Students at one Arizona public high school may soon be packing the Book of Mormon in their backpacks alongside their history and math textbooks.
Vail Unified School District, located outside of Tucson, just unanimously voted to approve a contract with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which will allow the construction of a massive 1,300-square-foot LDS seminary on campus. Under the terms of the contract, the LDS Church will pay for the seminary, but it would technically be owned and operated by the school district.
Now secular activists are fighting to stop the board-approved construction, arguing that building a seminary inside a public school – paid for and then leased by a religious group, no less – is a blatantly unconstitutional violation of separation of church and state.
Release Time
Let’s back up. Why is the LDS Church offering to pay for a seminary in schools anyway?
Mormon children in grades 9-12 are required to attend religious instruction classes, called seminary, during the weekday. Because this directly interferes with most school schedules, these classes are often held in the early morning hours to avoid scheduling conflicts.
In places with large Mormon communities, many schools also offer "release time", allowing LDS students to attend seminary during school hours. Typically, these seminaries are located near local high schools (often in a building right across the street) so students don’t have to travel far.
Secular activists have long opposed release time, arguing letting kids attend seminary during school hours blurs the line between faith and government. But what happens when the seminary moves right into the school?
From Homeroom to Holy Room
Secular activists immediately shot back at Vail’s planned seminary, decrying it as an obvious constitutional violation that not only permits proselytizing to students right on campus, but also offers clear financial benefits for the LDS Church, who will be renting back the property well under market rate.
"The school is not where religion is supposed to be taught,” stated Secular AZ legal director Dianne Post. “You may not have a public school favoring a particular religion.”
Post sent a cease-and-desist letter to the school board, warning them that any plans to move forward with the planned construction will be met with legal challenges. It reads, in part:
“Religious agendas are… often behind other policies that range from potentially problematic to decidedly unconstitutional.... The contract violates every one of these provisions by allowing religious materials on public school property, gives the church a discount [on rent], allows the church to display a religious message, and give the church unique access to school property for proselytizing and presentations to students.
A seminary is considered to be an institution designed to train persons in theology or divinity to prepare them to serve as clergy or other position within a church. It is in no way a public education goal.”
"This arrangement is simply about serving students who are already part of our schools – our neighbors, our community. That was the main focus behind this decision," explained VUSD Superintendent John Carruth. "I understand some people have concerns, and I respect all perspectives. Our goal is to ensure every student on our campuses feels welcomed."
Favorable Terms
Under the terms of the contract, the LDS Church will lease the facility between 6 AM and 6 PM on weekdays for the next ten years (with the possibility of an extension), and the space will be free to use for other school programs and community events outside those hours.
The school will then collect $100 in monthly rent from the LDS Church, as well as $500 monthly for utilities and maintenance – well below market value for such a facility.
Construction is expected to be completed January 2026.
What do you think? Should a religious group be allowed to construct a building on a public school campus with the explicit goal of facilitating religious worship? Or is it “district-funded indoctrination,” as the Freedom From Religion Foundation says?
19 comments
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Elizabeth Jane Erbe Wilcox
I’m sure the current king of our country would gladly throw his weight behind this.
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Lionheart
Long may King Donald 1st reign. All holiness to his name. 🤭
🦁♥️
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Reverend Paula Copp
Ah, yes, Lionheart. Your usual erudite self. Always sticking up for the mentally challenged, (papers left by a former professor indicated that the mango moron has a remarkable IQ of 73) I see. It’s good to see someone of your caliber standing up for the disabled; they deserve a strong champion! Many blessings, Lionheart.
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Lionheart
Awe….thank you, Lady Paula. I actually first got my education in sticking up for the mentally challenged listening ,and watching, sleepy Joe Biden, the beach dweller, then Kamala Harris. 4 years of that was all that I needed to graduate with Honors, so listening to King Donald was a walk in the park compared to those two. We are now “unbidened by what has been” to quote from one of Kamala’s word salad phrases. 🤭
🦁❤️
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Ealdormon Piparskeggr Robinson
I'm with the opponents on this, religion at home or church, not in public schools.
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Colleen McAllister
No matter what the religion is no church or religious institution should have their own building on a public school campus. In this case the seminary classes should be held outside of school hours instead of deliberately interfering with the children's education.
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Chris
Religion has no place in public schools. It doesn't matter what the religion is, public schools are not the place. If they have such strict adherence to religious study, then they should send their kids to religious schools.
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Dorothy Hawkins
Separation of church and state need not be at odds with overall goals of any religion: to develop good citizens. Taking time away from students' school day seems like trying to get the benefits of a public school education while practicing religion. Seems squarely against the church/state separation.
In our public/private school district, pastors, citizens, teachers & parents from discrete religious differences came up with a general set of character-building traits to be taught during the school day, and reinforced in religious classes.
Posters with these characteristics were posted in every room K-12, and everyone from the janitor to the lunch lady would point out when a child displayed an exceptional example of the desired character trait. Students in all environments learned from the same general template.
