234 Comments

"If they pass a background check..."

Of course their church may be hiding pedophiles who would love to become school counselors.

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The background check they have to pass? Sign Ken Ham's statement of faith.

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Yep. The RCC already employs a "move them around" strategy, but the trouble with that (from their institution-first perspective) is that you're still putting this problem individual around parishoners who you're trying to extract money from. But wait! Iowa has the solution they've been looking for! Now the RCC can place that individual in no church at all! The RCC can assign-volunteer them as a school counselor instead!

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A Kansas City diocese is dealing with this right now. Apparently, the parishioners found out the church had moved in an accused priest and not told anyone . According to the article, an investigation said the charges were unsubstantiated.

https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/investigations/community-divided-kansas-archbishop-defends-priest-hiring-at-holy-trinity-catholic-church-in-lenexa#:~:text=KANSAS%20CITY%2C%20Mo.,how%20they%20learned%20about%20Fr.

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An investigation by the pedophile church, perhaps?

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The church was involved, but not the only investigating body:

"The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the archdiocese investigated the claim and determined it was unsubstantiated. Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay did not file charges against Pilcher."

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Years ago, some Floriduh repukes were considering a plan to put armed volunteers in schools to try to deal with school shootings. I pointed out that could mean armed pedophiles walking around schools because not all pedophiles have been arrested or convicted.

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It's a double dose of bad. Getting chaplains in is the obvious bad, but getting paid professional and accredited counselors out is the subtle bad. If Republicans fail to get chaplains in, but use the opportunity to reduce funding for school positions, they will still have succeeded at their more subtle goal of undermining the public education system.

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The Republican approach to just about every problem is to first claim the problem doesn't exist, then gut funding for any program attempting to address said problem.

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"REPUBLICANS (having sabotaged a system): "See? It doesn't work!"

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And the only replacement they offer for the systems they have broken? Theocracy.

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The solution: fewer conservatives (though today's Republicans are anything but conservative). The answer: birth control, abortion when needed, education, tax excess children. The Republican agenda: stop all family planning, ban abortions, block public education (and now insert Christisn pastors), and pump out and subsidize more Christians.

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They appear convinced it is the duty of the public schools to backstop Christianity and the Republican party.

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The magic word here is: "untrained." That goes so far beyond irresponsible, I'm not certain there are words to describe it. And, of course, the ones who will suffer are the kids.

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Is Iowa responsible for checking backgrounds on these ministers that are going to have direct contact with children?

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What good is a background check when the church is protecting the perpetrators and never going to the proper authorities? We have churches who applaud and support preachers who admit on stage that they’ve molested children, abused their positions, and other criminal acts because of a sense of forgiveness or incredulity (And misogyny). There’s no protection in this bill.

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Exactly!!

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Trained Christian pastors are dangerous. Let's not rearrange the deck chairs.

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It is absolutely part of the right-wing playbook — for both their economic and religious adherents — to do everything possible to destroy public services so their own favored private-enterprise and evangelical pale imitations don't have competent competition.

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It's more than a double dose of bad. There are children struggling with LGBTQ issues who have no one to turn to; sometimes school counselors are their only allies. Eliminating that relationship could be catastrophic.

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Christian parents scream that their kids are somehow being "groomed" in public schools. Will they be quite so vocal in their opposition to this bill's very REAL attempts at grooming children? Somehow, I doubt it.

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If you're grooming kids to be Christians, that's fine. If you're grooming them to think for themselves, that ... that ... that's just AWFUL!!!

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I've been told that God didn't make us robots, but He sure is forcing us to behave like one it seems.

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Whenever xtians tell me that their god doesn't make us robots, I ask them about Pharaoh.

Oops.

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God made Pharaoh stubborn, God made the whale spit out Jonah, God made the King of Assyria kind, etc.

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Thou shalt not think for thineself. Thou shalt always trust the Priests.

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Bring in the Catholic priests. They know how to groom.

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Christian children already have Christian counselling in their homes and houses of worship, Even more so if they attend private Christian schools.

Keep this crap out of public schools.

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Mass EVERY day. Prayers to start and end the day. Prayer before and after lunch. Sitting with your ass half off the seat so some "guardian angel" could sit down. All sorts of superstitious mumbo jumbo.

