Oct. 11, 2023 | In its most recent legislative session, the Texas Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott passed Senate Bill 763, effectively permitting school districts’ boards of trustees to vote on the implementation of a chaplaincy program. Effective September 1, 2023, the law requires Texas’ +1,000 school districts to vote on this matter by March 1, 2024. If approved, a district “may employ or accept as a volunteer a chaplain to provide support, services, and programs for students,” according to the bill. This legislation amends Section 48.115(b) of the state’s Education Code, wherein funds allocated for school safety and security now include chaplain employment alongside licensed counselor and social worker employment.
Unlike counselors or social workers, school-employed chaplains will not be required to obtain any certification or training, such as the State Board for Educator Certification or the Licensed Professional Counseling credentials. Applicants must pass a background check and have endorsement from an organization recognized by the U.S. Defense Department, the FBI, or the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Registered sex offenders are barred from employment or volunteering as chaplains, but other qualifying factors and job functions lie to the discretion of individual school districts.
Proponents of the law argue chaplains can represent a variety of religions, though Christians have spearheaded the push for school chaplaincy programs. Legislative efforts to implement Christianity-specific policies in Texas schools are far from unfamiliar; SB 763 is the only of three religious education bills to pass this session, with the other two bills aimed to mandate classroom displays of Christianity’s Ten Commandments and allow prayer periods.
The law further blurs the line between ultra-conservative Christianity and so-called American secularism. It situates chaplaincy within the safety and security budget, stating its intention to address restorative discipline and justice practices, culturally relevant instruction, mental and behavioral health support, and suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. This description implies that chaplaincy should direct the public in how to behave, how to think, and how to feel. Further, some of the law’s strongest proponents believe chaplains can provide experiential assistance with the efficacy that non-religious actors cannot. Rocky Malloy, CEO of the National School Chaplain Association, testified in favor of this bill and spoke on school chaplains’ capacity to reduce suicide and school shootings. He agreed that chaplains cannot replace licensed counselors, but should work in tandem, stating that while a counselor can determine if a child is clinically depressed, chaplains possess the unique ability to pray for forgiveness, a necessary step in factor in fixing depression, “[which almost always] is related to guilt.”
SB 763 continues to cement ultra-conservative Christianity in opposition against the secular public school system, as efforts to characterize and ban content deemed immoral and inappropriate have consumed much of the politicized school district board positions. Republican Representative Cole Hefner, one of the bill’s authors, brought attention to these concerns in the ideological “other,” stating that “it’s preposterous that [Congressional] members … would defend the acts of certain inappropriate drag shows in our schools and inappropriate materials in our libraries and then have the audacity to say [chaplains in schools] are a problem.” The actors in effect reject and ascribe a negative, immoral, and dangerous value to any deviations from their ultra-Christian ideology. Much of the perceived danger in these cases roots itself in religious depictions of purity and sin.
Behind the mask of democratic religious freedom, ultra-conservative Christian lawmakers have enforced upon Americans a system of acculturation, where citizens of many religions, or no religion at all, face Christian ideology at many levels of the U.S. government. Efforts to amend the bill to prohibit proselyting and require parental consent prior to their child’s involvement were rejected upon the argument that chaplains already have the necessary training to avoid proselyting and can operate within every individual’s belief system. Notably, Mission Generation, the NSCA’s parent organization, archived statements from 2022 and prior years championing their desire to reach “the largest unreached people group inside of the public schools around the world … until the saving grace of Jesus becomes well-known, and students develop a personal relationship with Him.” Attempted amendments to require schools to provide a religious leader of a different faith if requested by a student have also failed.
A letter opposing SB 763 from 103 Texas chaplains serving or formerly serving in government institutions highlights significant concern amongst religious figures. Texas is the only state with a school chaplaincy program, but chaplaincy programs are present in hospitals, prisons, and the military. The letter argues that public school students do not face the barriers to religious access that individuals in these systems do, and an implementation of a school chaplaincy program would rob families of their spiritual freedom and contradict chaplains’ ethics and purpose:
“We would never provide spiritual care to someone without their consent. And when children are involved, parental consent is necessary. Not only are chaplains serving in public schools likely to bring about conflict with the religious beliefs of parents, but chaplains serving in public schools would also amount to spiritual malpractice by the chaplains.”
