ABOVE: Focus on the Family’s Vice President of Parenting and Youth, Dr. Daniel Huerta, appeared on the Wednesday edition of CBN Newswatch to talk more about Bring Your Bible to School Day. Newswatch is seen weekdays on the CBN News Channel.
The much-anticipated “Bring Your Bible to School Day” will take place on Thursday, Oct. 7 as a way to encourage Christian students to speak God’s truth with those around them by sharing His Word.
The nationwide, student-led initiative is sponsored by Focus on the Family and has garnered support from multiple organizations, ministries, and celebrities such as Sadie Robertson Huff, singer Tauren Wells, Christian rock band Newsboys, and Skillet frontman John Cooper.
Trail Life USA, a Christ-centered scouting organization for boys, is also promoting the event as a way for young boys to strengthen their relationship with Christ.
“Many young people are looking for ways to start a conversation about faith; they just aren’t sure how to begin,” said Trail Life CEO, Mark Hancock. “Bring Your Bible to School Day is a great opportunity to do that.”
Trail Life says they’re honored to work with Focus on the Family and they’re encouraging their 30,000+ members to participate.
Last year, Focus on the Family saw 514,609 students register for the event in over 50,000 schools across the country. And the goal for this year is that Christian students will continue to tell their classmates about the joy they can find in Jesus.
Focus on the Family’s Vice President of Parenting and Youth, Dr. Daniel Huerta told CBN News that the event spreads a message of love and hope to everyone which is crucial in these current times.
“This is a time when our nation needs a message of hope, a message of unity, a message that brings love for your neighbor … encouraging and wanting to pray for another person instead of having divisive, argumentative words. We have loving, encouraging words for other people,” he explained.
“This is an opportunity for kids to live out their freedoms that they may not know about in the public school. You can pray there. You can bring your Bible. You can gather around and pray for one another, read the Bible together during the school day,” he said.
Dr. Huerta pointed out that Bring Your Bible to School Day is for all students, regardless of the type of school they attend.
“But it’s not just for kids in public school,” he told CBN News. “It’s for homeschoolers, kids in private school to bring them together with one cause and that is to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul and mind and also to love their neighbor and love those around them and to let them know, ‘Hey, I believe in God’s Word and this is something that is key in my life and I want to open up a conversation of hope with you.'”
He also reflected on the recent hostility in some schools where students of faith think praying or reading their Bible in school is forbidden.
“Kids do need to know that they have freedoms all across the country to pray, that you can in fact bring your Bible to school… there’s nothing stopping that,” Dr. Huerta noted. “What we really need to do is practice that freedom and to be able to do that in a loving way. You don’t have to pound it in front of other people but to do it in a respectful way.”
“When you go to school, you’re not reading your Bible in the middle of a class or praying but you’re doing it at times that make sense and living out that freedom. In fact, it has not been taken out in any of the schools … just in the practice of it being part of the school day, yes. For you as a student to lead that in your school, that has not been taken away so let’s live that out,” he concluded.
Students and parents can find resources at bringyourbible.org that help explain religious rights at school.
Families wishing to share a photo of their child participating in Bring Your Bible to School Day can email them to PrayerLink@CBN.org and we’ll show them to our viewers.
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