Boy Claims Officials Tried to Take His Bible After Banning Him From Reading It During After-School Program

A little boy who claims he was told by officials at an after-school program that he couldn’t read his Bible is getting support from the American Civil Liberties Union.

The civil rights group’s Tennessee branch is defending the child, sending a letter to the Cannon County REACH after-school program in an effort to urge officials to better train staff on the proper handling of participants’ religious rights, the Christian Post reported.

Staff at REACH reportedly not only told the boy he couldn’t read the Bible, but they also allegedly tried to take it from him, saying that the program could lose state funding if he continued reading it.

“[The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee] has a long-standing commitment to uphold and defend Tennesseans’ ability to practice religion, or not, as they choose,” Hedy Weinberg, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement. “The goal of our letter is to clarify for the REACH program what seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of how the Constitution protects religious liberty.”

Read more from this story HERE.