kycitizens.org and dosomethingsoin.com
Press Release 9/20/25
Reason for Meeting:
Do Something Southern Indiana is hosting Kentucky Citizens for Democracy for a special educational session on what exactly LifeWise Academy is and why they have been opposing the group in Oldham County and throughout Kentucky. This organization, which comes out of the Southern Baptist Convention, has a goal of spreading to schools throughout the country. They have taken advantage of a 1952 Supreme Court Decision (Zorach vs. Clauson) which allows parents to pull their students off campus for an hour a day for religious instruction.
Both our organizations strongly oppose LifeWise Academy pulling students during the school day, and we will offer a number of perspectives from our expert panel on why this form of religious influence is unhealthy for our kids and the school environment. See below for more information on LifeWise Academy and contacts for the media.
When: This Saturday, September 20th, 3pm-5pm.
Where: New Albany Floyd County library in New Albany, IN – 180 West Spring Street
New Albany, IN 47159
Who should the media contact for more information?
Michael E. Slider – Executive Director of KY Citizens for Democracy
502-724-9733
Kristy Knable – Legislative Committee
502-409-0840
Guest Speakers and panel will include:
Michael Slider – Executive Director of Kentucky Citizens for Democracy
Anita Davis – Associate Director of Kentucky Citizens for Democracy
Pastor Ricahrd Gianzero – Master of Divinity, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Madison, IN.
John Sutton – Vice President of the Kentucky Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Board of Directors – Kentucky Chapter of the Freedom of Religion Foundation and the Kentucky Secular Society.
Biographies of these individuals are below.
LifeWise Educational Materials
The link above will take you to invaluable resources, educational material, and articles that have been put together by those that oppose LifeWise Academy.
Why do we oppose LifeWise Academy?
- Religious instruction is not the mission of the public schools.
- The Board is supposed to advance public education. LifeWise Academy’s supporters often advocate for school privatization and vouchers.
- LifeWise Academy’s mission is to reach the “unchurched” using public schools as its “mission field,” with little regard for the disruption the program causes to teachers and students. We oppose using schools in this manner.
- LifeWise Academy model sees children 4 to 14 as impressionable targets for religious instruction. We see this as a form of indoctrination using the public schools as a vehicle.
- Data presented to the Board by the proponents of LifeWise Academy is not peer-reviewed and does not meet basic research standards.
- The proposal to pull children from related arts is unacceptable, as is pulling students from lunch or recess. Devaluing these is not acceptable.
- The curriculum was developed by an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. This religious instructional model reflects one strand of the many branches of religious belief structures. This is inherently discriminatory.
- The adoption of this program would lead to school culture problems: bullying or coercion to attend for those children who are opted out. The use of incentives, which LifeWise Academy reportedly uses, is also problematic.
- The LifeWise Academy’s guidance on how to handle difficult questions from children is controversial and troubling. It’s an affront to families in our community who have different or no religious beliefs. Responses regarding LGBTQ and transgender persons, as well as unwed or divorced parents, are equally as troubling.
Biographies of Speakers and Panels:
Under Michael Slider’s leadership, Kentucky Citizens for Democracy has become the go-to group in Kentucky for media and other organizations looking for information on the connections between immigration/ICE and Kentucky jails. He has been featured in the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Lexington Herald-Leader, Jeffersonville Indiana’s News and Tribune, Forward Kentucky, the Oldham Era, Louisville television stations: WAVE 3, WDRB, WLKY, and WHAS 11.
Michael has a blog on Medium.com where he writes on political and societal issues, education, and spirituality. He has spoken at rallies in Kentucky at Shelbyville, Louisville, and Lexington. He ran as an independent candidate for U.S. Congress in 2004 in Kentucky’s 4th District. He is a retired, Kentucky high school social studies teacher and principal. Apart from leading KCfD, he is also an elementary school literacy specialist in southern Indiana.
Anita Davis, Associate Director of KCfD, is a native Kentuckian. She has a BS in mathematics and advance degrees in educational administration. Anita has served as a math teacher and an assistant principal in Marion County. She later served as an Assistant Superintendent in Elizabethtown Independent Schools before moving to the Oldham County school district. There she served as the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction and as Chief Academic Officer before retiring.
Since retiring, Anita has been interviewed regarding LifeWise on WDRB, WAVE 3, and WLKY. She has also been featured in the Kentucky Lantern, The Louisville Courier-Journal, published in the Oldham Era, and has been featured on Solutions to Violence Radio on WFMP 106, all regarding LifeWise.
The Rev. Richard A. Gianzero (“Pr. Rich) is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and pastored in Colorado, Kentucky and Indiana in Lutheran and Presbyterian congregations. He earned his M.Div. at Iliff School of Theology (Denver, CO) and affiliate status at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (Berkley, CA). He taught as an adjunct lecturer at Iliff. Pr. Rich currently pastors a Lutheran congregation in Indiana and calls Oldham County, Kentucky where his children attend school. As a pastor he has testified before state legislative committees, served on a county corrections board and led educational endeavors on racial justice.
John Sutton is the Vice President of the Kentucky Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. He is also on the board of directors for the Kentucky Chapter of the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the Kentucky Secular Society. He has served as chair of the Oldham County Democratic Party and past Chair of the 48th Legislative District in Jefferson County.
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