School Chaplaincy program violates separation of Church and State

The Queensland Council for Civil Liberties has today called on the Commonwealth Government to cancel its school chaplaincy program in the light of today’s report on the program by the Ombudsman which provides evidence supporting claims that it is being carried on in breach of the principle of the separation of the church from the state.

Strict adherence to the separation of Church from State is vital in the context of a pluralistic or multicultural society. In such a society it is important that the State does not alienate some of its citizens by favouring one religion over the other or those who have no religion by being seen to favour religion. Yet this is precisely what successive Commonwealth government have chosen to do by this program

The principle of the separation of the Church from the State has a number of aspects, two of which are violated by this program.

Firstly the government has decided to actively support the religious activities of religious institutions in two ways.

These funds from all the taxpayers of this country are paid overwhelming to Protestant Chaplains .

This offence to those who don’t believe in the Protestant religion or who do not believe any religion has been compounded by reports that in fact the Chaplains have been trying to make converts whilst being supported by taxpayer funds . The Ombudsman appears to have vindicated those complaints by finding that the Department has failed to provide adequate guidance as to what constitutes proselytising.

A secular State must not also use religious means to achieve the aims of government where there are adequate secular means of doing so. It is quite clear that there are more than sufficient secular services available to provide the type of counselling and guidance that it is intended that Chaplains should provide.

This program is currently the subject of a High Court challenge. The Council supports the rights of those citizens to challenge the program.

The program should at least be suspended until the outcome of the High Court challenge.