Peter Greene describes the new movement to place chaplains in schools to act as mental health counselors. The politicians behind this demand want Protestant evangelical chaplains, no doubt, but the schools will have requests for all sorts of religions. Not only from the myriad Protestant sects, but from Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Mormons, Unitarians, Buddhists, Hindus, and many others. There would certainly be a need for three Jewish chaplains: Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. And every other religion will have divisions that must be addressed. Will there also be mental health counselors for kids who don’t want a chaplain?
The push for school chaplains is moving across the country, pushed by the National School Chaplain Association, a group that pretty clearly hopes school chaplains will be a means of putting a particular brand of Christianity in schools.
So far the movement’s two big wins are in Texas and Florida, where the legislatures actually passed a law allowing anyone who wants to call themselves a chaplain to get into schools that set up the chaplain post. In Texas, the big pushback came from actual professional chaplains, and so far, one charter school has decided to bring in a “chaplain,” because a real chaplain has actual training, sometimes specialized, and follows a set of professional ethics and is not, in fact, just some untrained true believer who thinks Jesus wants him to go recruit some children. In fact, several states have said no to the amateur hour first-amendment-busting bill.
Ryan Walters of Oklahoma
Florida also passed a “chaplain” law, and that led to a predictable next step, which was for the Satanic Temple to announce that they would also be offering chaplains, with said announcement followed by Governor Ron DeSantis declaring that he couldn’t read the plain English of the law that he would forbid any such thing to happen.
The law is written to avoid any obvious First Amendment violation; in fact, it doesn’t even require the “chaplain” to have a religious affiliation. But never mind– DeSantis will tell you what is and is not a legitimate religion.
Well, if Texas and Florida are going galumphing off into far right field, you know Oklahoma will be close behind.
So here comes SB 36, passed through the House and now facing the Senate. The bill is a step up from the versions in Texas and Florida and some other states by virtue of some amendments to the bill. It requires the “chaplain” to have some sort of “ecclesiastical endorsement from their faith group” indicating they are an “ordained minister or member in good standing.” It even requires them to have a bachelor’s degree and some graduate work. The House also added a “no proselytizing” clause.
None of this really addresses the issue that chaplains are not trained as child mental health professionals. Nor does it make it any less a violation of the First Amendment.
Critics have noted that the bill has one particular religion in mind. But you know some other group is cued up and ready to go. And Oklahoma’s Education Dudebro-in-Chief Ryan Walters has come out swinging.
Let me be crystal clear: Satanists are not welcome in Oklahoma schools, but they are welcome to go to hell.
Legislators have also announced their inability to read and their misunderstanding of the Constitutionopposition to the Satanic Temple. SB 36 simply wouldn’t invite the Satanic Temple to send ministers to school children, said one group.
Instead, it gives permission for the local school boards to decide whether to implement a chaplain program, leaving the decision to the duly elected school board members who represent their community’s values. Additionally, parents can decide whether or not to let their child participate in the program.
All true, but it skips over the part where the Constitution forbids discriminating against an employer on religious grounds. This is not news. The Good News Club, a program of the Child Evangelism Fellowship way back in 2001 won its case before SCOTUS that it must be allowed to have an after school club like any other group. And that was followed by the Satanic Temple winning cases to have its own after school Satan club in districts, because the First Amendment is clear on not allowing the government to pick and choose which religions are okay.
Dudebro Walters is not a dummy. He most certainly knows all this (he was an AP history teacher). But he’s got an audience to play to. So here he is on Fox News, sitting in an office, playing the rightwing hits.
Asked to respond to the Satanic Temple’s stated intention to expose “harmful pseudo-scientific practices in mental health care,” Walters says
I am not surprised that people who worship Satan lie. They are liars. What they are trying to do in worshipping Satan is ruin the lives of children, undermine the very Judeo-Christian values of this country and destroy our schools.
The Satanic Temple has always been pretty clear that they do not worship Satan, but are on a mission to push back against those with a theocratic bent. Walters declares
Satanism is not a religion and we will not allow them in our school. Our bill will not allow Satanists into our schools. It will only allow religions, religions that we have protected in our country since the outset.
