“Illusionist David Corn,” Grace Baptist Church, 2019
A New Mexico school district cannot be a part of a preacher-illusionist’s plan to trick students into attending a Christian worship event in order to be converted to Christianity, asserts the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Rio Rancho Public Schools seems to have a partnership with Christian evangelist David Corn. A concerned Eagle Ridge Middle School parent has informed the state/church watchdog that on May 1, students were dismissed from class to attend a mandatory assembly featuring Corn, who describes himself as an illusionist and Christian evangelist. Corn’s assembly was seemingly not religious in nature but he was permitted to invite students to attend a religious worship event the next day at a local church. The child of FFRF’s complainant came home with a ticket for the event distributed by Rio Rancho Public Schools.
Corn is quite upfront about his aims. On a website promoting his “Magic & Morality Public School Outreaches,” he describes his project:
Primarily we enter public schools, hold morality talks, and invite young people to church for a bigger illusion show where I will preach the gospel. Hundreds of first-time visitors have come to church, heard the gospel, & trusted Christ! We have done many variations of this, including a town meeting, a neighborhood picnic, & Bible clubs!
He explains that his calling is to convert public school students to Christianity: “God has called me to be an evangelist. My burden is ‘to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named’ (Rom 15:20) and see unreached people get saved! Illusions are just a tool we use which God has blessed. The illusions have opened the door for us to have a ministry in the public schools!”
Corn admits that his goal is to convert non-Christian public school students: “Target: Unreached people in public schools: Some statistics say 3 out of 4 young people have never been to a church of any kind. We want to reach them and their families! We target people who do not normally come to church & who have never heard how to be saved!”
And he lays out his scheme step by step:
“1. We fast and pray about this event. (Matt 17:21)
2. We promote a free illusion show to your church and your community! (1 Tim 6:17)
3. We work to get into public schools. We have 3 options for public schools to choose from, and these options have been well received by superintendents and principals all over the country!
4. We can print newspaper articles, go to parks, or hit the streets to find people! (Lk 14:23)
5. We hold a rally at your church, preach the gospel, and depend on that gospel to draw sinners to Christ!”
It is unconstitutional to take away instructional time from students to expose them to Christian preachers, FFRF points out.
“In Lee v. Weisman (1992), the Supreme Court extended the prohibition of school sponsored religious activities beyond the classroom to all school functions,” FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line writes to Superintendent V. Sue Cleveland. “By giving a Christian evangelist special permission to use district property and unique access to a captive audience of students in order to evangelize and promote his worship event, the district displayed blatant favoritism towards religion over nonreligion, and in this case, evangelical Christianity over all other faiths.”
Allowing an evangelical ministry even one-time access to recruit students and encourage their attendance at an evangelistic event is a violation of the Establishment Clause, FFRF emphasizes. This partnership with an overtly evangelical ministry is not only unlawful, it sends a message that favors those students and community members who subscribe to this particular brand of evangelical Christianity — needlessly alienating district students and families who belong to the 37 percent of the American population that is non-Christian, including the almost 30 percent nonreligious segment.
The Rio Rancho Public Schools system must enforce its constitutional obligation to remain neutral toward religion and stick to the task of providing a secular education, FFRF insists. The district cannot be a venue for evangelists to recruit students, and it cannot allow its speakers to invite students to religious events.
“Evangelist David Corn seems to be consciously performing a switcheroo on public school students,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “A school district cannot be complicit in such a trick.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 40,000 members across the country, including more than 400 members in New Mexico. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
