Advocating for Chaplains in Schools: The Impact of Spiritual Care on Students featuring Kim Daniels

0:00 Hello, everyone. I'm Stephen Strang, and welcome to the Strang Report podcast. And today, we're going to talk about a very important topic, and that is chaplains in schools. It's something that's happening that I just found out about recently. I was at the National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville, and I met a lot of people, and one of them was Rocky Malloy, who is the founder and president of the National School Chaplain Association. I found out that there were 17 states in process to get chaplains in schools. Now, in most states, maybe all states, prisoners can have chaplains, but not schoolchildren. And with the school shootings and with all of the other things that are going on in schools, the fact that they took prayer out of schools, if ever we need chaplains, it's now. So I was fascinated with it. I invited him to be on my podcast, which he'll be in just a minute. And then later, I found out that my longtime friend, Kim Daniels, who is in the Florida legislature from a district in Jacksonville, not too far from us, and the Florida legislature is in session, it actually ends in a few days, that she just got a bill passed for chaplains in schools.

1:33 So I invited both of them to be on my podcast today, and we'll find out what's going on. Why don't I start with you, Rocky, to just tell us how your national school chaplain association started and what prompted you to try to get chaplains in schools all over the United States. Thank you, Steve. Actually, the chaplain's operation started many years ago overseas. We currently have over 30,000 schools with chaplains. That's a database of about 27 million people. And I started it because I saw a lot of bad things happening to children, trafficking, organ harvesting, and just other horrific things that victimize children.

2:29 And chaplains are a stopgap. They arrest behavior that brings children into that type of danger. So I was very interested in how to protect children, and that was a great way to do it. Well, I think what you're doing is very important, and you told me that so far is only passed in Texas. And then I guess when it passes in Florida, it'll be the second state, but you've got 16 or 17 other states in process. And I'm interested in finding out about it, and then I want to jump over and finding out what's happening in Florida, my home state.

3:14 And so tell me about the momentum. 17 is a pretty good start. Do you expect to pass them? What about the other states? I'm guessing you're making headway mostly in what we call red states, more conservative states. What's happening? Well, you know what? Maryland filed the bill. We got great momentum in Maryland. That's traditionally considered a blue state. California is talking to us. They're very interested in it. Newsom said if it came to them the right way, he would sign it. It's momentum sweeping the country. It's never been illegal for a school to have a chaplain. As a matter of fact, there's several thousand chaplains that work in school across the country right now. What happened was Texas looked at our data overseas where schools with chaplains have up to 80% reduction in teen pregnancies, 37% increase of high school graduations, and a dramatic reduction of suicides. So they took that information, turned it into a bill and passed it, but they did. Florida and Texas aren't making chaplaincy somehow legal. They're just recognizing the value of spiritual care for teachers and students.

4:33 But before the podcast is over and after we talked to representative Daniels, I want to find out how my viewers can help you by contacting their elected representatives or what we can do. We need some action, not just information from a podcast like this. So representative Daniels, I remember when you first ran for the city council in Jacksonville, I was there when you, in fact, I was involved with your campaign a little bit considering I live in another part of Florida. I remember going to your swearing in up in Jacksonville and then later you ran for the legislature in Tallahassee and you've been doing a great job there. Tell me about your involvement with this particular bill, why you started it, what the bill involves and so forth.

5:23 Well, first of all, the bill was started by representative McLean from Ocala, who was a Republican and a very good friend of mine. We came in in 2016 to the legislature and when I saw the, I thought this was just a simple bill. When I saw the opposition that he was getting specifically from my colleagues, the Democrats, you know, I feel, I felt like I had to get in on the team with representative McLean and get this bill passed. And it was passed and didn't it just pass in February, the last few days of February, and you made a speech on the floor of the Florida legislature. Tell me about that too.

6:10 Well, you know what, it seems like folk like that speech, but I am a member of the Democratic Party, so it may seem strange for me to stand, you know, and I was saying, I cast out devils, I speak in tongues, you know, and I, and I just said, I'm a holy roller. And I have been around so many people, I am the opponent of this bill's worst nightmare. I cast out devils. I pray in tongues. I'm a holy roller. You know, I just had to take a radical position because people are radically against things like this. And you know, I did the bill as a freshman eight years ago to put prayer back in school in Florida. So folk are scared. I don't know why. And I always ask the question mostly why would people who don't believe in God, a lot of them, not all of them, don't believe in a God, don't want to believe in God and they're fighting something they don't believe in. Why are we even doing this? So, you know, I get a lot of flak from that, but it's okay. You know, I'm used to that, Steve. And I feel like God put me here for such a time as this. And we need those chaplains in our schools.

