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Unlicensed religious chaplains may counsel students in Texas’ public schools after lawmakers OK proposal


BarryLaverty

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What is the goal here? What is the purpose? 

 

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/24/texas-legislature-chaplains-schools/

 

TEXAS LEGISLATURE 2023

Unlicensed religious chaplains may counsel students in Texas’ public schools after lawmakers OK proposal

Opponents fear the bill is a “Trojan horse” for evangelizing kids and will worsen the state’s mental health crisis through disproven counseling approaches.

BY ROBERT DOWNEN 

 


Unlicensed religious chaplains would be allowed to work in Texas public schools under a bill passed by the Texas Legislature on Wednesday.

Senate Bill 763 was approved in an 84-60 vote in the Texas House, one day after it passed the Texas Senate. It allows Texas schools to use safety funds to pay for unlicensed chaplains to work in mental health roles. Volunteer chaplains will also be allowed in schools.

The bill was delayed last week after Texas House members sought an amendment that would have required chaplains to have similar accreditation as chaplains who work in prisons or the U.S. military. That amendment was defeated during negotiations between both chambers Friday.

 

Earlier this month, House Democrats also offered amendments to bar proselytizing or attempts to convert students from one religion to another; to require chaplains to receive consent from the parents of school children; and to make schools provide chaplains from any faith or denomination requested by students. All of those amendments failed.

Rep. Cole Hefner, who authored the House version of the bill, said in debates that local school boards will be allowed to set requirements for chaplains.

"I want to make sure that we’re making it clear — that everybody knows — that schools may choose to do this or not, and that they can put whatever rules and regulations in place that they see fit," he said.

As with other faith-driven legislation this session — including a bill to require the Ten Commandments in classrooms that failed to reach a crucial vote on Tuesday — conservative Christians argued that religious chaplains could help prevent school shootings, drug use, suicide and other societal ills by returning God to classrooms.

And, in legislative hearings, they assured lawmakers that chaplains were not interested in proselytizing. Last week, however, The Texas Tribune reported that the head of the National School Chaplain Association — a key supporter of the chaplains bill — has led another group for decades that touted its ability to use school chaplains for evangelizing to kids.

Bill opponents, including some religious groups and Christian Democrats, fear the legislation will be a Trojan horse for religious activists to recruit in schools and would exacerbate tensions at local school boards, which would have the final say on whether to allow chaplains in schools.

“This is not what a real chaplaincy program looks like,” Joshua Houston of Texas Impact, an interfaith organization that advocates on behalf of some of the state’s largest religious groups, said last week. “We have chaplains as members. We have seminaries as members that train chaplains. They all have qualifications. In this bill, they are completely unqualified.”

“It is akin to an online marriage ordination,” he said of the bill’s training requirements.

 

Worse, opponents say, the bill could deepen the state’s youth mental health crisis by providing students with unproven, lightly supervised and nonscientific counseling that treats common childhood problems, such as anxiety, as “sins” or issues that can merely be prayed away.

“Spirituality is a predictor of well-being and resiliency, and a chaplain can be a source of development of that in young people,” said Dr. Lindsay Bira, a psychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry at UT Health San Antonio who focuses on stress, trauma and anxiety. But “a chaplain is not trained in how the brain works or what helps it work best. Someone with a religious background could push prayer or other strategies that increase shame. And if those don’t work, the child is going to feel like their relationship with God is broken, and that they’re a broken and damaged person as a result.”

The bill comes amid a broader push by conservative Christians to insert their religious beliefs into public life. This session, lawmakers have called church-state separation a “false doctrine,” a claim that has been echoed by top GOP figures such as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. And in hearings, influential Christian legal groups have testified in support of bills that they believe could lead to a “restoration of faith” in an increasingly secular America.

In a statement, Carisa Lopez, senior political director for the progressive Texas Freedom Network, said the chaplains bill violates children's religious freedom because it does not require chaplains to omit their religious beliefs, which she said they could impose on kids. And she excoriated lawmakers for passing the bill on the one-year anniversary of the deadly Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde.

 

“I find it egregious — especially on the one-year anniversary of the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde — that lawmakers would pass a bill allowing chaplains to be compensated with funding meant to address school safety," Lopez said. "Yet again, our elected officials have squandered their opportunity to pass meaningful legislation that would keep kids safe, like common sense gun reform or bills addressing the school counselor and teacher shortage."

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Oh, what we need is another person inside the school with NO credentials. That will be wonderful, nothing like a legislature doing things that should NOT be done....They are just wanting to turn Texas Blue with these idiotic over religious panderings. 

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Does God sign the chaplain's license???  How do you license someone as a pastor?  There are no licensing requirements in the Bible.  Did Jesus have a license?  Maybe that's why they crucified him...

