School Bible clubs targeting Illinois

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/122838,CST-NWS-bible03.article

RYAL, Okla. -- As dozens of sleepy-eyed kids make their way to a rural public school, 20 of their peers are already in the gym for a Bible-study club, learning about the fall of Adam and Eve.

After 30 minutes, the before-school religious instruction ends with a bell for first-period at the Ryal School, 60 miles south of Tulsa.

Bob Heath dreams of one day having such a Bible-study club in every elementary school in America.

Are they truly student-led?


But critics say he and parents, not students, are the ones pushing the clubs, using the children to violate separation of church and state.

They're ''using the kids like puppets,'' said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.