Religion is too important to be left to politicians
Texas law authorizing chaplains (overwhelmingly Christian) in public schools is ill-conceived
The First Amendment prohibits any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” James Madison, architect of the Bill of Rights, elaborated in his Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, “No man’s right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance.” Madison added, “Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? that the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?”
\Thomas Jefferson spoke of the First Amendment as establishing a wall of separation between church and state. In a letter to Danbury Baptists, Jefferson amplified: “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
President George Washington wrote to a Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, “For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
Article VI of the Constitution prohibits any “religious test” as a condition of serving in any office of the United States.
The Texas legislature, nevertheless, has voted to authorize public schools with captive audiences to employ chaplains (overwhelmingly Christian). They would be permitted to proselytize and to approach students without parental consent. If there are clearer violations of the Establishment Clause prohibition, they do not readily come to mind.
Government money and property facilitated by compulsory education laws work in tandem to advance religion. That government promotion is contrary to Madison’s Remonstrance and Jefferson’s wall of separation. Julie Pickren, who was elected to the State Board of Education in November, gave the game away in sermonizing, “There are children who need chaplains. For the pastors in here, you already know: We have a whole generation of children who have never stepped foot one day inside a church.” Neither did Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, among other great educators or philosophers.
The Establishment Clause is necessary to prevent religious self-ruination. In countries featuring state supported religions, like the Church of England in the United Kingdom, Anglicanism is languishing rather than flourishing. In Germany where religion is state subsidized, only a minority of 7.9 percent of residents practice their own faith on a regular basis. In contrast, in the United States without any state religion, 28% of U.S. adults currently say they attended religious services in person in the last month.
All politicians harbor secular ulterior motives—power and money. Religion is corrupted as soon as it enters the political universe. Papal States corrupted Catholicism and gave birth to Martin Luther and the Reformation. The authors of the First Amendment knew their history and vowed not to repeat it.
The Texas chaplains law will be constitutionally DOA if Governor Greg Abbott signs it.