Hahn, though, suspected the group has ulterior motives.

“It’s concerning how Christianity and Christian nationalism is being used for political ends,” Hahn said. “I am concerned that would be part of this organization.”