"Religion, Secularism, and the National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program"

A working draft of my new article Religion, Secularism, and the National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program is now available for free download on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

"This article examines the structure and function of the Commonwealth of Australia's National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program (NSCSWP) in the context of an inquiry into whether the program should be considered religious, secular, or somewhere in between. The argument advanced is that changes to the program since its inception have rendered it incoherent in purpose and internally contradictory in design. Because of these flaws, the NSCSWP fails to effectively achieve legitimate policy goals. However, the Program can be redesigned to achieve its ends while simultaneously welcoming religious individuals and remaining faithful to a liberal vision of neutrality towards religion."