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When an idea is too absurd even for Texas, it's a bad idea and requires no further discussion. Conservative Christians simply CANNOT stop trying to force their religion into the public schools, paid for with everyone's tax dollars. Their obsession with indoctrinating children speaks directly to just how weak their message is. Chaplains in the public schools would likely cause far more problems than they would solve.

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They can't stop, they won't stop. They're a runaway train, feeling the first heady glimpses of power.

I have no doubt that the people who read and comment here are very aware of what's going on. The people we need to get on board aren't paying attention yet. Work on those people (we all know a few!).

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Conservative religion and authoritarian government are natural allies, and always have been. It is a symbiotic relationship that has resulted in misery for millions.

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You mean "the meek?" They're waiting for their inheritance.

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The will's been probated for 2000 years now.

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It's easier to get a gun in the United States than it is mental health care.

So let's remove even the limited free assistance we provide to kids and replace it with GAWD and prayer. Let's replace qualified experts with a book written 2000-3000 years ago in a different language to different cultures for a different purpose than providing sound mental health advice to kids. Let's set up another hurdle for kids suffering from depression and let's trap them in a guilt-shame spiral of "you're not Jesusing right or you wouldn't be depressed."

I want to punch these assholes in the nose.

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The Japs used to torture POW's by sitting them on fast-growing bamboo. It wouod grow several inches per day bringing on peritonitis and death after several days/weeks of raging infection. No a punch is too kind.

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Bagen, Your use of derogatory terms is offensive.

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I grew up in the midst of WWII veterans and heard many atrocities from veterans. Calling them flowery names does not change their evils.

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I grew up being called evil, deranged, objectively disordered and perverted by the pope and its minions. I grew up being abused by nuns who claimed I was a heathen atheist deserving no right to exist. Sorry you were offended.

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Electricians here. Back in a few hours.

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Bagen, I grew up at the same time and don't need to use derogatory terms. During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, including physical abuse, sexual humiliation, both physical and psychological torture, rape, as well the killing of Manadel al-Jamadi and the desecration of his body. The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004. The incidents caused shock and outrage, receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally. So do we demean all USA citizens based on this??? Stop being racist.

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Aside from everything addressed in the article, how are the schools going to protect students from the Priests, youth pastors, preachers and ministers that have an outsized propensity for criminal behaviors with children? (And no desire to address the issue effectively.) This is only offering up our children to pedophiles and creepers. If there are no standards for what defines a chaplain, no licensing, certification, or oversight, then there’s no way to keep known molesters or abusers out or to stop them once they’ve gotten in the schools. And the fact that they will be pushing out the trained, licensed professionals, there’ll be no one left the victims can turn to for help.

What problem is this supposed to solve? None. The purpose was made clear that the only purpose of this bill is to get religious claws into the schools.

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𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑚 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑣𝑒?

1. Effective public schools giving poor people's kids the support they need to compete with my kid.

2. My tax dollars being used on a school my kid doesn't go to.

3. Trained counselors filling my kid's head with liberal nonsense like "women can have careers" or "your parent beating you is bad."

4. The state not using it's power to recruit heathen children to Jesus.

{/channeling wealthy evangelical conservatve}

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It solves having actual educated professional counselors in Iowa's public schools. They not only cost money, but they also help kids.

Allowing Pastor Pervie and Father Molesti into the schools owns the libs and keeps the "groomers" at bay...or some such.

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Jesus may be said to forgive, but xtians spend their lives judging.

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So, that whole idea of untrained Christian chaplains in Texas worked SO WELL that Iowa wants to follow suit? Ummm ... guys? Do I have to say it again? "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." Yeah, yeah, I know, they don't want to hear it. They think that State / Church separation isn't a thing, and that the United States was founded as a Christian nation.

[ringdown tone] ... "Hello? Freedom From Religion Foundation? Yer gonna LOVE this one...!"

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Yep. I expect that "accredited counselor who happens to also be a chaplain" is already allowed. So there is no current bias against religious chaplains serving as counselors in schools.

By making chaplaincy it's own criteria for the position, they are obviously placing one religion above others, or religion above nonreligion.

