The Texas legislature has passed a bill allowing schools to hire chaplains in addition to school counselors.

Last week, the Texas House of Representatives passed an amended version of the bill after it was passed by the state Senate last month.

According to Religion News Service, school counselors are required to be certified by the State Board for Educator Certification, but chaplains are not.

During committee meetings last month, conservative groups, including Texas Values Action, the National School Chaplain Association, and Mission Generation, an arm of the NSCA, voiced their support for the bill.

"Chaplains operate within an individual's belief and convictions — they are not working to convert people to religion," Rocky Malloy, head of the NSCA, contended during his testimony.

Critics of the bill, however, warned that it would result in proselytization and diminish the separation of church and state.

"I worry that this bill will lead to Christian nationalists infiltrating our public schools and indoctrinating our students," Democratic Rep. James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, told Religion News Service in a phone interview.

Revisions made to the bill include restricting registered sex offenders from serving as chaplains, requiring background checks and for those serving in the role to have support from an organization recognized by the United States Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Prisons or the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Imelda Mejia, a spokesperson for Texas Freedom Network, which has opposed the bill, cautioned against the influence of the NSCA.

An archived version on Mission Generation's website, the parent organization of the NSCA, says it aims to "influence those in education until the saving grace of Jesus becomes well-known, and students develop a personal relationship with Him."

Another archived version of Mission Generation's website notes that the organization had "developed a viable approach of reaching the largest unreached people group inside of the public schools around the world Where many have declared it impossible to deliver the Good News, many attempts to do so have failed, and very few organizations are trying; Mission Generation, with God's help, has made record-breaking progress."

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