Florida's first public school chaplain is a Jan. 6 supporter—and a warning to everyone
The appointment of Rev. Jack Martin shows how Florida's chaplain law has become a Trojan horse for Christian Nationalism in public schools
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Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law allowing untrained Christian chaplains in public schools as a substitute for trained social workers and counselors. Some districts openly refused to play along, partly because they didn’t want to deal with the possibility of Humanist and Satanist chaplains demanding access to students. Other districts just chose to quietly ignore the law.
For all the ruckus about chaplains in schools, it seems very clear that the schools themselves weren’t clamoring for this and have no desire to take advantage of the new law now that it’s passed. The whole thing was nothing more than a Republican publicity stunt.
But one school district has now taken the bait—and the first chaplain they approved may be the worst-case scenario for this entire program.
The website for the Hernando School District in Brooksville, just north of Tampa, now has a page describing their chaplaincy program and it lists all of the chaplains available for students during this school year.
There’s currently one name on that list: Rev. John “Jack” Martin, of the Christian Life Assembly of God.
The fact that Martin is the only approved chaplain isn’t illegal, per se, since we have no information about whether others applied, were qualified, and got rejected. But Martin is a horrible example of the sort of chaplain you would want in any public school.
That’s because his internet footprint is full of right-wing conspiracy theories and proof that he supported the January 6 insurrection. While political views themselves cannot (and should not) disqualify people from participating in this program, you have to wonder why the school district feels Martin is the sort of person they want around children.
After Brian Kaylor of A Public Witness, a newsletter from the Christian media outlet Word&Way, first broke this story, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the district documenting Martin’s history of conservative propaganda… and it’s detailed. (I’ve included links to help make more sense of it.)
We understand that the district has appointed Reverend John “Jack” Martin to this role. Rev. Martin is affiliated with the so-called “Black Robe Regiment,” a Christian Nationalist effort to get “patriot pastors” engaged in the public square and impacting political elections with their preaching. The group’s founder, William Cook, reportedly spoke at the “Jericho March” in Washington, D.C., which helped pave the way for the January 6th insurrection.
Rev. Martin himself has publicly supported the January 6th rioters, writing: “Truth be told the crime in the capitol that day was the ratification of the theft of the presidency of the United States, but they want you to watch the shiny coin.” He even authored and performed a song titled “The Ballad of J6ers,” which portrays the insurrection as a “peaceful, patriotic protest.”
Rev. Martin has argued that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that non-Christians should be barred from offering prayers to open congressional sessions. He has also been an outspoken opponent of public education, telling parents: “To any parent today I would say, look into private schools. If you are of a particular faith look into a faith-based school. And if you are not able to do that consider home school.”
We request that you immediately end your chaplain program and cease providing Rev. Martin access to Hernando County Schools’ students.
If someone is openly promoting Christian Nationalism, what message does that send to non-Christian students in the district that their own school board believes Martin can be a trusted adult? If someone is openly disparaging public schools, why is a public school district partnering with him? And what promises do they have that Martin won’t use his position to promote his personal and political agenda?
FFRF also says that having a chaplain program at all just creates more problems than its worth, especially when someone like Martin is the face of the operation:
By permitting Rev. Martin and other chaplains to provide religious guidance and prayer for students, you have ongoing control over their speech, creating an additional layer of trouble for the District. You may end up having to take action against Rev. Martin for proselytizing students, or if his religious message interferes with the learning environment; this opens the school district up to litigation both from the students affected and from the religious leaders employed by the district. That control over religious figures and their speech is truly a no-win scenario for the District.
Further, now that you’ve allowed one chaplain, you will always have to worry about turning down future candidates, who may think they were refused a chaplaincy because their religious affiliation or religious beliefs were disfavored by the District. Facing multiple candidates with troubling and controversial religious perspectives, you may be effectively forced to favor certain religious beliefs over others, a fraught situation best avoided altogether.
To be clear, FFRF is not saying the school is doing anything illegal by hiring Martin, but that the chaplaincy program is itself a mistake and that Martin, judging by his entire history, is a disaster in the making. The district is better off canceling the program entirely than allowing someone like him to participate.
“Public schools should educate, not evangelize,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “This program is a dangerous step toward turning Florida’s schools into Christian nationalist recruiting grounds, and Hernando County should not be leading that charge.”
The district says its chaplaincy program requires participants to pledge that they will be “sensitive to religious pluralism and able to provide for the free exercise of religion by all students.” They also say chaplains “may not proselytize for or disparage any religion, belief, lack of belief, or faith group.”
Why would anyone think Martin is capable of this? Do they really want to wait until he denounces Islam and atheism… again? (He has a video up on Rumble blaming “Islam”—all of it, apparently—for 9/11.) Do they want someone so extreme that he has tweeted things like “Hitler would have been a Democrat” and a prediction that Michelle Obama would become “the first transgender president”?
If Martin is the best chaplain you can find, then the program isn’t worth protecting.
The choice isn’t whether to continue the program or not. It’s whether you want to accept the risk of a lawsuit or play it safe. With Martin having access to children, that risk is hardly negligible. His promotion is a sign that the Hernando school board doesn’t really give a damn about the children they’re supposed to represent.
What’s happening in this district isn’t just a local embarrassment. It’s a chilling snapshot of what happens when politics overtakes public responsibility. It was wrong to have a chaplain program. It was so much worse to appoint someone who’s a conspiracy theorist, a Christian Nationalist, and someone with open disdain for public education. Jack Martin is exposing this whole chaplain law for what it truly is: a Trojan horse for religious indoctrination in taxpayer-funded schools.
This isn’t about values or supporting students. It’s about using children as pawns in a cynical campaign to erode the wall between church and state, one school district at a time.
Time to unleash highly-qualified teachers in churches, private schools, Sunday schools, etc.
He seems perfectly qualified for the real purpose of the program which is giving fundamentalist assholes access to school kids to convert them into twice the sons of Hell they are under the guise of being a trusted school official.
To say nothing of all of the predator pastors out there just waiting for a chance to have the same access.