david f,

While I agree with your sentiments - that the imposition of Christian chaplains in schools goes against the religious tolerance enshrined in our constitution, I don't think you have really proven your argument that it is unconstitutional in its own right.

This bugged me for some time, so I consulted a couple of legal dictionaries (both in print and online), and no satisfactory definition of 'office' was forthcoming. 'Public office' was similarly evasive. I suspect I was looking in all the wrong places.

At any rate, I think ACCESS Ministries and other organisations, as well as state governments, work their way around this by contracting agencies to supply chaplains, rather than employing chaplains in their own right. The agencies may impose 'religious tests', but the governments do not (though they are, of course, selective in the agencies they contract). It is no longer the case that all people who work in schools are employees of the education department. I once worked in a school with a permanent, full-time police officer (an employee of the Police Service, not Ed QLD), a full-time youth health nurse (an employee of QLD Health) and a sort of social workery person who was also employed by an external agency but based at the school. We had a chaplain, too; I think he was employed by the P&C (again, not a government agency), along with the tuckshop convenor.

Lest anyone mistake this for support for chaplains in public schools, I assure you that I offer no such support. I also agree that (at risk of sounding like Darryl Kerrigan from 'The Castle') this process flies in the face of the 'vibe' of the constitution. If we support freedom of religion, as our constitution suggests, then the placement of chaplains representing a narrow range of denominations of a single faith in our schools must work against that.

Sorry. It's late. I'm not making much sense. If you've got this far through my post, good on you.

Lol Poopsicle! You're not a fan of Houellebecq then? :)

"...‘standing up for Christian values’ which I, like many of my former friends, felt were under attack in Australia. Precisely what values were in danger of being quashed by godless atheists is now lost to me but I do remember feeling that we Christians were part of a small, embattled subculture, significantly under-represented in the public arena"
Author- Jane Douglas.

Oh, well said Jane! How I wish I had spoken as well when trying to answer some of the posts written on this forum in the past :)

I would imagine that a former wife of a fundamentalist pastor, and a former Christian, would know what they are talking about on a subject such as this.
More power to you, and good luck.
Cheers,
Suze.

Poopsicle,Warthog, supernova,

Long time listeners first time callers?

It's nice to be appreciated. Even by the first time posters. Welcome to the forum, I only hope you all stay a while since you obviously have been following my work for some time.

' just like me claiming seriously that all chaplains are child-abusing, death-cult worshipping monsters would justify dismissing me.'

Yay. Parody finally appreciated. Someone with some comprehension skills, though lacking a funny bone. Anyway, good to see you understand my point.

I think though in general people seem more distressed at my depiction of religious people as mostly harmless than my depiction of counsellors using the same hyperbolic manner used to fear monger about SRE and chaplains.

Houellie,

From where I'm sitting, poopsicle sounds a tad Beelzebubblish - don't you think?

Pelican you write regaqrding my comments
'While I don't think for one minute you truly belief that secularism is about hiding an agenda for sexualisation of children, you betray a dishonesty not worthy of someone who constantly claims the moral high ground. What makes you think you are better than anyone else. That is self-righteous in the extreme.'

It is clear that sexualisation of children is the fruit of secularism. All you need to do is to walk/drive to Woolies and open your eyes. You also seem to constantly miss the point that I have no righteousness of my own. My only righteousness comes from Christ. I am no better than anyone else but that should not stop me from pointing out the obvious that you seem obvlious to. Houllie seems to see things much clearer than yourself. Does that make him self righteous?

'Houllie seems to see things much clearer than yourself. Does that make him self righteous?'

Well runner the good lord has blessed me with such abilities. I see things much clearer every day. So in that sense, it's not really about rights, it's about my obligation to use these god given talents. Perhaps with our patience and leadership, pelican will one day be able to extricate herself from the clouded fog she appears to be in. With gods will of course.

BTW I will be giving to the Salvos, and not just via the traditoinal method of purchasing company tax free Sanatarium products. That Barren Julia will have to wait in line.

r0bert,

Really? I had the Chaplins as Obi Wan looking characters, or to be racially cool, that guy from Karate Kid that made the kid paint his fense and wax his car. That's always been my experience.

poirot,

Well, I'm not going to waste energy with such speculation. It would interefere with my Zen.