Sooo much baloney here. The IRS says that the Satanic Temple is a religion. And if we’re going to have state officials going around declaring what is and is not a real religion, there is all sorts of bad trouble ahead. This has been a tough line for us to draw as a country, because “since the outset,” we have not protected all religions. The Puritans of Massachusetts used to banish or execute folks of different religions– and I’m not talking about the Salem witch trials, but folks like Mary Dyer, who was executed in Boston for being a Quaker who wouldn’t stay properly banished. Or we could talk about when the Baptists had a fun nickname for the Catholic Church and/or the Pope– the whore of Babylon.
Please open the link to finish reading this outstanding article.
The not-so-new Protestant slant of compulsory schooling can be traced back to “its origins in the Protestant Reformation, with Martin Luther himself envisioning a system in which Christian education would be forced upon children in a fashion similar to the way that the draft forced war upon their fathers. The first public schools were established in Germany during the 14th century under heavy Lutheran influence and would become the seed for the militant compulsory school system of the Prussian Empire which would itself serve as the template for nearly all the public-school systems that followed across the west and beyond.
The Prussian school system was explicitly devised to create a compliant citizenry groomed from an early age into submitting their will to authority with a strict regimen of harshly enforced rules built around a centrally controlled curriculum. It worked. This system helped turn Prussia into an imperial military powerhouse by subjecting generations of children to the same kind of disciplinary indoctrination usually reserved for prisons and boot camps, and the line of morally blind nationalism that it fostered…”
If cultivating faculties of discernment (critical thinking) was the result compulsory schooling, would DT be neck and neck with JB???
Well said and true.
YES…A VERY, VERY BAD IDEA, indeed!
Child Abuse …. just a FEW! There’s so many cases, too.
Almost 1,700 priests and clergy accused of sex abuse are unsupervised
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/religion/nearly-1-700-priests-clergy-accused-sex-abuse-are-unsupervised-n1062396
Rampant child sexual abuse is occurring in churches — not at drag shows
https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/illinois-catholic-church-child-abuse-rcna86289
Secretive Christian sect ignored sexual abuse for decades, congregants allege
https://abcnews.go.com/US/secretive-christian-sect-sexual-abuse-decades-congregants-allege/story?id=111059778
Child Sex Abusers in Protestant Christian Churches: An Offender Typology
https://www.qualitativecriminology.com/pub/osa148h6/release/2
This inevitably leads to what the writer Gene Lyons characterized as “My God is red hot, you god ain’t doodly-squat!”
James Madison knew the evil of this well. He and Jefferson were adamant that state religions are an unqualified evil and completely inconsistent with democracy and the necessary separation of church and state.
Which is why Republicans are the enemies of the Constitution. They don’t believe in democracy. They want mind control and fascism. They are a hate group.
As Primary Spiritual Wife of Enlightened Master Bob of Omnitheists International, let me say that I understand your frustration, Mr. Theta. Perhaps you simply haven’t found the god for you yet. Might I suggest spending a few minutes every day in devotion to Enlightened Master and to various gods from throughout history until you find the one you like best? For example, the Papuan Pig Goddess will make sure that you have an abundance of pigs, and Ra recently won Best in Show at the Westminster God Show. Hope this helps!
–Sister Cornflower Muse, OTI
One of your best! A Big Belly Laugh! BBL?
Thank you, Dr. Ravitch, for your comments, but really, for any glories you find in my comments, I must give thanks and praise to Enlightened Master, through whom blessings flow, praise the gods. I hope you can feel his strength and compassion in your own life, merely by virtue of this proximity. I am happy to share that vibration here.
Omnitheists International. The only church on this plane that worships ALL the gods.
–Spiritual Wife Cornflower Muse, OTI
in the interest of fairness, Peter Greene is due recognition for the Mark Twain award for this piece.
in the interests of the country, we need to rebuild the wall between church and state brick by brick.
Roy and all: I hope not “too little, too late.” But a book listed in my recent “Teachers College Record” (06-14), and some earlier, talk about the need to REQUIRE a political education for K-12 students. Do you think?
And this brings up the simple, but little understood, difference between (1) teaching “ideology” (political and religious) and (2) teaching democratic principles.