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"It’s not a religion, it's a *"

* Include bullshit excuse du jour.

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I was abused by Catholic nuns who were regulated. Nothing was done to punish them. I left all churches as I began my questioning teens. These headlines tell all:

Rampant child sexual abuse is occurring in churches — not at drag shows which the far-right wants you to believe:

https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/illinois-catholic-church-child-abuse-rcna86289

2019:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/religion/nearly-1-700-priests-clergy-accused-sex-abuse-are-unsupervised-n1062396

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And Joe of Joe.My.God. fame always post the hashtag #NotADragQueen on his Twitter/X account every time he posts stories about pastors and other clergy leaders getting caught, convicted, and sentenced to spending years in prison for the very things they accuse drag queens of.

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If I had a dollar for every time a nun abused me I would be a world traveler. Not all abuse is sexual abuse.

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When Republicans promote adding religion to a state run service, like public schools, they are trying to force their religion on everyone, but it’s not their only motive (maybe not the main motive). No, Republicans are looking to undermine and eliminate all services that aid the masses, in order to control them better and profit off them. What has been the Republicans’ most effective legislation for the past 50 or so years? Privatization. The military may be huge, but the vast majority of any work done is done by contractors, Lockheed Martin, Haliburton, and even some of the fighting is done by contractor security firms. Why do you think the budget is almost always rubber stamped by congress if not (as it was this year) inflated beyond what was requested? Charter schools are essentially private schools pretending they are public to get tax money. We can’t have single payer healthcare because everything must be privatized. Even those folks gunning for social security are forcing it to be privatized. By privatizing everything, only the wealthy can succeed and they have plenty of folks to look down on.

So, by pushing religion into schools, Republicans are using it to undermine public education, pretty much stating that religion is not effective at educating people. It is an insult to religion to be used as a poison pill, but the religious are too gullible to see it. Authoritarian government and religion go hand in hand, but only because religion is such a shitty tool.

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🤔 I first read that as "because religion is such a shitty stool."

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That too, even if it is redundant.

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Religion, as a tool of control, works best when combined with the total lack of any opportunity for bettering one's lot in the mortal world... if the would-be theocrats can find a way to deprive people of opportunity while increasing their exposure to religion- well, that's a win-win!

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I'd be shocked silly if there was a single school in Iowa that was farther away than a farmer could hock a loogie from the nearest church. I would be positively beside myself with amazement if there was even one child in that 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 who didn't have ready access to all the religion they could ever want, in a veritable cornucopia of denominations, if such was their inclination. The notion that 𝘢𝘯𝘺 problem the youth of Iowa are facing can be traced back to a 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 is so shit-stupid it makes my brain hurt.

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Alas, kkkristers feel no pain from their stupidity.

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Go TST ! nast-c are so privileged they never though other groups can use the same weapons as them.

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Instead of trying to push hogwash on kids, how about this instead?

"We should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes certain decency, humility and community spirit."

-- Carl Sagan, from page 434 of "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark"

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To quote a Mississippi school child, "Jesus Christ!"

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Christians need to Lego of trying to push their religion on public school kids.

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Hopefully they run into a brick wall.

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Buncha block heads, those cristers.

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You need a hobby, like play mobil games.

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Alabama Mobile?

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In Lincoln they play with logs.

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There's an old saying in Mississippi—I know it's in Texas, probably in Mississippi...

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OT- This will surprise absolutely no one at all, but police body cameras are absolutely fucking useless if the police are allowed to decide for themselves who gets access to the footage: https://www.propublica.org/article/police-body-worn-cameras-no-transparency

The police cannot police the police. The police 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵 police the police. Independent oversight is needed. 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘩.

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Or when they are allowed to switch them on and off at will.

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You see that all the time in the vids The Civil Rights Lawyer posts.

https://www.youtube.com/@thecivilrightslawyer

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Would it be ok for unlicensed, unendorsed atheists to teach children in both private Christian schools as well as Sunday schools the scientific fact of evolution?

Sauce for the goose, after all.

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No!

So I hope this was a rhetorical question. 😇

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Just love to ruffle the feathers of believers and give the hypocrites a dose of their own medicine. 😎

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