An Arizona bill to let chaplains in schools would ban atheists from participating
The unconstitutional bill requires chaplains to acknowledge "the existence of… one or more supernatural entities"
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One of the ways Christian Nationalists have tried to get their religion into public schools this year is by trying to install chaplains in addition to—or, dangerously, in lieu of—trained counselors and social workers. Texas and Florida have already passed laws allowing school districts to bring chaplains into their schools.
Now Arizona wants to do the same thing, and Republicans are determined to make sure non-Christians are shut out of the process.
Senate Bill 1269, sponsored by Republican State Sen. Wendy Rogers, a white nationalist who perpetuates the “great replacement” theory, would allow school districts to bring chaplains into their buildings as volunteers.
A couple of caveats exist in the bill: Parents would have to give permission before their children could see them, and they could pick the chaplain of their choice—whose religious affiliation would be listed alongside their names—like a menu at a horrible restaurant.
But before talking about how this bill is somehow worse than similar attempts we’ve seen in other states, it’s important to point out why this is such a bad idea in the first place.
In Arizona, where the chaplains would need some minimal qualifications, it still sends the message that religious affiliations somehow outweigh professional credentials. A conservative Christian chaplain with years of experience may not know how to deal with people who don’t share those beliefs, and he could impose his personal mythology on students even if it’s not what the evidence shows will help.
It’s not hard to imagine how these chaplains could be a huge problem for students who aren’t Christian, even if their parents are, or for LGBTQ students whose parents think seeing a Christian chaplain will fix that.
That’s what one lobbyist attempted to say to the Senate Education Committee last week:
“They will simply not be equipped to support students dealing with serious matters like anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self harm or suicidal ideation,” [the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona’s Gaelle] Esposito said. “Religious training is not a substitute for academic and professional training in counseling, health care or mental health… Even with the best intentions, chaplains may provide inappropriate responses or interventions that could harm students.”
Unfortunately, that bill passed in the Senate on a 17-12 vote.
The House Education Committee at least pushed back a bit.
When one Democrat voiced her concerns about church/state separation, Rogers insisted it didn’t matter because separation of church and state didn’t appear in the Constitution (she’s wrong)… and that Republicans on the Rules Committee would never have approved it if it wasn’t legal. (You’re never going to believe this, but Republicans are not interested in what the Constitution says.)
STATE REP. STEPHANIE SIMACEK: A simple question. To me, when I read through this bill, I just see unconstitutional... I see it as unconstitutional to invite religious leaders to engage in my religious activities at school, and I would like to ask what happened to separation between church and state.
STATE SEN. WENDY ROGERS: … There's nowhere that that’s written [that] there should be a separation of church and state. For one, that's not in the Constitution. It's not in the Bill of Rights. So that's kind of a myth to base it on… And by the way, if I may add, it is constitutional or it wouldn't have gone through Rules at the Senate.
When Republican State Rep. David Marshall later tried to explain his vote supporting the bill, he didn’t even bother making a secular case for it. He didn’t advocate for pluralism either. He just said he preferred Jesus over experts.
STATE REP. DAVID MARSHALL: Are there some good psychologists? I’m sure there are. But I think Jesus is a lot better than any psychologist. So for those reasons, I vote aye.
He wasn’t the only one who said this. When a Democrat pointed out that students need better mental health support—and that required more funding for trained professionals instead of volunteer chaplains—the Education Committee’s chairman Matt Gress argued that wasn’t true because kids just needed more Jesus:
STATE REP. MATT GRESS: I can’t tell you how much this committee—and me personally—I’ve heard that there is a mental health crisis afflicting kids. Now I don’t necessarily think in many of these cases that something is medically wrong with kids. I think, perhaps, there is a spiritual deficit that needs to be addressed.
All of these Republicans would rather ignore what experts say the crisis is because they treat children as target practice. Christianity is the ammo and they want it in schools.
It’s disturbing, but it worked. The bill got through the House Education Committee (on a 7-5 vote) and it’s currently awaiting a vote by the whole House.
But maybe more troubling than the rhetoric were the amendments to the bill, proposed by Gress, which made everything worse.
Gress wants only certain kinds of chaplains to be allowed into the program, so his changes to the bill included very specific requirements for potential volunteers.
For example, they must have a “graduate degree in counseling or theology” or at least seven years of experience in the role. While the first requirement might make some sense, a degree in theology doesn’t mean you have any credentials as a counselor. The latter requirement offers a workaround for people whose religious groups have the infrastructure in place to mint new chaplains and support them in their early years.
Gress also wants them to have at least two years of experience as a chaplain “in a local religious group.” That, too, shuts out members of minority religious groups who don’t have the resources, money, or opportunities to make that happen.
There’s more. The principals must also sign a statement saying the chaplains will not “teach or encourage students to engage in conduct that is contrary” to the school’s standards….
That’s vaguely defined for a reason. It gives the principal a way to keep an unwanted person off the chaplain list simply by saying that individual goes against the school’s ethos. Satanism is bad so we can’t allow it in here!
Gress also says the chaplains, who must be involved with a local “religious group,” must acknowledge “the existence of… one or more supernatural entities” that have “power over the natural world”… and worship accordingly.
That one’s not even subtle. It shuts out non-theistic Satanists and atheists. It shuts out Humanist chaplains with years of experience under their belts.
It’s blatant discrimination, but it’s not a new idea. When Florida suggested a “model policy” for school boards to use last year, they included similar wording. It backfired. Americans United for Separation of Church and State said that model policy was “misguided and unconstitutional” for the reasons I mentioned above. It didn’t help that Gov. Ron DeSantis said of the Satanists when he signed the law, “That is not a religion. That is not qualifying to be able to participate in this.” At least two Florida school districts rejected the idea of putting chaplains in school, despite having permission to do so, because they knew it would create legal concerns.
Arizona’s bill wouldn’t just suggest those illegal restrictions, though. They would be part of the bill, which means if it passes, the lawsuits will be inevitable.
Dianne Post, the Legal Director for Secular AZ, said this in a letter to state representatives when urging them to reject the legislation:
I'm sure you noted in the [Requests to Speak] that 462 people opposed the bill and only 11 supported it... As a state representative, your duty is to support the Arizona and U.S. Constitution, both of which are godless and entirely secular, and to protect the rights of all citizens regardless of their religious or non-religious beliefs. Your promotion of religion and Christianity as a false panacea is insulting and demeaning to reason, logic, and to religious and non-religious citizens.
So far, they haven’t listened. They’re too busy listening to the voices in their echo chambers.
If there’s any silver lining here, it’s that Arizona has a Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs. You would think she has no interest in undermining trained professionals in public schools and allowing students to be taken advantage of by adults who see them as nothing more than targets for conversion. But in a saner world, this bill would never even reach her desk.
It’s not there yet. Which means Arizonans should contact their representatives and urge them to vote against this awful piece of legislation that creates more problems than it solves.
Given the track record of clergy with unsupervised access to minors, this bill is a bad idea, even if the chaplains were qualified psychology counselors.
If students want to meet with the clergy they have ample opportunity to do so without putting chaplains in the public schools paid for by everyone's tax dollars. It isn't as if this country suffers from a lack of churches. The people behind this measure would likely go out of their tiny little minds at the mere suggestion anyone but their own faith would be allowed to become chaplains. The overwhelming majority of the clergy are not trained counselors. This is a solution in search of a problem.