Short lessons on showing patience, helpfulness, integrity, honesty, etc took place in classrooms both secular and sacred. As the children grew, the concepts grew with them. We simply acknowledged them with their best cooperative behaviors.
No special religious training was needed in our public schools, and we had several faith-based groups using our extra rooms before and after school. It worked out extremely well for all involved. Win-win!
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Daniel Todd Kamm
Aside from the ethical, legal and constitutional issues, the entire business arrangement makes no sense.
Why would LDS agree to construct a facility, only to rent it back to themselves and paying the school district rent?
And very cheap rent I might add.
Unless Vail, AZ is a complete backwater, which I doubt given it's proximity to Tuscon... that's not rent... that's a donation.
I am all for public school students of all backgrounds meeting the daily obligations of their faiths.
But that is obviously not what is going on here.
The "they will build it, the kids will come, and (by golly) they are paying us rent" argument does not hold up.
If daily practices require access during the school day, the district could bus students back and forth to an appropriate location where they can observe their faiths, OR in the immediate case, LDS could rent a nearby location within walking distance (some faiths require abstaining from cars, work etc.) OR the school district could sell a strip of land to LDS (LDS is NOT hurting for money) and LDS could build a facility within walking distance for observant LDS students.
Which, other faiths could aspire to as well: they are within their rights to ensure the PUBLIC school district applies access and exclusions fairly.
But there are obvious "irregularities" inherent in the business side of this deal.
This is about LDS, the overseers of this PUBLIC school district, and the "state" of AZ using a PUBLIC school district to see what they can get by with.
Smart business deal? Obviously not and it smells funny.
Unethical? Depends on one's outlook, but I vote "yes.
Illegal? Most definitely, unless a puppet judge or puppet appeals judge or state supreme court approves so it can be appealed over their heads... so they have no responsibility if overturned while they seek re-election.
Proselytizing? I have no doubt.
If another group attempted such a move, these Arizonans and LDS folks would be screaming everything from "indoctrination" to "grooming."
I have no patience with perps.
Thank you for your patience.
Would anyone like to start a petition to return all of the southwest to Mexico? We might be able to make up for it by "invading Canada," or "stopping at nothing" to acquire Greenland.
Please...
Peace, Out and for those who observe: Happy Pesach (Passover) staring this weekend!
Rebtk
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Douglas Robert Spindler
It's nice the richest church in the world worth over $230 BILLION DOLLARS is will to do this. (And a lot of this is tax payer's money).
If you would like to see what a scam and cult the Mormon religion is Alyssa Grenfell, who was raised a devote Mormon tell reveals what it was like be raised and sealed in the Mormon Religion. https://youtu.be/c2Q8pkKxwHI?si=FN_i85cUyxgaajLr
As you watch her videos you realize what a cult the other Christian religions are.
And yes Mormons, LDS church members still all believe in polygamy. But since 1890 only in the afterlife.
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ServantOfJudgement
I think polygamy is protected with the + in lgbtqia++map.
No big deal.
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Keith D
You think that's richer than the Catholic Church? I'd say the latter is worth at least 10x that. Just saying.
I agree, however, that the Mormons should either build their own schools or stick with 'not during school time.'
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Rev Nolan
When I went to Seminary, we had our seminary classes in the most local chapel. The chapels 💒 were never used at 6:00 AM on school days as is true of most LDS facilities, and these chapels were close enough to the schools that students could walk or carpool to school. They have no need of school grounds for a seminary facility, and if they needed a facility for such an institution, of all people, Latter-day Saints can afford to build one off campus. It’s obvious that the objective of having such a facility especially as proposed and during school 🏫 hours on a public school campus is to influence non-members into converting. A public school facility is no place for an ecclesiastical institution of any kind because it combines Church and State. The whole point is missionary work at the school. No can do.
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BlackAngelP
Why not just do what the Catholics did? Just open your own schools. That way you teach what you want, how you want and aren’t infringing on anyone’s rights. 🤷🏽♀️
And oppositely, let's put biology classes in LDS Church's.
😂. That would force them to learn about DNA 🧬 testing, and that would conflict with the Book of Mormon belief that Native Americans are descended from the Lamanites.
Already been done.
Illustration, please Douglas.
Mormons are pretty big on sciences. I was with them for ten years, went on a mission, went to BYU. They built a school, several if not many, that heavily emphasize science in a very scientific way.
To the poster who suggested that DNA would prove that Native Americans didn't descend from 'Lamanites,' I dont know about that. But even the book of Mormon suggests more ancestry than the ones who allegedly left Jerusalem circa 600 BC. The story says that they ran into natives and there's a suggestion that even that set of natives came from somewhere else.
I'm not interested in defending Mormons and that belief, but atracks should focus on something real, no matter what or whom one attacks.
This seminary? I think that the objectors have a valid constitutional point on both the release from school and o the Seminary.
OTOH, the Mormon Church could just build their own schools and teach science probably more effectively and beneficially than the public schools are up for.