5 comments (Add your own)

1. Angelica wrote:

Ok, so this high court challenge thrneteas the entire program, and the challenge is on the basis of the religious test being unconstitutional. I can see why they have a good case, and also why you might feel compelled to defend the program if it's in danger of being scrapped entirely. Why defend it, though? It would free up that $220M to hire people to do a similar job but people with actual qualifications in mental health. That's a good thing, right? So what is this really about?There seems to be an underlying fear that the Christian influence is diminishing, and might easily be replaced by secular culture & ethics (see the recent controversy over the introduction of ethics classes into Australian schools). For this reason I think Christians are going to be extremely unwilling to let go of the influence they already have, even if the chaplaincy program is unconstitutional or if it's being abused for proselytising.One would think we should all be advocating a fair, representative, tolerant system which puts the wellbeing of students first. Yet we seem to be pushing for a chaplaincy program which is not even close to representative of the distribution of beliefs of students, and which currently excludes secular chaplains. We could be putting that money into much-needed mental health programs for students.One might argue that chaplains are a positive force in schools. So does that imply qualified counsellors are not? Since we have limited funding, we can't hire everybody, so we should be making an informed choice about whether qualified mental health workers are more effective than chaplains for helping students.You've repeated a few times, schools with chaplains have less problems . It's kind of a catchy slogan, but surely you see this is meaningless without a direct comparison to qualified counsellors. Clearly you are not trying to make a comparison, and probably don't want to, because in all likelihood qualified counsellors would perform *better* than chaplains at helping students with their problems. So, why this meaningless slogan instead of a real reason or a compelling argument? Perhaps the real reasons are more sinister, and less defensible.So why do Christians prefer chaplains over qualified counsellors? What's the unspoken reason this battle is being fought? I would say influence. Christian influence on the beliefs of schoolchildren. The high court challenge thrneteas to reduce Christianity's influence on our schools; cue defensive reactionary campaign.

Mon, April 30, 2012 @ 1:18 AM

2. Abzar wrote:

My family is in a legal batlte that has been 6 years in the making. This results from a social worker making an error in a report. A copy of this report was added to my daughters medical file. Doctors later quoted from the erroneous report in mental health assessments giving the incorrect statements an inflated status and legitimacy. These documents were then used to produce further documents which were ultimately presented in the family law court, the mental health review tribunal and Office of protective commissioner OPC. Our efforts in 2004 to correct this basic error of fact and worse, the false impressions it gives legitimacy to, were ignored and we were subjected to behaviour that led to us contacting HCCC.(That toothless waste of space). The court documents can only be changed by court order thus we appear to be heading for the high court. All because a social worker made a mistake. Having seen over 6 years some of the negative effects of mental health on our community in the form of homelessness, suicides and young healthy peoples lives wrecked, I fear the trend to early intervention programs based on mental health and aimed at young people. That this represents a potentially massive increase in profits for drug companies alone is cause for alarm. I am willing to provide documentation etc. of the above statements to a legitimate inquiry.

Mon, April 30, 2012 @ 9:35 PM

3. Khalid wrote:

Dear Tim,Your posting has come at such an opupntore time for me. I am dealing with a severe bout of impatience today. I have been rejoicing all week because on Christmas Eve, nearly all my family is planning to attend church with me a St. Andrews for Midnight Mass. That would be Mom, my sister Judi and her boyfriend Coco, my daughter Rita and my close friend Debra. Rita is bringing her friend J.J. and several people that she works with are intrigued and want to come along. So today, I hear that snow is predicted for this very night. If conditions are not favorable, then the Christmas Eve service will be moved to Christmas Day at 10:00 am, which is when my family celebrates the day. No presents are being exchanged, so all we have planned is breakfast which will occur when I have to be at church. I didn't plan to go Saturday, but if Christmas Eve is canceled then I'm obligated, meaning that for the first time in my life I will miss Christmas with my family. I realize this is trivial beyond words. There are such pressing concerns, life or death situations. I feel ashamed. Inwardly I am acting like a little child afraid of having my little treat taken away. However if it snows, this too is God's Will as well and I might as well release it to His capable hands. I am so proud of you and your growing patience and faithfulness to God's call. Knowing myself as I do, I would have thrown in the towel long ago. Good for you and may God bless your dedication with the winning of many souls to Christ and to ministering to men and women who may very well have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Mon, April 30, 2012 @ 9:44 PM

4. Mara wrote:

Robert Merkel wrote:You see, it started to rain just as I recahed the top of Vesper’s Hill, near Mount Baw Baw. Let me tell you, it’s the only time I’ve ever wished to be going uphill instead of downhill on a bicycleWe should probably ask the school chaplains to pray for more effective road bike brakes. As per Mercurius above, we can make it one of the KPI's (that's Key Performance Indicator for those not familiar with big corp. garbage).I'm like Mindy though my kids go to the public school scripture classes (although for some reason, they wouldn't allow us to rotate them through the anglo/RC/Evangelical ones). Apparently, you have to actually believe in the narrow sectarian version of whatever. What boils my beans is that the kids who don't go aren't allowed to learn anything else while the scripture classes are on. And they rejected by suggestion of running a humanist/agnostic scripture class. Apparently, there's no way of qualifying whether you are able to teach atheism, but showing up at a church is enough to run a scripture class.Not that it has anything to do with the chaplain stuff, but it's very irritating.

Tue, May 1, 2012 @ 1:40 AM

5. pzpxyf wrote:

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Wed, May 2, 2012 @ 1:11 PM

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