7:32 Well, I know for sure that you have been doing this a long time. You are a minister in your own right up in Jacksonville. When I first met you and your family, you were known as the demon busters if I remember the term correctly. And we have done several books, including the demon dictionary and some other things. And so we had been friends a number of years before you ever ran for, first of all, for the city council in Jacksonville and then later the legislature. And yes, it is a little different to have a Holy Ghost demon busting Democrat.

8:18 Well it's unusual for any legislature, but you're in a very unique position. And tell me what reaction you got to the speech you made on the floor to house floor. Well, you know, I got a standing ovation, of course, from the Republicans. And I am not the only Holy Ghost feel Democrat on that floor. And I think we had like five people that voted with us, which was really a lot. It's a bill that I don't think folks should have to struggle about coming across lines, but some did. And the thing about it is I respect those who didn't vote for it, but we just had to get it passed. And I can't stop and be distracted by people who I think mostly don't understand that our schools are war zone. I mentioned that and I talked about my experience in the military as a desert storm veteran. You know, when I was a chaplain, you know, and it just fell into place. And I think this is an awesome thing that God is doing.

9:25 So it's passed the house and the Senate and Governor Ron DeSantis has agreed that he's going to sign it and it will come into effect or go into effect on July 1st, 2024. And you told me before we came on camera that there's no funding for this. So this is a volunteer chaplain. Tell us about that. Let me put a disclaimer out there. I cannot say that Governor DeSantis has agreed. I have not spoken to him. I just we believe that there should be no reason for him not to support it. I believe he will. This program, I guess it's kind of like a pilot program somewhat, but there is no funding to the to the bill is simply volunteer chaplains. And I and I think that I don't I don't believe that the opposition to this bill will any kind of chaplains, whether they're funded or unfunded. But this is an unfunded mandate. There's no need for money. They are volunteers.

10:33 Well what can people here in Florida do? Should we write Governor DeSantis or just wait and see what happens? What about, you know, there are a lot of school boards here in Florida that the school boards are on a county level. We have 67 counties. And how about people volunteering? Some cities, they're going to want to be sure to have chaplains. I'm guessing that you won't have chaplains in every single school the first year. What what do you recommend that people do? Well, you know, unfortunately, we have a loud minority and a silent majority. Most of the people in my district and my community, I know that they will want chaplains. I haven't talked to anyone on the ground level. School police officers, teachers, members of my community that don't want won't chaplains. But in the administrative areas in the upper echelons, people are more political. You know, they could put some influence on these districts to say, don't you have chaplains? So we need to be sending the message to the districts to put these chaplains in the schools because the counselors are overworked, you know, and I'm not saying that chaplains would replace counselors because that was the that was the debate. But I am saying they are a resource and we need as many resources as we can get.

12:06 And please reach out to our school districts to your superintendents and let them know because if we're silent, people will think that we don't care. And when we speak and reach out, it shows that this is important to a whole lot of people. Well, Rocky, let me ask you, you rattled off these very impressive statistics and a lot of schools, a lot of chaplains in other parts of the world. How did this happen? You know, there's got to be a cause and effect that there's chaplains, they're able to counsel to help be fewer unwanted pregnancies, less suicide, kind of talk me through how that works and even relate to Texas where they were so impressed with those statistics. And I guess what I'm wondering is here in the state of Florida, can we expect the same kind of statistics?

13:02 You know, Steve, it's really impressive because there's a person, a man or woman that represents God. That's why it's legal. A lot of people misunderstand that chaplains are not church representatives or God representatives and it brings spiritual care. And about five years ago, they started a called Strategic Readiness Initiative in the US Army, where they dramatically increased spiritual care because they determined based on clinical empirical evidence that a person, a soldier was unprepared for combat if they were, did not have a personal relationship with God. It changed the culture of the US Army. It was quickly adapted by the Marine Corps and the US Navy. If you've seen the news lately, there's a dramatic increase of chaplains going into the military and it's made the Marines, the sailors, the soldiers better equipped. And according to their data, empirical clinical evidence of brain scans and other types of tests, a person with a personal relationship has a higher cognitive function and much less likely to be depressed, to hurt themselves or other people. And they went as far as to say that spiritual care as provided by chaplains actually prevents

14:41 mental illness such that without having that, it creates mental illness. So beautiful, healthy young men and women and teachers go to school and they come home with mental illness if spiritual care is not provided. That's how important this is. And that's why Representative Daniel Oscar category performance on the floor one the day because she just went her passion for really people. She was able to convince her colleagues how important it is.

15:22 Well, she's a fiery preacher. That's for sure. I've heard her preach many times. I've been to her church many times over the years. And why would you like to add to that Representative Daniels? Well, you know, it's so important that the church, the people in the kingdom of God, get involved like Mr. Rocky Malloy. You know, we stay out of the political arena. We just want to stay in the four walls of the church. But as you can look in America and in our communities, we need to come out of the four walls of the church. And you know, Steve, it was very comfortable for me, you know, traveling around the world, five star, you know, first class folk rolling out the red carpet. But you know, I got through me out of a helicopter and I landed in a parachute shoot right on the House of Representatives and it's a war zone. And so we need more representation and we need people who are not afraid to share their faith because people are becoming so bold on what they believe on what they believe.

