If you are one of my friends who sends me save our chaplains or scripture classes you may be disappointed by this post so maybe just stop reading now. Also, this was supposed to be a short pithy post but it's not, Sorry.
When I went to high school we didn't have a chaplain and we hardly ever had scripture classes. Twenty years ago, as far as I knew It was only private Xn schools who had chaplains. Public high schools were supposed to dedicate one period a week to scripture classes. The school I attended finished one period early every Friday because a previous principal had just got rid of scripture altogether. By the time i was attended the school scripture happened once every six weeks or so much to the annoyance of the teacher who's class scripture cut into. Most people did not turn up to scripture and I always sighed a small sigh of relief every time my non Xn friends wagged scripture because at a time when being cool was really important nothing made Xy seem more uncool than scripture.
Without scripture and a chaplain Xy thrived at our school. At one point 10% of the school attended the weekly lunchtime meeting for ISCF (Inter School Christian Fellowship) a student led Christian meeting that was overseen by just one teacher. As great as Mr Bradley was the real key to the large number of Xns at my school was, I think, the strength of the local churches. My church for example had a weekly high school youth group with 24 volunteer leaders (split over 2 groups) who would faithfully turn up every week. This was not a mega church but a medium sized parish church. With that kind of role modeling by the time it was my turn as 16 year old to be one of the ISCF leaders it didn't seem daunting at all.
If you had asked me if I wanted scripture to be taught every week I would have said “no”, asked me if i wanted a chaplain at the school I would have said “no” too.
For me the beauty of the Friday lunchtime ISCF meeting was that it was "opt in", purely the students own choice. Scripture on the other hand was "opt out" (if you could convince your parent to write a note) otherwise it was compulsory.
Fast forward 20 years to now and the same well-meaning daggy scripture teachers are doing their best to jump the generation gap (for those 23 and over) or the credibility gap (for those 23 and under) and I'm still unsure if it's the best thing people could be doing, especially without a really well people resourced youth ministry at the local church.
Perhaps another fact of the current debate that I struggle with is that pro scripture / chaplaincy people often talk as if either program is a constituted right and not an absolute privilege. Anyone who knows me knows that I've done quite a lot of Xn stuff in schools but I have always done those things with an absolute sense of privilege to be invited onto school grounds.
Chaplains, is another fascinating and different issue. As soon as the policy was introduced I was sure it wouldn't last longer than one election cycle. I was wrong. The Dictionary definition of a chaplain: A member of the clergy who conducts religious services for an institution, such as a prison or hospital. The Government definition of a school chaplain: is a basically a youth worker who will not engage in religious activities. General public definition of a chaplain: Well that'll depend on who you speak to... It'll be some combination of the above.
Personally I'm off the opinion that mixing Xy and government is like mixing ice-cream with dog poo. The dog poo (government) stays pretty much the same but the ice-cream (Xy) gets ruined.
At the moment we have someone chosen to do a job on religious grounds (although recent legislation has been passed to change this) and then instructed to do nothing religious. The political idea is that church wins because it gets to feel like it's doing something by having a "Xn presence" in every high school and the government hopes that non-Xn voters don’t mind as the chaplains are not allowed to do anything religious.
If were to rename chaplains "under paid Christians happy to help out an under resourced over stretched education system" I'd have no problem with that. The problem is that we are calling these workers chaplains and misrepresenting what they are actually doing.
The point of the chaplaincy program is to buy votes and the Xn community is buying up big because we can see how disconnected young people are from Xy and from church. We think that sticking chaplains in schools or keeping scripture compulsory will get kids back in church. Of far more value would be 24 adults willing to commit to meeting weekly with a group of high school aged young people once a week every week of the school term. This is highly unlikely as we (voting Xn adults) are so committed to other things. This is what I think really needs to change.
When I went to high school we didn't have a chaplain and we hardly ever had scripture classes. Twenty years ago, as far as I knew It was only private Xn schools who had chaplains. Public high schools were supposed to dedicate one period a week to scripture classes. The school I attended finished one period early every Friday because a previous principal had just got rid of scripture altogether. By the time i was attended the school scripture happened once every six weeks or so much to the annoyance of the teacher who's class scripture cut into. Most people did not turn up to scripture and I always sighed a small sigh of relief every time my non Xn friends wagged scripture because at a time when being cool was really important nothing made Xy seem more uncool than scripture.
Without scripture and a chaplain Xy thrived at our school. At one point 10% of the school attended the weekly lunchtime meeting for ISCF (Inter School Christian Fellowship) a student led Christian meeting that was overseen by just one teacher. As great as Mr Bradley was the real key to the large number of Xns at my school was, I think, the strength of the local churches. My church for example had a weekly high school youth group with 24 volunteer leaders (split over 2 groups) who would faithfully turn up every week. This was not a mega church but a medium sized parish church. With that kind of role modeling by the time it was my turn as 16 year old to be one of the ISCF leaders it didn't seem daunting at all.
If you had asked me if I wanted scripture to be taught every week I would have said “no”, asked me if i wanted a chaplain at the school I would have said “no” too.
For me the beauty of the Friday lunchtime ISCF meeting was that it was "opt in", purely the students own choice. Scripture on the other hand was "opt out" (if you could convince your parent to write a note) otherwise it was compulsory.
Fast forward 20 years to now and the same well-meaning daggy scripture teachers are doing their best to jump the generation gap (for those 23 and over) or the credibility gap (for those 23 and under) and I'm still unsure if it's the best thing people could be doing, especially without a really well people resourced youth ministry at the local church.
Perhaps another fact of the current debate that I struggle with is that pro scripture / chaplaincy people often talk as if either program is a constituted right and not an absolute privilege. Anyone who knows me knows that I've done quite a lot of Xn stuff in schools but I have always done those things with an absolute sense of privilege to be invited onto school grounds.
Chaplains, is another fascinating and different issue. As soon as the policy was introduced I was sure it wouldn't last longer than one election cycle. I was wrong. The Dictionary definition of a chaplain: A member of the clergy who conducts religious services for an institution, such as a prison or hospital. The Government definition of a school chaplain: is a basically a youth worker who will not engage in religious activities. General public definition of a chaplain: Well that'll depend on who you speak to... It'll be some combination of the above.
Personally I'm off the opinion that mixing Xy and government is like mixing ice-cream with dog poo. The dog poo (government) stays pretty much the same but the ice-cream (Xy) gets ruined.
At the moment we have someone chosen to do a job on religious grounds (although recent legislation has been passed to change this) and then instructed to do nothing religious. The political idea is that church wins because it gets to feel like it's doing something by having a "Xn presence" in every high school and the government hopes that non-Xn voters don’t mind as the chaplains are not allowed to do anything religious.
If were to rename chaplains "under paid Christians happy to help out an under resourced over stretched education system" I'd have no problem with that. The problem is that we are calling these workers chaplains and misrepresenting what they are actually doing.
The point of the chaplaincy program is to buy votes and the Xn community is buying up big because we can see how disconnected young people are from Xy and from church. We think that sticking chaplains in schools or keeping scripture compulsory will get kids back in church. Of far more value would be 24 adults willing to commit to meeting weekly with a group of high school aged young people once a week every week of the school term. This is highly unlikely as we (voting Xn adults) are so committed to other things. This is what I think really needs to change.
No comments:
Post a Comment