Conservatives long have been accused of violating the “separation of church and state” if they want to let a Bible club to meet after school in classrooms.
Or when they reference the historically accurate details about the Founders’ faith in God.
Or if they mention literally anything that has to do with God.
But now the accusers, a wide range of liberals, leftists and Democrats, are doing exactly that, according to a new commentary by Lisa Logan, the host of the YouTube Channel Parents of Patriots and author of the Substack Education Manifesto.
She has written at the Federalist that “social-emotional learning” in schools is being turned into “spiritual-ethical learning.”
“It will amount to state-sanctioned religion,” she warned.
“For families that care about raising their children with the moral and religious values of their own faith tradition, questions about which spiritual and ethical teachings should be taught prompt even more speculation about whether so-called social-emotional learning (SEL) should be taught in public education at all. As the theory adopts spiritual and ethical dimensions, it will amount to state-sanctioned religion.”
SEL, long promoted by the Collaborative for Academic Social Emotional Learning, has focused on having students recognize their emotions, develop concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish positive relationships and handle challenges.
But amid the COVID pandemic, the report said, CASEL “quietly updated” its definitions to include “racial” and “equity” components such as “power, privilege, prejudice, discrimination, social justice, empowerment, and self-determination.”
And being added is yet another revision to “address the spiritual needs of students as a part of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model.”
That’s essentially a project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
As part of meeting the needs of the “whole child,” the report said, “Spirituality will soon be seen as one of those needs.”
Multiple SEL programs have been added to the market that actually “incorporate spirituality” into their lessons. One from the Fetzer Institute promotes the “Collaborative for Spirituality in Education.”
The U.N.’s influence also is there, with a program called “Whole Child Partner” that purports that children’s “rights” override those of parents.
One promotion explains, “Both children’s ‘evolving capacities’ and ‘children’s spiritual well-being’ are key parts of achieving multiple children’s rights, as outlined in the UNCRC.”
That specifically calls for children’s “freedom of thought, conscience and religion” and establishes “spiritual well-being as a goal of these rights alongside physical, mental and moral well-being, among others,” the report said.
Such offerings in public schools, the report said, would “violate the separation of church and state and cross the line into the government using education to institute an unconstitutional state-sanctioned religion.”
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.