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Military chaplains serve in a remarkably diverse environment
The latest report from the Defense Department tracks 101 faiths for active-duty personnel, from 285,763 Roman Catholics to the one member of the Tioga River Christian conference. In between are Baptists, Jews, Buddhists, Bahai’s, Mormons and Wiccans. About a half a million active personnel are evangelicals. Almost 281,710 claim no religion.
No military has ever tried to meet such diverse spiritual needs, says Doris Bergen, a history professor at the University of Toronto. In World War II, the British army had thousands of Hindus and Muslims in its ranks, but only Christian and Jewish chaplains.
“To build a military chaplaincy that reflects the incredible religious diversity of Americans, and that supports that diversity in a meaningful way — it’s uncharted terrain,” Bergen said. “It’s completely brand new. You don’t really have any models to look to.”
Incidentally, airport chapels are also adapting to accommodate more religions.
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