Dr. Thomas Lecaque is an Associate Professor of History at the Grand View University.
I teach at a Lutheran school in Iowa. We have a chapel on campus. Every faculty meeting and event, every major school event, starts with our campus pastor offering a prayer. There are boats hanging in the church and also in the room in the administrative building that was the first chapel on campus, because we’re a Danish Lutheran school, and both of those traditions run deep.
I say this not because you need to know about me, or about my university, but because chaplains on campus, chaplains in schools, religion and the university, is not a thing I have a problem with. We’re a private Lutheran school, and people who come here know that when they apply and enroll, and they’ve made a choice to be here, in this environment, with everything that entails.
The key word there, of course, is private. If your kids go to a Catholic school, for example, you cannot pretend to be surprised and alarmed when Catholicism is in the classroom too. But if you send your kids to public school, like most Iowans, you have a reasonable expectation that the establishment clause, the separation of church and state, will keep specific religious ideas and doctrine out of the school. In this context, Iowa House File 884, the school chaplains bill, immediately rings alarm bells.
The bill is, thankfully, on the Senate’s unfinished business calendar at this writing. But House members approved it in March, and Republicans advanced it from the Senate Education Committee before the second “funnel” deadline. So it warrants some discussion.
A GOAL WITHOUT EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE
The summary is clear: “A bill for an act authorizing school districts, charter schools, and innovation zone schools to employ chaplains, or engage volunteer chaplains, to provide services to students.” The House bill is vague as to the why of this. Section 3 says, “The board of directors of a school district may employ a chaplain, or engage a chaplain to serve without compensation or remuneration, to provide support, services, and programs for students as assigned by the board of directors of the school district.”
The end of that section contains some clarifying language. As a result of amendment H-1129, schools are not allowed to employ chaplains “in lieu of a school counselor or a qualified guidance counselor licensed by the board of educational examiners.” Thankfully, the original bill text stated that the board cannot “require or coerce a student to utilize the support, services, or programs provided by a chaplain who is employed or engaged by the board of directors of the school district.”
House members rejected a Democratic amendment (H-1177), which would have prohibited schools from using a chaplain to replace “an individual who holds a school social worker endorsement.” The amendment failed by 63 votes to 32, mostly along party lines.
OK, so what’s the big deal? Students can’t be required or coerced into utilizing them, why does it matter? Even leaving aside all of the other pressures that induce students to conform in school, all of the pressures that push students to do things they don’t want to do, this is very clearly diverting public funds to hire chaplains for public schools. That’s unacceptable on its own.
The House version of the bill made clear that the school board can require chaplains to have certain qualifications or credentialing—but cannot require any kind of license or endorsement or certification from “the board of educational examiners.” That is, school districts are specifically prohibited from demanding credentials that reflect an educational background. Their purpose, then, is not educational. It’s to put chaplains–specifically chaplains–in public schools.
A Democratic amendment (H-1150), which was withdrawn, would have required chaplains to have a bachelor’s degree, pastoral ministry leadership experience, and a master’s degree or higher in theological or religious studies.
FROM BAD TO WORSE IN SENATE COMMITTEE
Republicans on the Senate Education Committee approved House File 884 on April 3. Democratic State Senator Sarah Trone Garriott–a Lutheran pastor–serves on the committee. During the discussion, she pointed out how damaging and unconstitutional the bill would be, even beyond its obvious problems. (You can find the video of that meeting here; discussion of this bill begins around 2:22:00.)
Republicans voted down Trone Garriott’s proposed amendment, which would have read, “A chaplain who is employed or engaged pursuant to this section shall not proselytize on school district property.” Then they approved GOP State Senator Mike Pike’s amendment to make chaplains mandatory reporters, and to require certification by “a national school chaplain professional credentialing organization.”
Only one group meets that criteria: the National School Chaplain Association (NSCA). As Trone Garriott explained during the committee meeting, that is an advocacy organization with a mission to push for chaplains in public schools. The group provides a fee-for-service program to credential evangelical Christians as chaplains.
So whatever intentions individual Iowa legislators may have, this bill is one of the many tentacles of the kraken of Christian nationalism in America.
“A CHAPLAIN ON EVERY SCHOOL CAMPUS”
“You can bring faith, hope, and transformation to America’s public schools–Click Here to learn more” the NCSA website says. There’s a free intro course to “Answer the call, Become a Certified School Chaplain.” And that’s all well and good, but who are they?
They provide the answer: “a Christian chaplain ministry that provides spiritual care, counseling, and practical community support to Pre-K through 12th grade students, teachers, and their families,” in an organization that was “Established to promote school chaplains as legitimate and necessary members of a school staff through national standards for school chaplains.”
You might reasonably ask, why you would need to promote school chaplains as legitimate and necessary school staff members? They have an answer for that too: For God & Country, to put “A chaplain on every school campus.”
