Published on September 29, 2024, 12:42 am

In a significant development out of La Grange, Kentucky, Pastor Justin Walker of Salt and Light Baptist Church has inaugurated a tuition-free school. This decision came about after an unsettling encounter at a local public library where the pastor felt troubled by the LGBTQ-themed literature being aggressively promoted to his 11-year old daughter.

As he narrates, “I took my daughter to the library… it was the first of June, and they’re pushing all these LGBTQ books on my daughter,” Walker said. Angered by this incident, he posted a picture of these books on Facebook with words of displeasure for the library’s child-targeted content. His message was clear – “We won’t be back,” – thus opening up a passionate digital discourse.

This event prompted Walker to evaluate broader implications of public education on children’s formation. He had already embarked on homeschooling his child after his wife’s untimely demise and now took a critical view of daily happenings in public schools that were molding approximately 50 million American children. In such settings, he postulated similar incidents like that his daughter endured could transpire every day

Awakening to this need for an alternative mode imparting education, Pastor Walker led his church to establish a K-6 institution called First Principal Academy as part of its outreach ministry initiative. The unique selling point of this academy is not just its Christian worldview-based teachings but also its tuition-free model making quality education feasible for many families.

“We want this to be a ministry… we’re taking up donations to pay staff and buy curriculum,” explained Walker about their trust-funded operating mechanism while clarifying how the academy made it known upfront to parents and pupils alike about Christian centric teachings forming core curriculum content.

Walker sees this school as part-crusade part-inspiration hoping other churches across America would echo Salt and Light’s educational blueprint model – worth noting that churches in Florida and Georgia are reportedly considering adopting it. The challenges of rapidly opening such a school within six months haven’t been easy for Salt and Light, yet their steadfast commitment to apocalypse remains.

In essence, Pastor Justin Walker’s initiative underscores his vision of providing quality education imbued with Christian values as an alternative to public schooling. It’s seen as a potential game-changer in educational discourse at large. But only time will testify how far this model can inspire churches across America, driving a mass movement towards faith-based education considered ground zero by those enlisting ‘real news’ and ‘trusted news’ sources revolving around the Christian worldview.