Around the states

Oklahoma School Chaplaincy Program Sparks AU Protest

An Oklahoma's public school district's policy of allowing ministers to serve as "school chaplains" has generated a complaint from Americans United.

Earlier this year, Jim Haynes, superintendent of schools in Commerce, Okla., endorsed a proposal from Baptist pastor Billy Bissell to institute a chaplaincy program in the district's public schools to be known as the Commerce Area Ministerial Alliance Chaplaincy Program.

The Commerce school board voted to approve the project in October and issued a resolution that "encouraged" individual school administrators to "make use of the services offered" by the pastors.

According to a report in Oklahoma's Baptist Messenger, the program will involve pastors from six Commerce-area churches spending time in public schools, offering counseling to students and teachers during the school day.

Ayesha Khan, legal director of Americans United, wrote to school district officials in March, insisting that the program is "constitutionally improper."

"Courts have approved public chaplaincy programs only in extremely limited contexts, such as in prisons and on military bases," Khan wrote. "The use of chaplains in these situations has been upheld because individuals would otherwise be unable to practice their religions because of the restrictions on their movement in these environments. This is not true of students or of teachers, who are easily able to access clergy members and religious facilities in their communities."

Private School Vouchers Get Little Support In New Poll

A new poll reflects widespread disapproval for private school vouchers across ethnic and racial lines.

The survey, conducted by the Teachers' Insurance Plan and released to the public March 14, shows that nearly two-thirds of respondents said they do not want a national school voucher program that would fund private school tuition with tax dollars.

The report broke down support for the controversial scheme among several demographic groups, and each segment of the population rejected vouchers by wide margins.

Overall, only 39 percent of African Americans approved of the creation of a national voucher plan. Support was even lower among white and Hispanic Americans, where support was measured at 34 percent.

Over 60 percent of African Americans indicated they would prefer more funding for public schools instead of vouchers. Similar results were found among whites and Hispanics.

When asked their top priority for improving the nation's schools, a mere six percent of white and Hispanic Americans listed vouchers. Only one percent of African Americans ranked vouchers as their top choice.

Massachusetts Attorney General Wants To Help Pick Priests

Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly has asked Boston's Roman Catholic Archdiocese for unprecedented influence over the way the church selects priests.

The beleaguered Boston Archdiocese, led by Cardinal Bernard F. Law, has been embroiled in a devastating scandal involving accusations of sexual abuse by as many as 90 priests over the last half-century. Considering what he called the "shocking and appalling" extent of the abuse and the subsequent cover-up by church officials, Reilly has said he believes the state should have a role in how the church chooses its clergy and how those religious leaders interact with children.

According to a report in the Boston Globe, Reilly foresees his office regulating the "recruitment, selection, training, and monitoring of priests."

Many local legal experts believe a state role in regulating the internal affairs of a religious group - such as the hiring and training of clergy - violates the First Amendment's separation of church and state.

"[Reilly] sees a problem the public is interested in and he's going at it with both feet," John H. Garvey, the dean of Boston College Law School, told the Globe. "You've got to admire him for that. Maybe for an attorney general, not knowing when to stop is a good quality. But I think he has to stop somewhere short of this."

Reilly acknowledged that he was pushing the envelope by involving the attorney general's office in church employment decisions, but doesn't see a constitutional problem.

"We have the authority," Reilly told the Globe. When pressed by newspaper editors to explain his legal authority in this area, he declined to elaborate.

Colorado Legislative Prayer Causes Controversy

The Colorado State Senate's tradition of inviting guest chaplains to deliver morning invocations turned divisive in March, when a Pentecostal minister used his time at the dais to pray for a ban on abortions.

The Rev. David Meek, pastor of the Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church in Greeley, Colo., offered prayers to "Lord Jesus" that the state "reverse the Roe v. Wade so we can stop the killing and murder of the innocent little babies." Meek also expressed surprise during his sermon at the number of women who had been elected to the legislature.

Meek's remarks prompted a bi-partisan group of six senators to leave the chamber in protest.