Humanist Chaplains
While many higher-education institutions have been affiliated with particular religions since their founding, there has been a broad movement in recent years to accommodate religious diversity by enlisting additional chaplains to serve different faith groups, such as Muslims, Jews, Hindus and various Christian denominations that might not have been present at institutions’ foundings.
Now an organization of non-religious students at Tufts University is saying: Hey, what about us?
The Tufts Freethought Society — a group of about 150 students who identify as atheistic, agnostic, or otherwise non-religious — wants the university to establish a “humanist” chaplaincy to serve as a resource for students who are interested in exploring how to live “ethical and meaningful lives” without subscribing to any religion.
I have not heard about educational institutions utilizing chaplains on their campuses – is this different than campus ministries? At any rate, a "humanist chaplain" is actually an oxymoron, because chaplaincy is all about exploring the spiritual nature with others, as the article states. Even then, chaplains can have meaningful conversations and dialog with people who claim to have no spiritual nature because that's what we are trained to do. All chaplains should be respectful of others' beliefs and able to minister to a variety of faiths; it seems silly for these students to imply that their needs could not be met by a chaplain of any faith background. I'm thinking that the term "chaplain" is being misused, and these schools and students are thinking more of campus ministries (although this is hardly a misunderstanding unique to the situation presented in the article – many in this country probably think of chaplains and ministers as interchangeable, and think that chaplain ministry is inherently Christian). Regardless of their faith background, chaplains should come to each situation without bias or prejudice; campus pastors of different faiths would obviously have different focal points.
Good point, Brent. If it could even exist in those terms then it seems the job of a humanist chaplain would be to help a student look inward at his own rational thought as the source of authority and guidance. In cases where there is irrationality help the student change his thinking. I think that position would be valuable in some cases, but I also think it's already filled: School Psychologist.