Posted on 08/22/2023 7:48:25 PM PDT by Morgana
RNS) — More than 100 chaplains signed a letter urging local Texas school boards to vote against putting chaplains in public schools, calling efforts to enlist religious counselors in public classrooms “harmful” to students and families.
The letter comes just days before a bill allowing public schools to hire school chaplains becomes law in Texas, the first state in the country to pass such a measure. The legislation, which had been pushed by activists associated with Christian nationalism, gives the state’s nearly 1,200 school boards until March 1 of next year to vote on whether to employ chaplains.
The letter was organized by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and Interfaith Alliance as well as local advocacy group Texas Impact.
The chaplains who signed the letter, released Tuesday (Aug. 22), bemoaned the lack of standards for potential school chaplains aside from background checks, contrasting it with the extensive training required for health care and military chaplains.
“Because of our training and experience, we know that chaplains are not a replacement for school counselors or safety measures in our public schools, and we urge you to reject this flawed policy option: It is harmful to our public schools and the students and families they serve,” the letter read.
While chaplains who operate in multi-faith environments are generally barred from proselytizing, the Texas bill, SB 763, outlined no such condition, leaving each school district to answer the question on its own.
“There is no requirement in this law that the chaplains refrain from proselytizing while at schools or that they serve students from different religious backgrounds,” reads the letter.
Signers of the letter are members of an array of Christian denominations, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist Church, Disciples of Christ and Seventh-day Adventist. Some are part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Several other signers identified as Jewish, Buddhist or Unitarian Universalist.
“Texas Impact’s member faith traditions recognize the unique value of chaplains in some of life’s most challenging situations, and that’s why they insist on rigorous training and oversight of chaplains under their commission,” the Rev. Franz Schemmel, Texas Impact board president and pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in Weatherford, said in a press release.
Last month, another letter sent to school boards by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation raised similar concerns about the bill, which they called unconstitutional.
Besides leading to “religious proselytization and coercion of students,” the July letter charged, chaplains “are generally affiliated with specific religious denominations and traditions. In deciding which chaplains to hire or accept as volunteers, schools will inherently give preference to particular denominations, violating the ‘clearest command’ of the Establishment Clause: ‘(O)ne religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.’”
As SB 763 made its way through the Texas Legislature in May, state Rep. James Talarico, a Presbyterian-minister-in-training, repeatedly challenged the bill and linked it to Christian nationalism. He also expressed concern about the bill’s champions: the National School Chaplain Association, an arm of a Christian missionary organization that has previously expressed a desire to convert students and school officials to Christianity.
Julie Pickren, a member of the NSCA’s board who was elected to the Texas State Board of Education last November, appeared in a video on social media, since deleted, in which she celebrated the idea of chaplains proselytizing to school children.
“There are children who need chaplains. For the pastors in here, you already know: We have a whole generation of children that have never stepped foot one day inside of a church,” Pickren said in the video.
I think schools in Texas would do well to hire chaplains, as would other states. It’s all voluntary, not mandatory.
I think christians are weak and stupid, and their weakness and stupidity got us here, to this ultimately low point before the end of our civilization.
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I actually agree. I don’t understand what the problem is
Will they be putting your chaplain in my kid’s school, or will they be putting my chaplain your kid’s school?
Preachers against preaching? Sounds Orwellian.
I have a better one. Could the child request which Chaplin he or she wants to see?
I am a Senior Law Enforcement chaplain, now in my 13th year of unpaid service (See icpc4cops.org). Chaplaincy is a ministry of presence, not proselytizing. If a door is opened we walk through it; otherwise, we are silent when it comes to our own faith walk. More than a few new chaplains have been shown the door when they’ve crossed this line.
How would they be trained? By the Baptists? Methodists? ELCA Lutherans? Catholics? Qualified? Would school supervisors be able to put away their own agendas and make them tow the line? Is it worth the time and effort to deal with the ACLU lefties?
I see these as representations opposed to classical Christian thought, or teachings within the Christian church before it became the Catholic Church and the papal estates became the Papal State.
Schools would best focus on education
Teens by nature are rebellious. A great way to close their minds rather than opening them
It’s not as if a teen in Texas couldn’t stumble upon a pastor or Chaplin in there community
If it were implemented, the left would figure out a way to Shanghai the process and make it Marxist evangelism. Remember, nothing is ever settled until it is settled the way the left wants it settled. In short, we could do it, but it would take continuous pressure on our part to make it a means of students actually accessing Christian guidance, because the enemy is always seeking who it may devour.
What do I think?
Abolish government schools.
“Chaplaincy is a ministry of presence, not proselytizing. If a door is opened we walk through it; otherwise, we are silent when it comes to our own faith walk. More than a few new chaplains have been shown the door when they’ve crossed this line.”
I see what you are talking about and I agree. That is why I said to another FReeper “What if the child request a certain one”
Say you have a Methodist kid, A Baptist kid, A Catholic kid, you get the picture. The kid is seeking spiritual guidance in his or her own religion could a chaplain bring in a minister who could help that kid? Or find a Chaplain that is in that religion? See what I mean?
Against another drain on limited taxpayer budgets. Not in the least what I think schools should be occupied with, and it seems like a conflict with the the first part of Amendment One, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, (.....”. Government public schools are an abject failure at their number one objective, EDUCATING CHILDREN, and instead are indoctrinating the little urchins. They don’t need any other objectives, until they show some success with their first duty.
We are all here to spread the word of God. These chaplains are not men of God.
If you can accept a Christian chaplain in a school, then you must also accept a Muslim chaplain in a school.
To which I’d add, these are kids. They are vulnerable to ideas their parents might not want them exposed to. It’s enough of a struggle for parents as it is.
So this whole idea gets a No from me.
Abolish public schools. Liquidate the Federal and State Depts of Education.
Give tax break/stipend for education to be spent at any private or religious school.
The market then sorts it out.
Already works for the rich, the Catholics, the Jews, charter schools, and a few Evangelicals.....only the parents are paying twice.
Kids are taught the values of their parents, not the indoctrination of the state or the Sodomite teacher.
Ends teachers unions!
School need only meet minimal state guidelines focused on civics, history, sciences, life skills like cooking, sewing, mechanical, and computer work.
Limit school size so every student knows every other student in his year.
No teaching certifications are needed since on-line classes like Khan Academy have he best instructors on earth and can teach millions, not 25.
Adult school staff become chaperones and elders, not instructors.
Have a state test to pass thru to each grade and finally graduation.
Lots more.....just rebuild local communities.
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