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Installing Chaplains In Public Schools: The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

May 30th, Oklahoma legislators debated a bill that would allow public schools to “employ or accept one or more volunteer chaplains”.

SB36, a bill by Senator Nathan Dahm, was originally a bill dealing with the Freedom of Information Act – allowing the public access to audio and video footage collected by law enforcement from drones or other video and audio sources. It was heard and passed in the Senate on March 1st.

The bill was then introduced as a Committee Substitute in the House General Government Committee (4.9.24) where the original House author (Rep. Jon Echols (R) was removed and Rep. Kevin West (R) was added. The title and all previous language of the original bill was struck in the Committee Substitute and new language added allowing the addition of Chaplains in public schools.

The bill was then heard on the floor of the House (4.24) where it passed 54 to 37.

This process is not at all transparent, firstly. There are many deadlines and rules that control the ways in which bills are introduced into the legislative process and bill language is to be in place prior to the opening of the legislative session. To change the filed language – especially after it has already passed one house of the legislature – creates confusion in Oklahoma citizens that fouls transparency – a process that should not be encouraged by our elected representatives.

This bill is also an excellent example of the ever-blurring line between church and state.

About the bill, Democrat John Waldron remarked:

“The quickest way to kill and erode the value of religious faith in Oklahoma is to cloak it in the coercive power of the state.”

What exactly does he mean?

For America’s Founders, the Establishment Clause in the Constitution was so important that it was listed as number one of all the Amendments. We have only to study the plight of the Pilgrims – who found tremendous religious persecution in their home country of England – to understand why this was such an important issue to our country’s framers.

The foundation of the idea that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”, was that, if the federal government was unable to establish a national church – as England had with the Church of England – then its people would be free to worship as they chose. Additionally, if the state could tell people who, what or when to worship, again, the people could not be free to worship as they chose.

There are also laws regarding religious discrimination in the United States to help make sure no individual is favored, or denigrated, for their belief system in any way.

So, not only can governments within the United States not dictate the religious practices of its citizens, it can’t discriminate among the religious practices of its citizens either for any reason. One individual can’t be allowed to keep a Christian Bible on their desk, while another is fired for wearing a Hijab to work, for example.

According to SB46, “…a chaplain shall be a person who obtains an ecclesiastical endorsement from their faith group certifying that such chaplain is…A minister, rabbi, priest, imam, lay leader, or similar functionary of the faith group…”, and “Sensitive to religious pluralism and able to provide for the free exercise of religion by all students…”

Herein lies the issue; there is a very large difference between the practice of religion privately and the practice of religion inside an government institution.

For example, as a practicing Christian and a citizen of the United States, I would never consider violating the bounds of religious tolerance for those who practice Islam privately. As I have written in another article, however, because Islam has an historic, practiced, hatred of Christianity, I strenuously object to having state tax dollars devoted to the religion in any way. Yet, if a parent who signs up for the ‘school choice’ voucher in Oklahoma chooses to have state money used for their child to be educated in a Madrasa, it will be. If SB46 passes the Senate, an Imam could counsel children in a government school.

And then there’s this.

Lucian Greaves, the head of the Satanic Temple also threatened to establish a school of Satan in Oklahoma after the ‘school choice’ voucher bill was signed. At that time, I mined that matter with several legislators as a reason to vote NO on the voucher bill, but was simply told, “That will never happen in Oklahoma.” Yet, Iowa had to house a Satanic alter in their state capitol building thanks to anti-discrimination measures employed by the Satanic church after several types of Christmas displays were allowed.

Apparently the legislators I spoke to were unaware that After School Satan Clubs are ‘exploding in popularity‘ thanks to free speech lawsuits filed by supporters in response to Christian Good News Clubs allowed to be held on public school campuses. Satan Clubs now have chapters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, and Connecticut.

Here is the video from the After School Satan Club page advertising the club.

