Friendly Atheist

@Will – that’s rather strong.

I haven’t served in the military, but one of my family’s closest friends was a chaplain in the Navy. He was like a grandpa to me, and he was an incredible man. Sure, I grew up to be an atheist, but he was one of those pastors who was in it for the message of love and togetherness and wasn’t particular about how one found them.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea for someone (or several someones) to serve in the role that military chaplains now fill – I think the problem is that right now, the role is restricted to religious Christians. It might be a great idea to have, say, a counselor who’s available to talk to soldiers about anything – religion, personal issues, stress – like therapy. They could certainly be a religious person as well, but the purpose of their role would be to treat soldiers as people, not as Christians.

Actually some US military chaplains are Muslim and Jewish and the Unitarian Universalist ones might not be Christian (and could even be atheistic). I’m not sure if there are any Hindu or Buddhist US military chaplains. The two problems I see are

1. No secular chaplains
2. Some chaplains place their faith before supporting the faith (or lack thereof) of those they are suppose to be serving.

I note that many US hospital chaplains have in their code of ethics a prohibition on trying to convert people they are serving (hospital patients and their families and friends). Most US military chaplains have a code of ethics that allows proselytizing of non-religious people (most of the rest have a code that allows proselytizing of religious people as well).