Tag Archives: Christian Persecution

NASA accused of banning ‘Jesus’ from Johnson Space Center newsletter

NASA is being accused of discriminating against some of its Christian employees after allegedly telling a prayer club that it was no longer allowed to mention the name “Jesus” in a newsletter.

The Liberty Institute, a religious freedom advocacy group, is representing the employees and on Monday threatened to file a federal lawsuit if NASA does not remove the alleged restriction.

The employees are 16 members of the Praise and Worship Club at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, according to the institute, and submit meeting announcements to the center’s JSC Today email newsletter to invite other employees to attend the club’s upcoming gatherings.

Last May, the newsletter ran the group’s announcement saying the theme for its upcoming meeting would be “Jesus is our life!”

A NASA attorney allegedly told the employees they were not allowed to include “Jesus” in future advertisements because NASA would be violating the Establishment Clause, which prevents government entities from promoting one religion over another. The employees say their speech is private and their announcements do not represent NASA’s official stance, so NASA censoring them from saying “Jesus” in the newsletter is an illegal restriction of their religious freedoms.

The club has been meeting since 2001, according to the Liberty Institute, and members currently gather during their lunch hours to discuss their faith and sing Christian songs.

“We are shocked that NASA would censor the name of Jesus from our Praise and Worship Club’s announcement,” JSC Praise and Worship club spokesperson Sophia Smith said in a statement released by the Liberty Institute. “NASA has a long history of allowing the religious speech of its employees, so why would they ban ‘Jesus’ from our announcements?”

The Liberty Institute noted NASA astronauts have famously made high-profile religious comments in the past. Notably, Scott Carpenter said “Godspeed, John Glenn” when Glenn became the first American to orbit the planet in 1962 and Bill Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman read from the Book of Genesis as they orbited the moon on Christmas Eve, 1968.

The institute argues the ban is discriminatory, claiming the newsletter still publishes other “generic religious references.” The Praise and Worship Club’s announcements are also still published, the institute claims, though the club stopped mentioning Jesus as it sought counsel.

“It is illegal for the government to censor the name of Jesus in employee emails,” Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for Liberty Institute, said in a statement. “Censoring a religious club’s announcement to specifically exclude the name ‘Jesus’ is blatant religious discrimination.”

ISIS committing ‘genocide’ against Christians, EU Parliament says

The European Parliament has labeled the Islamic State’s actions against Christians and other religious and ethnic groups as genocide, calling for world powers to hold the group responsible.

The parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution that states the Islamic State “is committing genocide against Christians and Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities who do not agree with” its radical religious beliefs, adding the actions of the insurgency “are part of its attempts to exterminate any religious and ethnic minorities from the areas under its control.”

The resolution also accuses the Islamic State of “egregious human rights abuses, which amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.” The genocide label carries some added weight, though, because the United Nations has adopted a treaty devoted to punishing and preventing it.

The treaty, implemented in 1948, defines genocide as certain actions “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The actions include murdering the group’s members, or inflicting serious bodily or mental harm upon them.

The parliament’s resolution calls for the United Nations Security Council to ask the International Criminal Court to launch an official investigation into the genocide allegations.

It was approved one week after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a group concerned with human rights, adopted a similar resolution that stated the Islamic State has “perpetrated acts of genocide and other serious crimes punishable under international law.”

Lawmakers and advocacy groups have called for the United States to declare the Islamic State’s actions as genocide, though the country has yet to take that step. Resolutions to that effect have been introduced in the House and Senate, but they have not been adopted.

The European Parliament’s resolution details several of the Islamic State’s actions against civilians, notably Christians and Yazidis, as the group captured large parts of Syria and Iraq.

The resolution states the Islamic State killed some 5,000 Yazidis and forced some 2,000 women into marriages, slavery or human trafficking. Others have been forced to convert to Islam.

The Islamic State also kidnapped more than 220 Assyrian Christians last February, according to the resolution. While some of them have since been released, the fate of most remains unknown.

The resolution charges that more than 150,000 Christians fled their homes on Aug. 6, 2014, as the Islamic State gained territory in Ninevah Province. Some of those who did not escape were captured, and the Islamic State executed some and enslaved others. The Islamic State still controls Mosul, leaving thousands of Christians displaced without any of their possessions.