The major difference is teaching (1) “what to think” and (2) teaching to:
. . . inform and develop the agency of the student . . .
. . . so that when they become adults, they will have understood the history of DIFFERENT political and religious life and their institutions . . . and can then make informed choices when it’s THEIR turn to choose.
In an earlier note, I asked what kind of political and history education STEM programs have offered since their inception.
But the OMISSION problem also exists in trade and adult education programs where they get great JOB TRAINING but have historically overlooked their place in affording students WHO ALREADY LIVE IN AND BENEFIT FROM DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS and INSTITUTIONS, a political education . . . so they can recognize when their core institutions and way of life are under challenge and can choose before it’s too late–instead of being scammed by the load of MAGA and zealot-religious petty/dictator grifters we seem to have produced over the last 50 years.
We should, of course, keep pushing against the ignorant/fascist currents. But also, don’t forget the past and our own mistakes and oversights, while we can hope it’s not too late. CBK
Chaplains in public schools are a bad idea from those that want to destroy public schools. They are another slap in the face to mental health professionals from the same reformsters that brought us the six week training for pseudo-teachers. While mental health may be based on soft science, it is not pseudo-science. There is something to be said for hiring trained and qualified staff to work with our young people. They are a lot less likely to engage in counterproductive approaches and treatments like “praying away the gay.” Professional counselors are a lot more likely to be able to help struggling young people than a chaplain that may have a religious agenda.
Anyone who thinks this is a good idea should be required, at the absolute minimum, to watch the movie “Spotlight.”
Spotlight (film) – Wikipedia
Chaplains in schools?!?!!!!! A totally nutty and ludicrous idea or fantasy. If you want chaplains so badly, then go to a private religious school of your choice.
Joe Jersey: “go to a private religious school of your choice.”
Oh, no. That’ would not satisfy my totalitarian desires. Here’s the deal: If I think and feel that way, then everyone else should also. And here’s how “we” are going to make that happen. CBK
“There would certainly be a need for three Jewish chaplains: Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox.”
These are the 3 primary religious movements (i.e., sects/denominations) within Judaism –which many non-Jews know nothing about. There are other smaller groups, too, such as Reconstructionist. There are also differences within some groups, like between Ultra-Orthodox, such as Haredi, and Modern Orthodox. (I know, even for some of us, this can make your head spin, so I think of it as being similar to the many different kinds of Protestants.) In my experience, what Jewish organizations that are committed to serving ALL Jews typically do is hire a rabbi who is knowledgable of and open to each of them. That can be challenging, but it’s not impossible.
It could also be very expensive and, because I believe very strongly in “the separation of church and state”, I do not support having chaplains of any kind in publicly funded schools.
Agreed. Everyone should be able to practice their religion freely, but paying for it should be a personal issue and responsibility. The co-mingling of religion and government is a divisive, very costly mistake, IMO.
ECE Professional: It’s the same for Catholicism (many views), of which I am an albeit distant participant.
It’s the group ordering and dominance of political (and psychological) power in the people involved, and not the particular religious affiliation that’s important. Institutions are made of people.
The ideal of democracy as both allowing religious freedom and giving a political “roof” for all to live under together, and BTW, peacefully and to be on the road to becoming mature and civilized, is the genius of Jefferson, et al.
To lose it? as a notable point in the history of humanity, I can think of nothing worse. CBK
Thanks for this info, CBK!
Instead of Protestestants, I was going to say “Christians” (and Muslims, too, since they also have different denominations). But even though I’ve learned many things about Catholicism throughout my life, because my grandparents sent my mom (who was raised as a Jew) to a Catholic boarding school for secondary ed (which she loved) and I studied for my doctorate at a Jesuit university (which I adored as well), I did not fully understand how the Vatican permitted diverse beliefs. Consequently, I’ve often wondered about Biden and how he’s able to get by with his support for women’s reproductive rights.
ECE Professional, about Biden and his Catholicism . . . because he also understands the crucial difference between his own belief and arena of agency, and that of others, a comprehensive democratic view which is an embedded assumption of his office and oath–in my view, the mark of a great leader. CBK
I thought maybe it was because Pope Francis seems to be a rather uniquely caring and understanding man, who is not overly judgemental or punative (as other popes have been).
