When Martha Ball taught state history in California many years ago, she never heard students protest her mention that Catholic priests were the first Europeans to settle the California coast with mission projects.

Teaching state history in Utah, by contrast, Ball discovered that the mere mention of religion could spark a shouting match.

Shortly after introducing her lesson about the Mormon pioneers coming to Utah, Ball said a student threatened to have his father sue if she used the word "Mormon" again. An LDS student reminded him that Mormons founded the state, and if he and his father didn't like it they could always move. Other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the class chimed in, yelling "Move out! Move out! Move out!"

The moment was key for Ball. From that moment on she was convinced public schools must find a way to work through, and even in, the land-mine topic of religion or risk producing citizens ignorant and fearful of religious differences. Today she is the proud state director of the Utah 3R's Project of rights, responsibilities and respect, a program that affirms the right to teach public school students about religion and religious cultures within a framework bound by accepted educational policy and constitutional law.

"Sometimes I felt it was too much flak to take," Ball told teachers and education administrators gathered at the "Religious Liberty, Public Education, and the Future of American Democracy" forum earlier this week at Westminster College's Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business. Principals told her flat out that they didn't want the topic of religion broached for fear of a lawsuit. At the same time, parents worried the teachings of their religion would be taken out of context when taught in a public school setting.

Ball persisted. "I really believe it's the most important thing I did in my teaching career."

The 3R's Project in Utah is hardly new. It was adopted as an initiative by the Utah State Office of Education in 1997, and remains part of the state curriculum in social sciences and life skills. But given public fear and rumors concerning the religious affiliation of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, and concern surrounding Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's Mormon religion, proponents worry about the program's staying power.

It's embedded and promoted, the problem is making it more routine, said Brenda Hales, associate superintendent at the Utah State Office of Education. "Our turnover among teachers and administrators is so frequent in this state."

In an address to conference attendees, Charles C. Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C., said the 3Rs Project, of which he is co-creator, was not a religious studies project. Rather, it's a "civic character project" built on a foundation of religious liberty. He said the shaping of civic character is one of the long-forgotten missions of public schools.

"It's where people learn to live together in freedom and respect," Haynes told attendees.

Hinting at references to Islamist madrassas, which indoctrinate children, and French schools, which ban all religious symbolism from the classroom, Haynes said the First Amendment provided the ideal balance needed for the discussion of religion in public schools, provided that teachers remain neutral when the topic arises.

Shaping the civic character of students without religion is possible, Haynes said after his address, but moral values may be taught without invoking religious authority, or tearing it down.

Ben Fulton can be reached at bfulton@sltrib.com or 801-257-8608. Send comments about this story to religioneditor@sltrib. com.

The 3Rs Program

What it is - The three Rs are rights, responsibility and respect.

The premise - The program works around the premise that public schools should neither promote religion nor prohibit it, but respect its discussion among students as a doorway toward mutual respect, understanding, and civic responsibility.

How it works - One exercise of the program asks students to write their own constitutions. Others work around issues of censorship and debate as they apply to the First Amendment.