According to ADF International, a religious freedom advocate, the number of Christians living in Syria and Iraq has dropped from 2.65 million to 775,000 in recent years. The organization’s director of EU advocacy, Sophia Kuby, said it welcomed the European Parliament’s resolution.

“It was high time that the EU responded to the undeniable evidence of this genocide, which includes assassinations of church leaders, torture, mass murders, kidnapping, sexual enslavement, systematic rape of Christian and Yazidi girls and women, and the destruction of churches, monasteries, and cemeteries,” Kuby said in a statement.

Last month, Open Doors USA released a report that said Christian persecution had reached “unprecedented” levels and warned that it would likely continue to increase.

The nonprofit group released a list of the top 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution. Middle Eastern countries occupied five of the top 10 spots, and Islamic extremist groups were a source of persecution in four others.

In December, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent group that makes recommendations to the government, urged officials to designate Christians, Yazidis and other groups victims of Islamic State’s genocide.

No such declaration has been made.

“The hallmark of genocide is the intent to destroy a national, racial, ethnic, or religious group, in whole or in part,” the commission’s chairman, Robert P. George, said in a statement at the time. “ISIL’s intent to destroy religious groups that do not subscribe to its extremist ideology in the areas in Iraq and Syria that it controls, or seeks to control, is evident in, not only its barbarous acts, but also its own propaganda.”

Obama discusses power of faith during National Prayer Breakfast

President Barack Obama spoke about the power of faith on Thursday morning, telling those gathered at the National Prayer Breakfast that it can be used to conquer any fears in life.

Obama gave a speech centered on 2nd Timothy 1:7 NKJV, which states “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.” The verse was woven throughout his address, which also urged people of all faiths to respect religious liberties of other groups.

“Fear does funny things,” Obama said during his address. “Fear can lead us to lash out against those who are different, or lead us to try to get some sinister ‘other’ under control. Alternatively, fear can lead us to succumb to despair, or paralysis, or cynicism.”

The president spoke about how his faith has helped him overcome fear.

“For me, and I know for so many of you, faith is the great cure for fear. Jesus is a good cure for fear,” Obama said in his speech. “God gives believers the power, the love, the sound mind required to conquer any fear. And what more important moment for that faith than right now?”

Obama briefly touched on some of the issues facing the world like terrorism, climate change and refugees fleeing their homes — “those things are real,” he said — though cautioned that fear had the power to consume people and trigger consequences “worse than any outward threat.”

He said that faith in Jesus can help the world find strength in today’s society.

“His love gives us the power to resist fear’s temptations,” Obama said in his speech. “He gives us the courage to reach out to others across that divide, rather than push people away. He gives us the courage to go against the conventional wisdom and stand up for what’s right, even when it’s not popular. To stand up not just to our enemies but, sometimes, to stand up to our friends.”

The National Prayer Breakfast is a non-denominational event where people gather in prayer.

Obama gave his speech to a room filled with bipartisan lawmakers, celebrities and religious leaders from several faiths. The president commended how people who follow different religions have united and cooperated in relief efforts for the Haiti earthquake, West African ebola epidemic and Flint water crisis, and have helped welcome refugees who have fled Syria.

Obama stressed different faiths share common tenants and encouraged religious tolerance.

“Just as we call on other countries to respect the rights of religious minorities, we, too, respect the right of every single American to practice their faith freely,” Obama said during his speech. “For this is what each of us is called on to do: To seek our common humanity in each other. To make sure our politics and our public discourse reflect that same spirit of love and sound mind. To assume the best in each other and not just the worst … To begin each of our works from the shared belief that all of us want what’s good and right for our country and our future.”

Obama also welcomed the safe return of Saeed Abedini, a pastor who had been held prisoner in Iran and was recently freed as part of the implementation of the Iran Nuclear Deal.

“We pray for God’s protection for all around the world who are not free to practice their faith, including Christians who are persecuted, or who have been driven from their ancient homelands by unspeakable violence,” Obama said during his address.