16:30 We need bold people. And I'm not trying to be funny. But I am a stranger in this land because I'm a black female Democrat standing for the things that I stand for. And I don't have no problem with it. Well, you've stood for those things as long as I've known you and we're just so glad to have you in the Florida legislature and some other good people too. We have some mutual friends of course up there in Tallahassee and I'm just so proud of what you're doing. And I think this is very important. We're going to be reporting this on charisma news. The fact that it's passed and waiting the governor's signature and Rocky Malloy, we want to find out as you get this passed in other states. You know, you rattled off a couple of them. You said it's only actually been passed into law in Texas. Why do you expect this to happen in the next few months? And can you keep us informed so we can get it out there on charisma news, out in the internet, hopefully other media will also pick it up.

17:39 Well, Steve, what you're one of the leading voices for this movement and Christians in general. And yes, we would love to keep you updated. What I expect to happen is several of these states are going to pass this legislation. As you know, it's there's a thousand ways for a bill to die and only one way for it to become law. But it's opened other states to the reality that they can hire chaplains or allow them to come into schools as volunteers. So for instance, Tennessee, Arkansas and New Jersey have already moved forward with chaplains programs without legislation. And then some states like Indiana that already have chaplains in school are amplifying it and legislation is backing it up. And so representatives Daniels, her time on the floor now has gone viral with other men and women of God that serve in legislators. And she's really emboldened them to speak up just like she said, because they've bowed down to political pressure, not to speak up. And so her really fantastic performance on the floor has really made a lot of people take notice that yes, God need God and prayer need to return to public education.

19:01 Well, thank you to you both for being so articulate on this very important thing. I want to encourage my viewers and listeners to share this with others that you think need to hear it. And also, I should say that if you don't subscribe to the Strang Report, I encourage you to do so and hit the little bell so that you'll be notified when we're on live every Tuesday and Thursday at 4 p.m. Eastern time. And this is a story that we're going to continue to follow. As I said, we'll report it on the internet. I have a personal vested interest in this since I live in the state of Florida and since I've been friends with Kim Daniels for so long. And we'll continue to follow this. So as we wrap this up, I'll give you each the last word to tell people how they could reach you. Rocky, we want people to find out about your ministry. I picked up this very nice sheet with a lot of information.

20:06 I know your website has a lot of information and Representative Daniels, if people wanted to find out more about you and your ministry, if you would give us a website so people could follow up. Well, my website is kimbraleedaniels.com and my direct line is area code 904-237-9363. But I am on Facebook every morning at 6 a.m. I did a Facebook post yesterday and we had 20,000 people that came on. So my Facebook is Kimberly Maria Daniels and we were raising up intercessors. And I want to say this, while we were on the floor, we had intercessors placed in the capital. We went on a four day fast. We had intercessors in the top of the floor where everyone's up in the bubble. We had intercession going round the clock, literally domino prayers. When I was on that floor, there were prayers backing me up and holding my arms up because we still have that force of intercessors and we cannot go into battle unequipped. We need the intercession. We need the prayer warriors and we need the agreement of God so that the people of God can come together and bring forth this kingdom movement.

21:35 Amen. And so well said. And Rocky Maloy, how can people reach you? Steve, I would love for people to go to campuschamplance.org. That's campuschamplance.org to find out how they can become a certified school chaplain. We have four levels of chaplaincy. We have senior chaplains, deputy chaplains and chaplains, depending on their education level and experience. And in the case of Florida, we deputize people to raise funds for themselves to be employed.

22:15 So it works a little different in different states, but we are there to help fill those much needed positions in schools to provide spiritual care to teachers and students. Well, thank you to both of you for being on the STRANG Report. This is a very important issue. I'm personally very encouraged by what we heard today. And thank you to my viewers and listeners for tuning into the STRANG Report today. God bless you. Do you ever feel discouraged? Do you need hope? The world is so upside down that even if you believe there is power in the Holy Spirit, sometimes you need to be reminded that greater is He that is within us than He is in the world. My new book, Spirit-led Living in an upside down world, was written to give you hope, to remind you of things you know, to explain spiritual truths that you didn't understand or maybe have forgotten. I draw on my decades of covering the worldwide move of the Holy Spirit to give you examples and stories of great men and women of God from Jack Hayford to Catherine Coleman and many others explaining spiritual gifts and telling stories of victory in the face of trials and temptations. I wrote this book for you and I want you to read it. It's easy to read with lots of practical stories

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