This mission is spreading. The Iowa bill is not unique; versions have been introduced in many states, and legislators in Texas and Florida have enacted similar laws already. The NSCA responded to Politico’s article about the Florida bill that the “legislation expanding access to chaplains is not some sort of Christian nationalists takeover.” They claim they are trying to put chaplains into schools for their benefit, “just like chaplains benefit every other sector.” And they have support–the National Association of Christian Lawmakers had the NSCA lead development of a model law, almost assuredly the template of the Iowa bill.
It’s interesting, if not particularly inspiring, to see this group claim they are just trying to make schools like every other industry. Of course they don’t want to be seen as a Christian nationalist takeover. And yet, if you read their blog, they are so excited to have spoken at the Pro-Family Legislative Network, one of David Barton’s organizations, and that “by partnering with PFLN and like-minded advocates, we are paving the way for a future where every student has access to faith-driven support and guidance, thereby strengthening families and communities across the nation.”
At the 51st American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting, according the NSCA’s blog, “NSCA emphasized the importance of fostering a supportive environment for school chaplains to uphold traditional moral and ethical standards while offering guidance and spiritual care to students, staff, and parents,” and their representative, Jim Schmidt, met with friends, described as “ministers [who] pray for legislators and lead Bible studies inside their respective state capitols.”
This is a specifically Christian organization. According to another blog post,
The NSCA’s mission is to provide spiritual care in public education to all people, all the time, representing Christ and making a difference that can be felt in our society. What we’re working to accomplish has never been done in US public education, but it has been done in other industries. […]
We’re pioneers in this industry and are steadily making headway so that students, teachers, and communities can experience God’s love and find peace.
They were happy to be at TurningPoint USA’s “Americafest,” and NSCA’s founder, Rocky Malloy, spoke with Charlie Kirk at an OCPAC Foundation meeting–that being the “Original Constitutional Principles Affecting Culture” Foundation, which promotes “Restoring the Foundations of Western Civilization,” also based in Oklahoma.
Not surprisingly, OCPAC’s newsletter once contained a note from its president, Bob Linn, claiming “Only the Bible in the Classroom Will Save Our Republic.” Among other things, Linn’s message said:
Oklahoma’s path to prosperity is found only in a return to the Biblical foundations of freedom bequeathed by America’s founders. The work being done by Oklahoma statesmen to remove the pornography, the atheism, and the anti-Americanism from our classrooms would be applauded by every one of those founders who stood on the protection of Divine providence as they pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in their stand for Christian liberty.
One can appreciate the honesty, if not the full-throated championing of Ryan Walters and Christian nationalism. And how do we know about this? Because the NSCA included it in their blog.
NSCA is usually more coy, but their blog post on the Texas School Chaplain Act passing gets closer than most: “Celebration of the Texas School Chaplaincy Act putting God, faith, and prayer are back in public education.” That celebration included a power point slide of the “Culture War” they’re participating in: “Culture War” with a list under it, “Biblical Worldview; Spiritual Solutions; Culture of Life; Love of God; Truth” on one side, a green lightning bolt in the middle, and a blue-shaded man holding a finger to his lips. The idea that somehow the culture war is that society wants to stop all religion.
The school chaplaincy program is paired with Oral Roberts University; the NSCA’s theological statement follows that university’s homophobia. And that matters, because remember Pike’s amendment (S-3068), the one Senate Education Committee Republicans approved? The language it adds maps solely on to NSCA requirements. Those chaplains could only go through this one program–regardless of the Satanic Temple’s desire to participate if Iowa were to enact the chaplain bill.
LOBBYIST DECLARATIONS GIVE THE GAME AWAY
The NSCA is problematic enough. The original bill, even if you ignore the amendments and the fact that it’s a product of the NSCA’s legislative pushes, is problematic enough. But let’s return to the specifics of Iowa.
The legislative file includes more revealing information: lobbyist declarations. Most of them are against the school chaplain bill, including multiple statements from the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, one from the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church, another from the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa Action Fund. Many other organizations also oppose the bill, of course, but it is worth noting that not all church groups support it.
Only a handful of lobbyists are registered in favor of the bill: Brad Cranson for the Iowa Baptists for Biblical Values; John Strathman for VALOR Iowa; Jeff Pitts for Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition; and four different people for The Family Leader and the Family Leader Foundation.
That isn’t a particularly subtle listing. The Family Leader is a Christian nationalist organization–”Biblically Engaging Government to Transform America” from their front page is in your face about it. Already this month, the group yelled about “wokeism” and claimed President “Trump has the Constitutional authority to remind the judges they are the weakest, not the strongest, branch of government.”
Context is everything to a historian, and it’s important for teachers, and important for the laws. The school chaplain bill is bad enough on its own. Add in all of the moving parts around it, and it’s a Christian nationalist pitch to push not only a specific religion–Christianity–in public schools in Iowa, but a specific kind of Christianity, and a specific vision of how that Christianity should impact the world around it.
No matter what some organizations may claim, that does violate the Establishment Clause, that does violate not only the letter but the spirit of the First Amendment, and it does set yet another bad precedent in the dismantling of the guardrails that keep Christian nationalism from occupying every space in the public sphere.