Other speakers included House Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who also stressed common themes from different religions before reading from John 13, 15 and 17.

“This command of love is not confined to the New Testament,” Pelosi told those gathered. “The same message stands at the center of the Torah and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad, too. From the Torah, it says ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ And from Muhammad, ‘None of you has faith until he loves for his brother or his neighbor what he loves for himself.’”

The keynote address was given by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the husband and wife who produced the 2014 film “Son of God” and the 2013 History Channel miniseries “The Bible.”

Downey and Burnett discussed their film during a 2014 appearance on The Jim Bakker Show.

Christian persecution ‘unprecedented’ and poised to increase, report finds

Christian persecution surged to record levels last year and will likely continue to increase, according to a nonprofit group that monitors the treatment of Christians worldwide.

The organization, Open Doors USA, recently released its 2016 World Watch List, which ranks the 50 nations in which Christians are persecuted the most. The organization grades the countries on a zero-to-100 scale, with a higher score representing a higher level of persecution.

The report indicates that those scores increased in 34 of the countries that were also on the list issued at the start of 2015, and two new countries — Bahrain and Niger — broke into the top 50.

The group called 2014 an “unprecedented” year for Christian persecution, which it defines as “any hostility experienced from the world as a result of one’s identification as a Christian.” That covers a broad range of things ranging from discrimination and beatings to jail time and death.

“In 2015, Christian persecution not only increased, but expanded into areas where there was not the same level of persecution in the previous year,” the report states. In a video posted to Open Doors USA’s website, the group cautioned that Christian persecution “will likely get worse.”

The report’s findings were audited by the International Institute for Religion Freedom.

The report says Islamic extremists have expanded their reach and governments have responded by implementing rules that restrict religion, both of which harm religious liberties of Christians.

All but two of the list’s 50 countries are located in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The others are Mexico and Colombia, where the report charges corruption is an issue.

With a score of 92, North Korea remained atop the list of the most oppressive nations for the 14th consecutive year. It was followed by Iraq, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Syria.

The report indicates that between 50,000 and 70,000 of the country’s 300,000 Christians are currently imprisoned in labor camps. The United States government advises its citizens not to travel to North Korea because “unsanctioned religious activity” is often punished.

The report cautions that Christians “are currently on the verge of extinction” in Iraq (90), where only a few thousand remain. Many have tried to flee the Islamic State, which has taken over large parts of the country and strongly opposes religions beyond its own interpretation of Islam.

Christians in Eritrea (89) face oppression from radical extremists and their government, the report found, and Islamic extremists also remain a threat in Afghanistan (88) and Syria (87).

Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Iran and Libya rounded out the top 10 nations for persecution.

Maryland couple files lawsuit alleging school indoctrinated daughter with Islam

A Christian couple in Maryland has lodged a federal lawsuit against their teenage daughter’s school district and other school officials, charging the school indoctrinated her with Islam and gave her failing grades when she wouldn’t complete assignments that violated her beliefs.

John Kevin Wood and Melissa Wood filed the civil rights in U.S. District Court last week, claiming the teachings at Charles County Public Schools promoted Islam over other religions.

The lawsuit alleges the couple’s then-16-year-old daughter was “instructed and indoctrinated in Islam” in 2014-15 during her 11th-grade world history class at La Plata High School. The Woods claim the course spent one day teaching Christianity and roughly two weeks teaching Islam.

The lawsuit claims the school violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by “implementing a curriculum that impermissibly endorses and advances the Islamic religion.”

One assignment allegedly required students to profess the Shahada, according to the lawsuit.

The statement is a key component of the Islamic religion, though translated into English it reads “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Making such a statement would have violated their daughter’s Christian beliefs, the Woods allege in court documents.

The Thomas More Law Center, which is working with the Woods on the lawsuit, released worksheets purported to be school assignments. None of them specifically prompt students to write the Shahada, though they do contain a fill-in-the-blank sentence where students can write “Allah” and “messenger.” If they do, they will complete the English translation of the Shahada.