This critique underscores the distinction between ultra-conservative Christian ideology as an inaccurate depiction of one specific religious group, including Christianity, but rather a sect morphed together by Christian and conservative motives.
Voting divisions among the Texas Legislature reflect the different actors which draw this distinction, with specific emphasis on conservative ideology and Christian ideology. SB 763 passed in House and Senate almost entirely along party lines, with 84 House Republicans and 5 House Democrats in favor and 58 House Democrats opposed. In the Senate, the votes fell entirely along party lines with 18 Republicans in favor and 12 Democrats opposed. This revealing statistic poses an interesting question of the extent to which Christianity factors into this boundary as opposed to conservatism. Christian Democrats in Texas have spoken out against this bill, claiming evangelical Christianity imposing itself upon the nation misaligns with democracy.
At its core, SB 763 exemplifies a broader agenda of ultra-conservative Christianity to shape public institutions in its image. This agenda has alienated and attempted to overcome not only any other religious framework, but democracy as a whole. American democratic ideology claims to guarantee every individual’s right to practice or refrain from practicing any religion. In no means does this freedom this exclude government employees, whether they be teachers, school counselors, or legislators. However, without separation from their individual religious beliefs in their government capacity, they threaten democracy and freedom of religion for all.
By prioritizing ultra-conservative Christian values over democratic principles, SB 763 encapsulates this agenda and continues to undermine religious pluralism and secular governance.
Aug. 8, 2023 | Throughout Christian history, the Virgin Mary undoubtedly serves as the most influential model of womanhood. For many Christians, her narrative begins with a visit from an angel carrying God’s message that Mary is to birth Jesus, the son of God. While this narrative presents itself in the gospels of Luke and Matthew, a look into apocryphal New Testament texts offers a context to Mary that predates her role as the mother of Jesus Christ. Through these texts, Mary’s complexities are explored, and the bounds of her renowned purity can be analyzed. In particular, the Protoevangelium of James details a Marian history that begins with the immaculate conception of Mary to the birth of Jesus Christ. Through this account, Mary’s ritual purity and impurity, specifically concerning menstruation, dictate her relationship to the sacred.
The Protoevangelium of James stands among about 23 other gospels and numerous books within the New Testament Apocrypha, a collection of religious works excluded from the Jewish or Christian canon (Kelly 47). Likely authored by second-century Syrian Christians, the text emphasizes Mary’s perpetual virginity, aiming to reconcile perceived contradictions or narrative gaps in the gospels of Luke and Matthew. Despite its apocryphal status, biblical scholars widely regard it as “witness to ancient traditions,” serving as a template for Christian women’s spirituality and evidence of male writers’ “activity of creating a pattern of spirituality for women” (Rumsey 3). The account begins with Mary’s mother, Anna, and her struggle with infertility. After a visit with an angel, Anna miraculously conceives Mary. Mary’s extraordinary life continues into her infant development, as she walks seven steps at six months old and moves to the Temple of Jerusalem at three years old. This move served not only as an expression of gratitude from Anna and her husband, Joachim, but also as an acknowledgement of Mary’s purity in a world perceived to be plagued with impurity. In the temple, Mary interacts with only the high priests and an angel who feeds her. Once she turns twelve, however, the high priests ask God for direction in their concern of Mary “defiling” the temple. An angel of the Lord appears and says, “Go out and assemble the widowers of the people, and to whomsoever the Lord shall give a sign she shall be wife” (Protoevangelium of James 8:3). God chooses Joseph, a middle-aged contractor, as her husband, but Joseph instead assumes the role of a caretaker. While Joseph leaves Mary for some months to work, an angel informs Mary that she will conceive. Joseph and high priests doubt Mary’s credibility when she claims her virginity while simultaneously pregnant, but divine interventions convince them that Mary has in fact been impregnated from the Holy Spirit. Following these divine instances, Mary and Joseph travel towards Bethlehem for Augustus’ ordered census. Along the way, Mary gives birth to Jesus in a cave, where a bright light appears and Salome, a midwife, declares the birth of Israel’s king. This analysis will focus on the Protoevangelium of James from Mary’s immaculate conception to Mary’s departure from the Temple.
