Oklahoma state Rep. and FFRF Regional Government Affairs Manager Mickey Dollens has had an op-ed published in the Kansas City Star newspaper voicing opposition to school chaplains.
“State Senate Bills 49 and 118 would require every school board in Missouri to take a vote on employing school chaplains in schools, creating yet another unnecessary state-manufactured culture war,” Dollens writes. “The bill’s authors, state Sens. Mike Moon and Rusty Black, have made it clear in their presentation that this legislation is about pushing their religious agenda onto students and school faculty. Black even admitted he consulted with Rocky Malloy, a self-described former drug-smuggling pirate who now leads the National School Chaplain Association, an organization pushing for Christian chaplains in public schools nationwide and to make America’s public ‘schools turn into churches.’ If that wasn’t enough of a red flag, Moon explicitly confirmed that his bill would allow chaplains to teach classes in Missouri public schools without any teacher certification.”
Dollens then discusses how opposition to the bill came from an unexpected secular ally who caught the education committee chair off guard:
Baptist minister Brian Kaylor, editor of Word & Way (founded in Missouri in 1896), testified in opposition to the bills, labeling them as “Chaplain In Name Only” because they fail to define what a chaplain actually is. Despite Moon stating that “there is an 80-hour training requirement,” Kaylor points out there are no qualifications, no religious training requirements and no accountability listed in the bills. These so-called “chaplains” don’t even have to be certified counselors or educators. In other words, anyone could become a school chaplain under this law, including those with extreme religious views or political agendas.
State Sen. Rick Brattin, the education committee chair, seemed shocked that a Baptist minister would oppose a school chaplain bill, asking Kaylor: “I’m perplexed by your testimony. As a Baptist minister, you’re opposed to this? As an ambassador to God?” Kaylor’s response was clear: He opposes state coercion of religion.
This is what true religious freedom looks like — the ability to practice (or not practice) religion without government interference. …
As Annie Laurie Gaylor, president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation Action Fund, puts it: “This bill is a Trojan horse for religious indoctrination in public schools. Lawmakers are using ‘chaplains’ as a loophole to sneak proselytizing into schools, while bypassing the qualifications required of qualified counselors and certified educators. If Missouri lawmakers truly cared about students, they’d be funding mental health professionals, not religious figures with no oversight.”
Dollens concludes the piece by reminding readers that the Missouri Constitution explicitly opposes these bills: “With public comments wrapped up, SB 49 and 118 are now teed up for a vote in the state Senate education committee. Missouri’s own state Constitution explicitly bans public funds from being used to employ religious ministers. Any school that takes this bait is setting itself up for a losing lawsuit that will drain public resources.”
You can read the full op-ed here.
This column is part of FFRF’s initiative to engage with pertinent issues at the national and the state levels and spread the messages of freethought and nontheism to a broader audience.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with more than 40,000 members and several chapters across the country. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
