(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . A pedophile could have been a school counselor in Texas [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-05-27 Picture credits: Henry Gass/The Christian Science Monitor (left). Cleveland County OK detention center (right) “Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so” ― Robert A. Heinlein Yet another religious official in charge of minors has been arrested as a child molester. The now ex-Director of Children’s Ministries at The First Christian Church, Norman OK, 45-year-old Christopher Fourcade, was taken into custody on Thursday. The Norman PD has charged him with four complaints of lewd acts with a child under 12 and two complaints of possession of child pornography. This arrest is not a shock. Fourcade is yet more proof — not that we need any more — that religion and religious employment do not engender greater morality than any other group activities and professions. He will not be the last person swaddled in faith arrested for the sexual abuse of a child. Against this background, let us note that Oklahoma’s neighbor, Texas, has recently enacted a law that allows ‘chaplains’ to function as school counselors in the state’s public schools. This is not to say that religious people are more likely to be sex criminals than people in other professions. But it does raise the question of what sort of vetting these ersatz counselors will receive. From the text of the law, it seems very little. The law’s sponsor, Cole Hefner, explains, "I want to make sure that we’re making it clear — that everybody knows — that schools may choose to do this or not, and that they can put whatever rules and regulations in place that they see fit." Dear God, please spare Texan children from the caprice of local officials on a crusade. These poor innocents are now more at the mercy of potential zealots and morons. As Mark Twain observed, “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.” The legislature stifled any attempt to regulate this religious abomination. An effort by some Texas House members to add an amendment that would have required chaplains to have similar accreditation as chaplains who work in prisons or the U.S. military went down in defeat. Democratic-offered amendments to bar proselytizing or attempts to convert students from one religion to another, to require chaplains to receive consent from the parents of school children, and to make schools provide chaplains from any faith or denomination requested by students suffered the same fate. Conservative Christians claim this law and other faith-driven legislation , could help prevent school shootings, drug use, suicide, and other societal ills by returning God to classrooms. It is a ludicrous conceit. Where’s the proof? Look at Fourcade; the sex crimes of thousands of like-minded religious deviants; and the Catholic Church’s institutional, global child rape cover-up. A devil’s advocate might suggest that secular counselors are as likely to commit the same crimes as the religious, so what is the difference? The answer lies in oversight. The professional group to which school counselors belong, The American School Counselor Association , has no history or reputation for covering up the crimes of its members. It also binds its members to an ethics code . Meanwhile, chaplains have the same lack of ethical strictures as Supreme Court Justices. The most significant difference is the lack of professional standards the Texas law allows. School counselors in Texas are required by the state to pass a school counselor certification exam, to hold at least a 48-credit-hour master’s degree in counseling from an accredited institution of higher education, and to have two creditable years of teaching experience as a classroom teacher. Under the new law, a chaplain employed under this subsection does not have to be certified by the State Board for Educator Certification. It is a disgraceful disservice to Texan students. So egregious is this ham-handed attempt at evangelizing young victims that the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty spoke against the legislature’s wanton barbarism. Jennifer Hawks, the Committee’s associate general counsel, put it this way. “Religious instruction for Texas students is best left to houses of worship, religious institutions, and families. Allowing Texas schools to hire anyone under the label of ‘chaplain’ to perform the work of school counselors threatens religious liberty by substituting an undefined religious title for a licensed counselor. The goal of public schools is not religious indoctrination.” She adds “If more counselors are needed, then the Texas Legislature should give public schools the resources to hire more counselors.” The Texas authorities will ignore her remonstrance. These are not people interested in the welfare of children. They fear education will produce adults who think for themselves. They must rely on indoctrination to maintain their hold on power. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/27/2171721/-A-pedophile-could-have-been-a-school-counselor-in-Texas Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/