One key distinction in ancient religious texts is that between impurity and sin. As Jonathan Klawans notes, impurity and sin continually juxtapose one another in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, among other sources, and fueling ongoing debates among ancient and modern-day Christians, Jews, and scholars (Klawans v). Klawans further differentiates between ritual impurity and moral impurity in Judaism, the context in which Mary was raised. In further development of this discussion, Lily Vuong highlights Jacob Milgrom’s argument that ritual impurity can be simply defined as characteristics of human life — sex, birth, and death — that are not commonalities with the everlasting God. Milgrom argues that “the loss of vaginal blood and semen, both containing seed, meant the diminution of life and, if unchecked, destruction and death” (Vuong 110). In this definition, ritual impurity is “less about the good and bad elements of human life, but rather to the very differences between human and divine” (Vuong 127). While the debate over the distinction between impurity and sin contains a multitude of facets and interpretations amongst scholars and followers of Judaism and Christianity, much greater consensus is gathered around the categorization of menstruation and menstrual blood as a type of ritual impurity. The Hebrew Bible’s Book of Leviticus provides concrete affirmation of this categorization in instances including Lev 15:31:
“15:31: You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.”
This expectation, clearly outlined in the Hebrew Bible, labels menstruation not necessarily as sin, but at the least an embodiment of temporary and inescapable feminine impurity. This expectation is consistent with and expanded upon in the Damascus Document, which states that regular and irregular female discharges are impure, whether within or outside the designated seven-day menstrual period (Vuong 110). Even further is the Qumran Temple Scroll’s utopian depiction of the Temple as a sacred area, whose location and proximity are guarded from menstruant impurity (Vuong 113). While ancient Christians generally concerned themselves less with menstruant seclusion than their Jewish counterparts, Christian texts including The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, The Letter of Dionysius of Alexandria, and Didascalia Apostolorum communicate the enduring association between menstruation and impurity.
This established connection between menstruation and impurity can be applied to the Protoevangelium of James, particularly in the passage where the author references Mary’s potential defilement of the Temple at age twelve. While this connection requires an “interpretive leap,” most scholars, including Vuong, agree that the text alludes to Mary’s menstruation rather than her presence as an object of sexual temptation when detailing Mary’s exit from the temple. In particular, ancient law outlining menstrual purity supports this argument. Under these laws, female development splits into three stages: birth to three years old, three to twelve years old, and twelve and beyond. In correspondence with ancient Hebrew law, this intentional detail of Mary’s age strengthens this interpretive leap towards Mary’s potential menstruation (Vuong 122-124). A more obscure area of this discussion pertains to the question of whether Mary actually menstruates. From her conception, Mary is depicted a supernatural being. Parallel to the birth of Jesus, God plays an instrumental role in her creation, debatably as the father himself. Her supernatural qualities extend throughout her development as she presents qualities unique in comparison to humans, such as a walking seven steps at only six months old. Mary escapes impurity throughout her development, residing in the Temple, the only place pure enough to contain her. If her development clearly contains divine intervention, why would menstruation, a spiritually limiting process, occur within her otherwise supernatural body? The Protoevangelium of James ceases to imply menstruation beyond this passage, but many scholars conclude that Mary did, in fact, menstruate. If she were exempt from this process, wouldn’t the angel have assured Zacharias to dismiss worry of this potential pollution, instead of instructing him to “go out and assemble the widowers of the people, and to whomsoever the Lord shall give a sign she shall be a wife”? (Protoevangelium of James 8:3). Angels’ ever presence throughout the Protoevangelium of James, from Anna’s struggles with infertility to Joseph’s doubts of Mary’s faithfulness, set a pattern for supernatural guidance in any instance of human misinterpretation. Upon this precedent, there is grounds to believe that Mary did in fact menstruate.
