ABSTRACT
Lighthouse Christian Academy in Indiana made national news in May 2017 when US Representative Katherine Clark questioned Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos about the school’s discriminatory practices. Approximately 700,000 US students attend conservative Christian schools. Once inside a conservative Christian school, though, the reality is more complex than news reports reveal. Many Christian schools are striving to teach students about diversity and prepare them for life in a pluralistic society, but what this means differs from what non-conservative Christian scholars and the wider public would expect. Christian school advocates will often point out that the first schools in the US were Christian schools. Changes in the religious landscape are also promoting the expansion of Christian schools. In the same way that conservative Christians are dissatisfied with the secular nature of public schools, Americans are increasingly rejecting the secularization of mainline Protestant churches in favor of more conservative sects.
