COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Hilliard-based nonprofit that organizes off-campus Bible classes for public school students during the school day sued an Indiana man who posted its curriculums online.
LifeWise Inc. operates the LifeWise Academy – a program operational at 200 schools in Ohio. Lifewise removes participating students from schools for 55 minutes once per week to study the Bible at no cost to students or the school.
Zachary Parrish, 36, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has opposed LifeWise since he attended an open house for the academy at his daughter’s school, he said in an interview. He said his daughter would be left to read alone in a study hall while other students were taken from school to an off-campus location for Lifewise classes. As Lifewise expanded, Parrish started a Facebook group and a “Parents Against Lifewise” website detailing his problems with what he saw as Evangelical Christianity creeping into public schools, participants’ lost education time, alienation of students who don’t participate, anti-LGBTQ and anti-divorce policies and others.
In March 2024, Parrish applied online to volunteer for Lifewise. That application allowed him to reach LifeWise’s servers, where Parrish obtained the Lifewise curricula, which he put on his website.
Last week, Lifewise filed a lawsuit against Parrish in federal court, accusing him of copyright infringement. Lifewise says it’s entitled to up to $150,000 in damages, and is seeking attorneys fees and an order calling on Parrish to take down and destroy any copyrighted materials.
“It’s just my position that parents should have a right to review this,” Parrish said in an interview. “That’s what it comes down to.”
The lawsuit, he said, has nothing to do with copyright violations. Although he never intended to truly volunteer, he said Lifewise just wants to quiet a critic.
“I’m not going to be bullied or threatened,” he said.
Christine Czernejewski, a Washington D.C.-based spokeswoman for the academy, said Parrish accessed a product he didn’t pay for. She said Lifewise is seeking a swift resolution.
“He improperly obtained our entire copyright protected curriculum, and he posted to his website without our permission. We asked him to remove the curriculum voluntarily, but he has refused to do so,” she said in a statement on behalf of CEO Joel Penton. “The LifeWise curriculum is licensed through a publisher called LifeWay and anyone is welcome to purchase the LifeWay curriculum through their website.”
Lifewise has lashed out at other critics as well. In April, Steven Clifton, Lifewise’ chief operating officer, called the police to report a “cyber attack,” according to a copy of a police report provided by Parrish. As Lifewise told police, a man named Keith Comer used a “bot” to scrape information and make a way for critics to identify every school that has or is building a program with Lifewise. Clifton also told police about the curriculum posted on Parrish’s website.
The Hilliard officer’s report states he does not believe Comer committed any crime. As for Parrish, he wrote that it’s unclear whether anyone committed a crime, or whether Lifewise unintentionally granted him access to its courses. No further action was taken. Hilliard Police declined to immediately produce a copy of the report, but confirmed its contents from the copy Parrish provided.
According to Czernejewski, Comer built a website that shows all Lifewise locations, nationwide, by means of screen scraping.
“We don’t have a published map of locations and he doesn’t have permission to do it,” she said.
Reached on Friday, Comer declined to speak on the record before consulting with an attorney he hired.
Since the Lifewise Academy launched in 2019, it’s expected to reach 500 schools over 22 states, its CEO Joel Penton said in a previous interview. State lawmakers in Ohio are considering a law that could force school boards to adopt policies allowing programs like Lifewise, as opposed to current law which gives boards discretion over whether or not to allow the programs. According to the Associated Press, similar bills have been introduced in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Georgia and Mississippi this year. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a similar bill into law in March.
In this time frame, the nonprofit has grown significantly. Tax records show in 2019 it received about $1.6 million in contributions. By 2022 that was nearly $14 million.
Stories by Jake Zuckerman
Jake Zuckerman covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.