Many well-meaning Christians now see public schools for what they are – indoctrination centers for all kinds of un-Christian values – and wonder why they can’t combat the religion of Climate Change, LGBTQIA+, or SEL by inserting Christian values instead. After all, US public schools were infused with Christianity until 1962 when the US Supreme Court decided that prayer in schools created an establishment of religion (Engel vs Vitale). Why not work to bring that back?

As a Christian, I get it, but Christianity in America isn’t the same today as it was in the 1960’s, and any way used to pump Christianity into ANY public institution will cause an output of taxpayer resources for an equal amount of anything from Islam to Satanism. Is that really what Christians want?

So do Christians just give up on the idea of our mission to bring others to Christ? Absolutely NOT.

First of all, we need to do everything we can to make sure schools are focusing on their abysmal proficiency scores ONLY. Toward that end, we should lobby to get any after school social clubs removed from government schools altogether.

Then, Christians could concentrate on creating private organizations to pick up kids and transport them to churches for after school Bible lessons and tutoring help. Many parents would appreciate the ability to work later hours and have their child get help in their studies – their child’s exposure to Christianity would just be a bonus.

Yes, a return to Christ would help all society, but we must not allow ourselves to fight that battle in government schools. We must absolutely realize that if we do, we’ll open the door to taxpayer supported religious messages from groups that will warp the minds of students to their own ends – including turning them against Christianity – no matter how pure our intentions.

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ROPE’s Right Again…Sigh. Two Muslim Schools Among 174 Registered/Registering For The Oklahoma Parental “Tax Credit”

For years, ROPE has been fighting ‘city hall’ all for a parent’s right to educate their child the way they wanted without interference from the government. Unfortunately, our advocacy for educational self-reliance appears to go out the window when money comes into the picture as we watched over 30,000 parents line up to take money from the government for their child’s education while waving the banner of “it’s my money”.

Early on in the push to get universal school choice in Oklahoma, ROPE sounded the call: 1. Once tax dollars are removed from you (by force) by a government, they are no longer YOUR dollars, they are the state’s dollars. They are not earmarked as Jane’s dollars, or Sam’s dollars – all dollars go into a pot to be divided up among government agencies and programs to be used the way the government sees fit – often, giving tax dollars away to businesses to make it desirous for them to do business in the state. 2. If the state gives private schools tax dollars, those private schools become public schools. Alex Newman, an excellent education researcher and a recent guest on our podcast explains:

LOTS of Christians have been pushing this program. “But, wait!”, we say; this will break the barrier of church and state, where the state will gain control private religious schools. It doesn’t matter, we’re told, THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE FAAAIIILLLLIIINNNGGGG, and the state will stop the program once public schools don’t have enough money to educate kids anymore (because the state has stopped, Medicare and Medicaid and Welfare….insert eyeroll). “But, wait!”, we say; once the state gives out money to a Christian school, they’ll be bound to give money to ANY SCHOOL THAT DECLARES A RELIGION, including Satanists. No, we’re told, the Satanists won’t come here and the state won’t let that happen.

Lucien Greaves is the Co-Founder and the Spokesperson for the Satanic Temple.

As of 12/10/23, I counted 174 registered schools – two of which are Muslim/Islamic.

So here’s the problem. Many people in Oklahoma identify as members of the Christian faith. Unfortunately, no matter how the ‘religion of peace’ likes to bill itself, Islam is not friendly to/toward Christians. In fact, Christianity Today marked the 50 countries where Christians were most persecuted in 2021 and says this:

Islamic oppression (29 countries): This is the main source of persecution that Christians face in more than half of the watchlist countries, including 5 of the 12 where Christian face “extreme” levels: Libya (No. 4), Pakistan (No. 5), Yemen (No. 7), Iran (No. 8), and Syria (No. 12). Most of the 29 are officially Muslim nations or have Muslim majorities; however, 7 actually have Christian majorities: Nigeria (No. 9), Central African Republic (No. 35), Ethiopia (No. 36), Democratic Republic of Congo (No. 40), Cameroon (No. 42), Mozambique (No. 45), and Kenya (No. 49).

