tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1052331249465415794.post1526738304099104274..comments2023-11-28T00:11:38.855+11:00Comments on The Network: THE BALANCE OF POWER - EASILY SAID, BUT IT NEEDS CONSIDERATIONBrigidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07862531789968068093noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1052331249465415794.post-16689258338853516742010-08-21T14:14:45.856+10:002010-08-21T14:14:45.856+10:00Ross: the chaplain policy has been Christian orien...Ross: the chaplain policy has been Christian oriented since the word go - in spite of protests from social workers who consider themselves to be just as well qualified if not more so. I am concerned at govt funding of religious personnel. I am not a secularist but I believe in a secular and neutral public space in our civil society and the chaplaincy stuff in public/state schools, in my view, breaches this. However, there are other things afoot which also do this. I posted a few days ago on this and here is what I said. You might like to ask - where does this religious support stop?<br /><br />Taxpayer funding of school chaplains. <br />I have watched over the years (because I am a practising Christian) evangelical and pentecostal groups and churches burrow their way into the public school system. In one parish where I used to worship, we had a co-operative system across the denominations of funding such chaplains. I have no complaint - within certain restrictions - about this since voluntary access to Religious Instruction has become part of the public school landscape. However, secular schools have become battlegrounds for the hearts, minds, and spirits of our children. Public schools are no longer a guarantee of a secular space. We have Steiner Schools set up right alongside and in the same grounds as public schools facilities; we have atheists drawing up an RI curriculum - well, not RI, it is philosophy-based ethics - and getting permission to go into the RI timeslot and teach it. Thought bubble! Would Marxists be as welcome if they sought entree? After all, Marx qualifies as a philosopher in University philosophy schools. Back to the chaplains, the churches and 'para' church groups such as Scripture Union burrowed away and represented their case to John Howard so well that he decided to fund them. Now, I am not sure how things work in schools with significant Muslim populations. Do they get their own imam or not? Can someone help me out here? And social workers put up their hands to point out their skills within an educational framework. Did any of them get funded under Howard's scheme? And then there is the take-over of Catholic schools by the Victorian Government which would still be separate Catholic Schools. Do we really want our public school sector to become a sectarian battleground? Do we want our taxes syphoned away from the public school sector to fund individual choices and aspirations which find public schools too, too much or too, too smelly or whatever?Brigidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07862531789968068093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1052331249465415794.post-499110555941965322010-08-21T13:24:00.655+10:002010-08-21T13:24:00.655+10:00If you had secular chaplains, would you have to fi...If you had secular chaplains, would you have to find another name for them? Is a secular chaplain a contradiction in terms?Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08827731848618933239noreply@blogger.com