Recent Supreme Court decisions have signaled a shift in how the country’s highest court interprets the limits on religion in schools.
Chaplains talk with anyone, regardless of whether or not the patient has a religious affiliation – and some chaplains themselves are not religious.
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As more Americans step away from organized religion, so do more chaplains – but they are prepared to offer spiritual care regardless of a patient’s beliefs.
A chaplain hugs a registered nurse at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles.
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Chaplains have always provided spiritual care outside traditional houses of worship, but their significance is growing as Americans’ religious identities change.
A chaplain prays for a COVID-19 patient in Los Angeles while on a video call with the patient’s daughter in November 2020.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Chaplaincy emerged as a professional field in the mid-20th century. In the years since, their roles have evolved and they have also come to include many diverse religious traditions.
The only chaplain in the COVID-19 section of a Montréal hospital offers spiritual care to patients and families, as well to staff, who have found themselves more intimately exposed to life and death.
Vice President Mike Pence joins military officers and a chaplain on Aug. 23, 2019 in a prayer for two Army men who died during operations in Afghanistan.
AP Photo/Cliff Owen
When the US entered World War I in 1917, military chaplains catered to majority white and Christian soldiers. Today the armed forces recognize over 200 denominations and religious groups.
Recent media reports point to years of sexual abuse by Southern Baptist pastors. An expert writes why a long culture of women’s submission is responsible for this crisis.
‘Protest chaplains’ came together to pledge their support to the Occupy Wall Street protests at Judson Memorial Church in New York in 2011.
AP Photo/Andrew Burton
The National Council of Churches, which represents 38 Christian denominations, has long been the voice of progressive religion. But over the years, its influence has waned.
William Sloane Coffin Jr., followed by his sister, arrives at federal building in Boston on May 20, 1968.
AP Photo
The anti-Vietnam War efforts of Yale University chaplain William Sloane Coffin Jr. and other church leaders alienated many Protestant Americans – with lasting repercussions.
Father Patrick Conroy.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Following the controversy over the resignation of House chaplain Patrick Conroy, in this speed read, scholars explain when the tradition of legislative prayer was started and how it has sustained.
Our Lady of the Airways Chapel, Logan Airport, Boston.
Randall Armor
Australia has a form of secularism where religion is allowed in the public sphere. As long as religion remains one voice and one option among many, the nation will still be secular.