A Guardian article from 2019 on persecution of Christians in the middle east said this:

In Saudi Arabia, the report says, school textbooks “teach pupils religious hatred and intolerance towards non-Muslims, including Christians and Jews”.

The website Jihad Watch, documents what the Quran says about Christians throughout its many articles. Here is but one paragraph:

A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law endorsed by the most prestigious institution in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, says that the leader of the Muslims “makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians…until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax,” and cites Qur’an 9:29 in support of this idea: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day and who forbid not what Allah and His messenger have forbidden-who do not practice the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book-until they pay the poll tax out of hand and are humbled.” (‘Umdat al-Salik o9.8)

Why should ANY taxpaying Oklahoma Christian be alright with their tax dollars funding an Islamic school in Oklahoma?

Look, I don’t care who you worship, or marry, or anything else you do, frankly – unless you commandeer the government to force me to do it too – or spend my money on it. I’m certainly willing to live and let live, but I’m not okay with the government using state funds to support a school of people whose holy book tells them to fight Christians until we are humbled and become Muslim. This. Is. Not. Okay.

Additionally, we’re told that Oklahoma Public Schools are GOING WOKE and we HAVE to get kids into private education to SAVE them from the WOKENESS. Well guess what? Christian schools are going woke too.

In this article from Capstone Report, Analysis; WOKE Comes For Christian K-12 & Homeschools, the author points to the fact that the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) has “partner[ed] with UnifiEd to offer Christian schools resources on Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Reconciliation with focus on Multiculturalism”. From the article:

And multicultural is the goal of Dr. Strickland’s organization, according to the press release: “The majority of our resources are designed to assist leaders with the ongoing challenge of implementing a God-glorifying diversity strategy that fosters a multicultural environment.”

Interestingly, an unrecorded phone call on Tuesday, November 7th with Dave Bond of OCPA and Jennifer Carter of American Federation for Children – ostensibly to help private schools become registered as vendors for the tax credit – included OPSAC, the Oklahoma Private School Accrediting Commission which, itself does not accredit schools, but is an association of organizations that accredit Oklahoma private schools. OPSAC’s “Association” page lists ACSI – thus, ACSI accredits Oklahoma private schools.

Here’s some information from OPSAC’s webpage referencing accreditation of Oklahoma private schools:

An accrediting agency that requires schools to uphold standards comparable to State standards may apply to an agency for accreditation. These standards include, but are not limited to, consideration of the school’s goals and objectives; compliance with applicable state and federal statutes; effective governance and administration; the teaching of a balanced curriculum; implementation of personnel practices which ensure the hiring of qualified and degreed instructional leaders; and standards for student achievement.

WHAT? So, if Oklahoma accredited private schools – the ONLY ones that can register for the voucher/tax credit – have to comply with state and FEDERAL statutes (you know, like the ones that say that boys can use girls bathrooms), can someone please tell me how OKLAHOMA ACCREDITED PRIVATE SCHOOLS ARE ANY DIFFERENT THAN OKLAHOMA PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

In addition, at least one private school on those approved for enrollment, Mt. St. Mary’s, has/is suffered/suffering through a sex abuse scandal.

So, to sum up – ROPE was right yet again. We fought our own Republicans TOOTH AND NAIL against Common Core only to find that everything we warned about had come true in the states and schools that used that ploy to dumb down all kids trapped in the program. We’ve fought our own Republicans for the last two years they’ve tried to foist universal school choice on Oklahomans, yet, here we are.

What is it going to take to wake up Oklahomans to the FACT that they’re being deluded into thinking – just like with Common Core – that taking money from some Oklahomans and giving it to others so their kids can go to a private school IS A VERY BAD THING? THIS?

PS: Here’s my research on the Tax Credit Rules that contains lots of information on the concept of school choice.

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