Op-ed: Iowa School Chaplain Bill is a Christian Nationalist Knock Off

The School Chaplain bill is currently rushing through the Iowa legislature – it’s now heading to the Iowa Senate floor as H.F. 884, having passed the House and gone through the Senate Education committee. Despite the fact it seems to clearly violate most interpretations of the establishment clause – letting public school districts hire chaplains “to provide support, services, and programs for students as assigned by the board of directors of the school district” — it has cleared every hurdle so far. 

There is currently one more amendment listed as under discussion (S-3068). We should pay more attention to the amendment process than we do – the attempt to amend it so chaplains cannot proselytize to students, for example, failed – but this one in particular tells a story we should listen to. Bills like the School Chaplain Bill do not come out of nowhere. The amendment would require school chaplains to be credentialed: “if the chaplain holds a certification from a nationally recognized school chaplain professional credentialing organization that satisfies the following requirements:,” and then gives a list of what it must do. Only one organization does school chaplain professional credentialing, because, by and large, it isn’t a thing; and the list is tailored to what that organization does: The National School Chaplain Association. They are overt in their identity: “NSCA is a Christian chaplain ministry that provides spiritual care, counseling, and practical community support to Pre-K through 12th grade students, teachers, and their families,” if not in the richness of the details of what it means – however much they put on an air of bipartisanship on the main page, their blog is full of attendances at David Barton’s PFLN, ALEC, TurningPoint conferences, and the like. The most aggressive of them is from OCPAC (“Original Constitutional Principles Affecting Culture”) Foundation’s president Bob Linn, where he writes: 

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.

Most people in Iowa don’t know what Ryan Walters has been up to in Oklahoma, and we should want to keep it that way. But these are the underpinnings of the bill – and the NSCA link is not just Iowa legislators deciding they like the organization. The NSCA was asked to consult on drafting model legislation by another acronym, the National Association of Christian Legislators, NACL. They, like the NSCA, are very clear in their interests:

THE MISSION OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN LAWMAKERS IS TO BRING FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL LAWMAKERS TOGETHER IN SUPPORT OF CLEAR BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES BY MEETING REGULARLY TO DISCUSS MAJOR ISSUES, PROPOSE MODEL STATUTES, ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS TO ADDRESS MAJOR POLICY CONCERNS FROM A BIBLICAL WORLD VIEW.

What does that mean in practice? Again, pretty open:

The NACL is committed to abolishing abortion in our nation, restoring marriage between one man and one woman, standing up for religious liberty in every venue, promoting universal school choice and championing the right to introduce our young people to the importance of God in their lives – we are doing everything we can to restore the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation.

They have a long set of lists of model legislation, one of which is the model for school chaplain bills. The Iowa bill is clearly modeled on it, and so are the many, many others proposed: Maine, Montana, one was proposed and defeated in South Dakota, and then the one here in Iowa. 

This isn’t something Iowa needs; this is something an outside organization wants, for the benefit of their own monetary gain and Christian nationalist political goals. Iowa is simply being more honest than some states, in proposing amendments so transparently in favor of the NSCA that we can discuss them.

The NSCA is the rebranding of Mission Generation, Rocky Malloy’s company that wanted to proselytize in schools across the globe. The defeat of the amendment to ban that seems clear in that light. Malloy’s colorful background – he says in his own biography that when he was younger he tried to overthrow both the Mexican and Bolivian governments – very quickly leads to a desire to push his own vision of Christianity into schools nationwide. And specifically Christianity – there is no vision for chaplains that do not follow his brand of it, which has a clear statement of faith and links to Oral Roberts University – and in a manner that is overtly Christian nationalist. This is not a generic bill, from generic sponsors, with a widespread intention; pretending context doesn’t matter is a mistake.

This is not about being against chaplains. This is not about being anti-religious. I teach at a Lutheran school, and our pastor opens up our faculty meetings with prayer. Sarah Trone Garriott, who has been speaking out against the bill, is an ordained ELCA minister. The Episcopal Diocese and the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church both signed briefs against it. Iowa schools do, in fact, need more personnel – educators, staff members, people who support the fundamental objectives of public education. They do not need chaplains certified by a Christian nationalist outfit as part of a Christian nationalist organization’s push to violate the Establishment Clause.