“Defendants forced Wood’s daughter to disparage her Christian faith by reciting the Shahada, and acknowledging Mohammed as her spiritual leader,” Richard Thompson, the president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, said in a statement. “Her World History class spent one day on Christianity and two weeks immersed in Islam. Such discriminatory treatment of Christianity is an unconstitutional promotion of one religion over another.”

The Woods also allege the class taught their daughter most Muslims have stronger faiths than average Christians, while another argument focused on a semantic difference in the teachings.

The lawsuit claims that the Woods’ daughter was taught that the “Qur’an is the word of Allah as revealed to Muhammad in the same way that Jews and Christians believe the Torah and the Gospels were revealed to Moses and the New Testament writers.” The use of “is” and “believe” in that sentence, the Woods argue, represents Islam as fact and the other religions as beliefs.

The lawsuit claims that John Kevin Wood called the school’s vice principal and tried to get an alternate assignment for his daughter, though the request was denied and he was ultimately banned from school grounds after he said that he would contact lawyers and the media.

The Woods claim their daughter didn’t complete the assignments and was given zeroes “because she refused to violate her beliefs and derogate her faith,” according to the lawsuit. The parents argue their daughter was punished “because she would not act contrary to her Christian faith.”

Thompson, of the Thomas More Law Center, warned similar lessons are being taught elsewhere.

“Parents must be ever vigilant to the Islamic indoctrination of their children under the guise of teaching history and multiculturalism,” Thompson said in a statement. “This is happening in public schools across the country. And they must take action to stop it.”

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the school violated the Woods’ civil rights and injunctions that prevent the school from endorsing or favoring Islam and banning John Kevin Wood from school property, according to the Thomas More Law Center. Defendants include the school district, its board of education and La Plata High School’s principal and vice principal.

The lawsuit identifies John Kevin Wood as a former Marine who fought in Desert Storm and later served as a firefighter who responded to the Pentagon following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Pope asks Protestants for forgiveness for persecution

ROME (Reuters) – Pope Francis asked Protestants and other Christian Churches for forgiveness for past persecution by Catholics as the Vatican announced on Monday he would visit Sweden later in the year to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Speaking at an annual vespers service in St. Paul’s Basilica in Rome attended by representatives of other religions, he asked “forgiveness for the un-gospel like behaviour by Catholics towards Christians of other Churches”. He also asked Catholics to forgive those who had persecuted them.

The Vatican announced that on Oct. 31 Francis would go to the southern Swedish city of Lund, where the Lutheran World Federation was founded in 1947, for a joint service with Lutherans to launch Reformation commemorations that will continue throughout the world next year.

Martin Luther, a German, is credited with starting the Protestant Reformation in 1517 with writing 95 theses – said to have been nailed to a church door in Wittenberg – criticising the Catholic Church for selling forgiveness from sins for money.

It led to a violent, often political schism throughout Europe and Christianity, prompting among other things the 30 Years’ War, the destruction of English monasteries, and the burning of numerous “heretics” on both sides.

Catholic traditionalists have accused Francis of making too many concessions to Lutherans, particularly in a “common prayer” that both religions will use during the 2017 commemorations.

They say the prayer, which will be used during the pope’s visit to Lund, excessively praises Luther, who was condemned as a heretic and excommunicated.

Francis, however, has made dialogue with other religions one of the hallmarks of his papacy.

He has already visited the Lutheran church of Rome, the Waldensian protestant community in northern Italy, and Rome’s synagogue. This year he is due to become the first pope to visit the Italian capital’s mosque.

While his predecessors have visited Protestant churches, Francis has come under criticism from traditionalists who accuse him of sending confusing signals about inter-faith relations.

They have also contested guidelines issued this month for the “common prayer”.

“The Reformation and Martin Luther are repeatedly extolled, while the Counter-Reformation and the Popes and Saints of the 16th century are passed over in total silence,” the traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli said.

Theological dialogue between Roman Catholic and Lutherans began in the late 1960s after the Second Vatican Council. But Catholics and Lutherans are still officially not allowed to take communion at each other’s services.

When he visited Rome’s Lutheran church last year, traditionalists attacked Francis for suggesting in answer to a question that a Lutheran woman married to a Catholic man could decide for herself if she could take communion in her husband’s church.