Look on the bright side, at least you two can both blame someone when the next kid does something stupid.  

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30 minutes ago, RETIREDFAN1 said:

I fail to find anywhere in The Bible where a preacher has to be "credentialed" by any authority on Earth......

There are credentials and licenses for chaplains and the legislature refused to require them, kicking the football to local school boards. 

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3 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said:

There are credentials and licenses for chaplains and the legislature refused to require them, kicking the football to local school boards. 

Any preacher who depends on earthly authority for anything related to serving God had better start studying Scripture in more detail before they find themselves hearing this..... 

 

 

22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

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56 minutes ago, DAWG91 said:

You know I was referencing K-12 schools, and so that's just a pointless 'quick search' at a university. That may have been too much for you to discern. 

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1 hour ago, RETIREDFAN1 said:

I don't ask the government of men for permission or a license to preach God's Word and to do the good works He has commanded ........anyone who does, had better start reading Scripture more in depth........

You are welcome to do that elsewhere but not inside of a public school, and you know that. 

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1 hour ago, BarryLaverty said:

You know I was referencing K-12 schools, and so that's just a pointless 'quick search' at a university. That may have been too much for you to discern. 

Did I?  Headline reads "Texas Public Schools."  Tx Tech is a Texas public school.

Texas: ✅Public school:✅Drag queen show: ✅ALL Ages:✅

 

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47 minutes ago, DAWG91 said:

Did I?  Headline reads "Texas Public Schools."  Tx Tech is a Texas public school.

Texas: ✅Public school:✅Drag queen show: ✅ALL Ages:✅

 

You don't know the difference between an elementary, junior high, high school or university, I can't help you. 

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19 hours ago, RETIREDFAN1 said:

I fail to find anywhere in The Bible where a preacher has to be "credentialed" by any authority on Earth......

While I find it admirable that you believe this.....I still believe in the Separation of Church and State....I don't want the government creating a religion, or telling the individual, including local schools, what religion they can listen too. 

I find it hard to believe that some of you on here will support an Islamic Minister coming into the schools, or a "devil's advocate" chaplin coming in to counsel the students. But I imagine that if only christian chaplins were there you'd be fine with it. 

I say, and it my personal belief, so I don't give a rats :poop: what others think, that NO RELIGION should be influencing public schools. Yes, teachers should teach about each of the major religion and their history, in their history classes, but outside of that......so having religious chaplins, licensed or not on a campus is wrong and trying to shove christianity down the throats of people.....

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1 minute ago, DannyZuco said:

While I find it admirable that you believe this.....I still believe in the Separation of Church and State....I don't want the government creating a religion, or telling the individual, including local schools, what religion they can listen too. 

I find it hard to believe that some of you on here will support an Islamic Minister coming into the schools, or a "devil's advocate" chaplin coming in to counsel the students. But I imagine that if only christian chaplins were there you'd be fine with it. 

I say, and it my personal belief, so I don't give a rats :poop: what others think, that NO RELIGION should be influencing public schools. Yes, teachers should teach about each of the major religion and their history, in their history classes, but outside of that......so having religious chaplins, licensed or not on a campus is wrong and trying to shove christianity down the throats of people.....

It's not about shoving christianity down the throats of people.  But the answers to the issues facing people are found in the scriptures and in relationship with Jesus.  Not hard to figure out.  I get that you'd rather have some licensed psychiatrist who's undergone the teachings of worldly scholars that are out to spite God at every turn and are going to give the kids answers from a textbook and not from the Book of Life.  You guys are so afraid of Jesus that you will sacrifice these kids and their needs to prove you aren't establishing a religion.

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4 minutes ago, JBizzle said:

It's not about shoving christianity down the throats of people.  But the answers to the issues facing people are found in the scriptures and in relationship with Jesus.  Not hard to figure out.  I get that you'd rather have some licensed psychiatrist who's undergone the teachings of worldly scholars that are out to spite God at every turn and are going to give the kids answers from a textbook and not from the Book of Life.  You guys are so afraid of Jesus that you will sacrifice these kids and their needs to prove you aren't establishing a religion.

First of all, I don't want a bunch of licensed psychiatrist in the school either.....School counselors are more than enough, unless there is a major tragedy......unless of course you are in Marlin, TX......I don't want any religion in a public school.....I want education to take place, not religious attributes from ANYONE OR RELIGION......Kids need to learn to do math, read, learn about history, and science....and to learn a skill or trade while in public school....not how to be religious or a drag queen.....That is stuff for their adulthood...

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6 minutes ago, Youngcoach123 said:

Is that so bad? Local schools making decisions for themselves?

NO, that is not a bad thing, but when the legislature is trying to make it where communities have to follow the state law instead of local law, you'd have to worry if local school districts would be able to stop this legislation from entering their school. 

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