In the United States, humanist chaplains are decried as contradictions in terms or as abominations against the Christian establishment. Chaplains provide a valuable service to boost the morals and morale in the military, health care positions, the military and other specialized settings. MAAF continues to reach out to equal chaplain services for humanists. Thus far, humanists are generally treated as outside the purview of chaplain support and humanism is considered by some to be insufficient for chaplain work. Such attitudes are simply cultural and religious prejudice or at least borne of ignorance. Humanist chaplains are already serving in various settings and showing these examples can help both humanists and non-humanist chaplains move forward toward chaplaincy for all.
Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) Norbert de Kooter is one of a long-standing corps of humanist chaplains in the Dutch military and provided to MAAF commentary on his experiences.
* At the end of this article, there is a 13 minute video, an article, and a 33-page document of stories from the Dutch chaplaincy.
I originally had the opportunity to meet Erwin Kamp, Lt Col de Kooter’s predecessor, when I was at the World Congress of the International Humanist & Ethical Union in Oslo, Norway in 2008. The conference focused on Peace and I spoke about humanism in the US military. The Congress voted to support a resolution in favor of humanist chaplains in the military. This conversation will continue our efforts. The following interview will be used to update content at Wikipedia’s chaplain page.
Read more
Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) Norbert de Kooter is one of a long-standing corps of humanist chaplains in the Dutch military and provided to MAAF commentary on his experiences.
* At the end of this article, there is a 13 minute video, an article, and a 33-page document of stories from the Dutch chaplaincy.
I originally had the opportunity to meet Erwin Kamp, Lt Col de Kooter’s predecessor, when I was at the World Congress of the International Humanist & Ethical Union in Oslo, Norway in 2008. The conference focused on Peace and I spoke about humanism in the US military. The Congress voted to support a resolution in favor of humanist chaplains in the military. This conversation will continue our efforts. The following interview will be used to update content at Wikipedia’s chaplain page.
Read more
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