(Additional reporting by Alistair Scrutton Editing by Richard Balmforth and Ralph Boulton)

Brunei Bans Public Christmas Celebrations

If you’re planning to celebrate Christmas in Brunei, you could get a five-year prison sentence and a hefty fine.

According to multiple published reports, the predominantly Islamic nation has banned public celebrations of the holiday amid fears that it could damage the faith of the Muslims who live there.

The Brunei Times published a statement from Brunei’s Ministry of Religious Affairs saying that non-Muslims are free to celebrate Christmas privately “among their community,” but they can’t disclose their celebrations or display them to Muslims. Doing so can be viewed as an illegal “propagation of religions other than Islam.”

It’s also illegal for a Muslim to imitate customs of other religions, according to the statement. A Muslim who wears a Santa hat or a Santa suit could be arrested.

British newspaper The Independent reported anyone who violates Brunei’s Christmas laws could be handed a five-year prison sentence and/or a fine of $20,000.

Brunei, on the island of Borneo, introduced the restrictions last year after Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah implemented the controversial, religiously inspired Sharia penal law system. Violating certain laws can prompt punishments like stoning, whipping and dismemberment, drawing widespread criticism.

About 430,000 people live in Brunei, according to data released by the CIA. Islam is the nation’s official religion. About 79 percent of Brunei’s residents are Muslim and 9 percent are Christian.

This month, local religious leaders have warned Muslims in Brunei not to celebrate Christmas.

According to The Borneo Bulletin, imams said “doing anything that amounts to respecting their religion” – referring to Christianity – violates Islamic beliefs. The imams cautioned against doing things like putting up holiday decorations, singing Christmas carols or even lighting candles “as it could affect our Islamic faith.”

The statement from Brunei’s Ministry of Religious Affairs said that enforcement officials visited multiple businesses last year that “publicly displayed Christmas decorations.” It did not say if anyone was punished.

The nation wasn’t alone in imposing restrictions on Christmas celebrations.

According to a report in New Vision, a Uganda newspaper, the government in Somalia banned celebrating Christmas and the New Year in the nation’s capital. Officials gave reasons similar to Brunei’s decision, saying the celebrations could damage Islamic faith – despite the fact that the country is 99 percent Muslim.

New Vision reported Somali religious officials are worried that Christmas celebrations might incite the Al-Shabaab terrorist group to perform deadly attacks.

Some people who live in countries where Christmas celebrations have been restricted are sharing photos of their Christmas trees on social media using the hashtag #MyTreedom.

A Facebook page devoted to the cause had more than 27,000 likes as of Wednesday afternoon, and was displaying images purported to be from countries like Iraq, Nigeria and Syria.

North Korea Criticizes Canada Over Reaction to Pastor’s Life Sentence

North Korea is accusing Canadian government officials of “spouting rubbish” about the trial of Hyeon Soo Lim, the Canadian pastor who North Korea recently sentenced to a life of hard labor.

KCNA, North Korea’s state-run media agency, reported Tuesday that a spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry blasted Canada for its response to Lim’s sentence, handed down last week. The Toronto Star previously reported Canada’s government felt the punishment was “unduly harsh,” and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told said it sparked “tremendous concern.”

The spokesman told KCNA it was “very shocking” that Canada’s government reacted the way that it did, rather than “feeling guilty about the hideous crime,” that Lim allegedly committed.

The governments of both the United States and Canada actively warn citizens against traveling to North Korea, in large part because the North’s legal system isn’t known for consistently applying its strict laws. The U.S. Department of State warns that things that might not seem criminal — like bringing photographs into the country — can lead to people being detained, arrested or sentenced to hard labor or death. Unsanctioned religious activity is also illegal there.

KCNA reported that Lim was accused of subversion, committing anti-North Korean religious activities and spreading false propaganda about the country overseas, among other charges.

However, Lim’s family members have told CNN that the South Korean-born pastor of the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, who is in his 60s, frequently went to North Korea over the past 18 years for a variety of humanitarian causes and his trips were not political in nature.