This pivotal moment in Mary’s story, as Mary Foskett argues, marks a regression back to the “traditional biblical rhetoric concerning purity” from a perspective that previously “celebrated Mary’s female identity and presented gender as a significant and positive Marian character indicator” (Vuong 126). Vuong, however, counteracts this assertion by revisiting the argument of impurity versus sin and questioning whether menstrual impurity always insinuates a negative view of women. In this light, Mary’s departure from the Temple can be understood as a positive sign of readiness for motherhood. Symbolically, Mary’s menstruation could also serve as a reconnection with all women, as the Protoevangelium of James outlines Mary’s life as somewhat elitist and insulated, as the daughter of a rich man and the wife of a contractor, as opposed to the Lukean description of Joseph as a humble carpenter. Vuong argues that “even as the assertion of Mary’s extreme purity functions to set her apart as unique, this allusion to her menstruation may function as a way to allow her to reconnect with, and accessibility to, other women” (Vuong 5). When assessing this symbolic function of Mary’s menstruation, however, it is important to analyze both the authorship and audience of these texts, as Biblical texts infrequently tailored to connect with women and female literacy rates were low.
An analysis of the plot of the Protoevangelium of James and its intended audience point to a strong case for the text’s purpose to identify innate biological differences between men and women as a basis for female subordination. While debate persists over the implication of menstruation as an impurity versus a sin, the commonality between these two terms is their barrier to total godliness. The Protoevangelium of James operates as both a template for female ascetics and stipulations of positions of power in the church, two factors that perpetuate the patriarchal nature of Christianity. Mary’s seclusion in the Temple and preemptive exclusion due to her implied menstruation provide a framework for female asceticism, as Rumsey details:
“As the monastic movement gained in intensity, developing from its spontaneous and humble beginnings when women lived a secluded, celibate and virginal life in their own homes, concentrating on prayer, fasting and reading the scriptures, Mary gradually became the pattern for the monastic woman par excellence, especially in the aspect of her virginity which became the defining criterion of female holiness, and also her life of seclusion lived exclusively ‘enclosed’ within the temple” (Rumsey 199).
Effectively, the author of the Protoevangelium of James employs menstruation as a symbolic tool to distance women from power within the church and geographically distance women from these holy places with an ascetic pedestal that emphasizes ritual purity through seclusion. As Rumsey notes, “the natural pollution of the female body rendered women ineligible” to participate in the same ritual activities as their male counterparts (202).
The Protoevangelium of James offers greater context into the symbolic significance of Mary as the ideal model of Christian womanhood. By distinguishing between impurity and sin, examining the categorization of menstruation as impurity and the function of this categorization, and applying this framework to the context of Mary’s departure from the Temple in fear of her defilement of the sacred ground, the complexity of both Mary as a figure and menstruation as a female biological process can be explored. While the discussion of this paper remains within the bounds of ancient Middle Eastern society, the interpretations and proceeding debates over natural processes of womanhood in the context of Christianity continue today. When analyzing gender dynamics in the Christian Church and the institutions built upon these ideals, it is imperative that one considers the historical grounds upon which certain implicit associations were made. In Christianity, an examination of the Virgin Mary and her extraordinary life serves as a crucial starting point.
References
Ehrman, Bart D. “The Proto-Gospel of James.” After the New Testament, 100-300 C.E.: A Reader in Early Christianity, Oxford University Press, New York, 2015.
Kelly, Joseph F. “Creating the Christmas Story.” The Origins of Christmas, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN, 2014.
Klawans, Jonathan. Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2000. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/lib/utxa/detail.action?docID=271651.
Rumsey, Patricia M., and Thomas O’Loughlin. “Lest She Pollute the Sanctuary”: The Influence of the Protevangelium Iacobi on Women’s Status in Christianity. Brepols, 2020.
Vuong, Lily C. Gender and Purity in the Protevangelium of James. Mohr Siebeck, 2013.