Two professors at Gordon College estimated that there are currently about 36,000 different Christian denominations, each with its own belief system.
Wow! Thanks, Bob! I knew there were a lot but that number is truly mind-boggling!!!
Gordon College is an interesting place. I used to have a house literally about a quarter of a mile from it. I met a lot of really nice people from the College, but they were pretty strict Calvinists. Ugh. At any rate, a lot of these folks walked the talk in terms of their Christianity–giving themselves to lots of service projects, for example.
Strange to see how religion if affecting politics these days, just as everything is odd nowadays. In Europe, the rightwing takeover of recent elections had a relationship of support with Israel, and the resulting protests from the left were beflagged with those of the Palestinian cause. As a liberal, it feels odd to have such close ties to the Hamas version of the Muslim religion. Then there’s the ultraconservative Christian outbreak in the U.S. which also has ties to Israel. It’s them against everyone else.
Why do I feel like there’s about to be The Crusades II.
Untrained religious nutcases in private meetings with kids, including teenagers, in the middle of emotional crises.
What could possibly go wrong?
I find the “untrained” part very disconcerting. An ordained rabbi who I know that is very knowledgeable of and open to working with people from different denominations of Judaism also has a master’s degree in Social Work, as well as decades of experience. I’ve worked with him and we’ve discussed education a lot and I have no doubt that he’d be well equipped to be a good school chaplain. So I know that, however rare, there are some like that out there, but I still don’t believe it belongs in schools which are publicly funded.
YES!!!
This is an invitation to weirdos to come in and abuse children. It’s as stupid as the idea of arming teachers is. It’s profoundly stupid, so ofc DeSatan and the Flor-uh-duh legislature and gun club is totally for it.
Actually, I should have said he’s worked with me. He’s a very insighful, kind & understanding person, but the most work I’ve really done with him over the years has been to try to get him to see that his politics are waaay out of wack. (And I’m still working on it.)
Some of these Christian fundamentalist types are of the view that if something is going wrong in your life, it is your fault because you are not right with God.
Look, teenagers are extremely emotionally volatile and labile, and suicide rates among them are soaring. The last thing they need is some untrained fundamentalist moron who thinks he has THE ANSWER talking with them about emotionally fraught matters. The outcomes can be, predictably will in many cases be, disastrous. Anyone who supports this bs doesn’t know kids.
I think Peter Greene is right that putting chaplains in public schools is a very bad idea.
But i was taken by this statement in his piece:
“Dudebro Walters is not a dummy. He most certainly knows all this (he was an AP history teacher).”
The assumption here is that AP teachers are “smart.”
Which is, I think, what lots of people believe.
Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of schools, “was a McAlester Teacher of the Year and finalist for the 2016 State Teacher of the Year” in Oklahoma. According to his state website, he “taught Advanced Placement (AP) courses in World History, U.S. History and U.S. Government.”
Since, Walters has belittled teachers and public education, calling the state teachers’ association (union) a “terrorist” organization and claiming the schools were riddled with pornography and “groomers.” He’s made stupid statements, like “Woke ideology is real and I am here to stop it.”
Now he does have a very religious background at home and in college, where he attended Harding University, which is, according to its website, “is a private Christian institution of higher education .” I suppose that might be an excuse.
The definition of smart (Merriam-Webster) is “having or showing a high degree of mental ability”. It is being “intelligent, or “bright.” The Britannica Dictionary defines smart as “very good at learning or thinking about things; good judgment.”
Does Walters sound like a “smart” man? Do “smart” people do things like Walters?
A healthy chunk of Harding University’s mission is “an emphasis on lifelong intellectual growth” and a “commitment to intellectual excellence” and “integrity and purity of thought and action” and “respect for other cultures through an emphasis on liberty and justice.”
I’m going to make the assumption – based on available evidence – that
Walters is “calculating” — “cold heartless planning to promote self-interest”/”carefully thinking about and planning actions for selfish or improper reasons” — rather than smart; and
he didn’t take Harding University’s educational mission very seriously.