While KCNA reported the pastor confessed to all of the crimes, The Toronto Star reported other foreigners held in North Korea have said they were pressured into confessing. The paper quoted Trudeau as saying “issues about North Korea’s governance and judicial system are well-known.”

North Korea’s foreign ministry spokesman told KCNA that Canada’s stance on Lim’s sentence would only further complicate the situation. The spokesman said that Canada “has no legal justifications” to find fault with any of North Korea’s actions, and Canada should have apologized and taken steps to prevent future crimes rather than shifting blame to North Korea.

The war of words in the press comes two days after Reuters reported that North Korea allowed Canadian diplomats to meet with the pastor in prison last week. Relaying the information she received about the visit, a church spokeswoman on Sunday told the news agency that the pastor’s spirits remained high and that he had been given medicine to treat his health condition.

Christianity Facing Extinction in Many Middle Eastern Countries

Aid groups told Fox News on Tuesday that Christianity could vanish in the Middle East within the next decade as many Christians are being killed, ran out of their homes, or forced to renounce their faith in order to live.

As Islamic State radicals plague Syria and Iraq and continuously kill Christians and others with different religious views than their own, other areas are continuing to put pressure on Christians including Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf nations.

A report done by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need states that the Christian population in Iraq was 1.5 million in 2003, and now in 2015, there is estimated to about 275,000. The numbers continue to dwindle as Christians are killed, living in secret, or flee. In Iraq alone, a dozen Christian families flee each and every day according to 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a Falls Church, Va., nonprofit dedicated to promoting religious freedom worldwide.

“Unless the global community gets involved, we will witness the loss of Christian witnesses in a land that is biblically significant,” Elijah Brown, executive vice president for 21st Century Wilberforce, told FoxNews.com.

He told Fox News that Iraq’s second largest city has been purged of Christians after ISIS took over.

“Last Christmas was the first time that bells did not ring out in the city of Mosul in 2,000 years,” Brown said. “I think that speaks to the reality that hundreds of thousands of Christian families are living on the edge of extinction.”

And while Christians in Syria and Iraq continue to flee in fear of ISIS, one Middle Eastern country was mentioned in the report as being tolerant and protective of their Christian community: Egypt. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has vowed numerous times to protect the Coptic Christians and even attended Christmas church services with them as a sign of tolerance and solidarity.

“Such a development holds out a potential beacon of hope for Christians and others in the Middle East against a backdrop of growing Islamism,” the report stated.

While the Middle East is the most well-known area for Christian persecution, Christianity in Africa and Asia is in danger too. Boko Haram, an Islamist terror group, has killed several Christians in Nigeria and has sparked other extremists to do so in Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, and other parts of the continent. Christians located in Asia face persecution from nationalist religious movements such as Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist in countries such as Pakistan, Hindu, and Myanmar. In most of these countries, Christianity is viewed as a foreign, Western practice, according to Fox News.

7th Grade Texas Student Told to Deny God as Part of Classroom Assignment

A junior high school in Katy, Texas is under scrutiny after a teacher gave an assignment to her class where they had to deny the existence of God.

Student Jordan Wooley, 12, told ABC News that her reading class was given an assignment to identify statements as fact or opinion. When Jordan marked the statement “There is a God” as both a fact and an opinion, her teacher marked the answer as wrong. According to USA Today Jordan tried to explain to the teacher that it could be either answer, based on a person’s beliefs, but the teacher stated the answer was still wrong and that Jordan had to say God wasn’t real. The assignment was graded so if she did not deny God, she couldn’t pass the assignment.

Jordan then told her mom when she got home.

“In this day in age, I would have never guessed that something like this would happen in a classroom in America,” Chantel Wooley told ABC News.

The Wooleys then visited the school district’s Board of Education meeting to inform them of the situation.

“Today I was given an assignment in school that questioned my faith,” Jordan said at the meeting.

The Katy Independent School District has apologized since the incident and released a statement saying that the exercise was intended to encourage critical thinking, not question any religious beliefs of the students.

“Still this does not excuse the fact that this ungraded activity was ill-conceived and because of that, its intent had been misconstrued,” the district said in its statement.

The teacher in question has not responded to any requests for comments regarding the situation.