A Christian boy band performed a worship concert during a public elementary school assembly

The 3 Heath Brothers used the event as religious target practice, trying to win converts as part of their public school tour

This newsletter is free, but it’s only able to sustain itself due to the support I receive from a small percentage of regular readers. Would you please consider becoming one of those supporters? You can use the button below to subscribe to Substack or use my usual Patreon page!

---

Why the hell did public school officials in North Carolina allow a Christian boy band to preach to children during a daytime assembly?

That’s what apparently happened at Hasty Elementary School, part of the Davidson County Schools, on March 11. Without telling parents in advance that this would be a religious assembly, the school invited the “3 Heath Brothers” to sing nine songs to children with lyrics like “let Jesus use you where you are” and “loving God and loving people, that’s what it’s all about.”

The Heath Brothers. There are three of them. (Screenshot via YouTube)

It’s not like the content of their show should have been a surprise. The boys’ website describes them as a “Christian band” that’s marketed specifically to children:

… While they appeal to multi-generational audiences, their youthful performances have afforded them opportunities to make presentations in over 100 public schools where they have reached over 50,000 students. Recently, 3 Heath Brothers partnered with Keys For Kids, a Christian organization that provides free online daily devotionals for kids and teens.

And if that didn’t do the trick, maybe their GoFundMe campaign to sing in public schools so they can continue “sharing Jesus in a place where it's needed most” should have tipped someone off.

Normally, when Christian proselytizers try to sneak into public schools, there’s a method to get around legal restrictions. They might give a relatively secular inspirational speech during the day—Don’t do drugs! Make healthy decisions!—then invite the same children to come back at night with friends and family members to hear the same speech with Jesus-infused content at a local church. If people claim to be baptized at those events, they notch it as a tally mark toward their goal.

But that’s not what happened here.

In this case, a Christian band performed Christian songs at a public school while literally handing out Christian pamphlets to win converts for Christ. They said in an Instagram post last year that they typically perform “free of charge” at public schools

According to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which has now sent a letter to the school district, a devotional handout from the ministry Keys for Kids—specifically made for their spring tour of public schools—was offered to attendees:

… This pamphlet includes explicitly religious stories with references to bible verses. For example, the booklet instructs students not to take revenge because “that’s not what Jesus wants you to do,” and instead they must “give your burden to Jesus, and trust Him to help you respond to that person with His love.”

Keys for Kids promotes this whole effort as a way to convert children, which is how they’re pitching it to donors:

… As the 3 Heath Brothers are invited into public schools, not only are they able to share their music with a message, but they're able to hand out Keys for Kids and Unlocked devotionals to any student who wants one.

That’s a kind of privilege that you will never see extended to non-Christian groups.

FFRF attorney Madeline Ziegler writes that this isn’t just illegal; it’s unethical because of the peer pressure on kids to accept what they’re being shown:

… This religious assembly was particularly coercive given that students are a captive audience, and elementary students are particularly young. Elementary students cannot legally or practically be expected to dissent and leave what appeared to be a mandatory school assembly in order to resist their school violating their constitutional rights. Further, the school violated parents’ First Amendment right to determine which faith, if any, they teach their children to believe.

The District cannot allow non-school persons to treat schools as a recruiting ground for their religious mission. Public schools are not an appropriate place for outside adults to convince students to convert to Christianity…

…

Elementary school students are vulnerable to peer pressure and feel an intense need to fit in with their classmates and be liked... Hosting a mandatory religious assembly during the school day excludes and marginalizes students who are a part of the 49 percent of Generation Z who are religiously unaffiliated.

…

The District must investigate this situation and ensure its schools immediately refrain from inviting religious performers to proselytize students. The District should also consider reprimanding those staff members involved with allowing this school-sponsored religious worship concert to take place. At the very least, all District staff members must be reminded of their constitutional obligations as public school employees.

FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott adds that “Forcing elementary students to sit through a Christian concert and handing them religious materials is a flagrant violation of the Establishment Clause.”

The school district hasn’t responded yet but it’s hard to understand how so many adults could have allowed this to happen without anyone raising concern. This wasn’t an accident. This happened because the adults in that building thought it was more important to use kids as religious target practice instead of teaching them anything useful.

---