How many different faiths of chaplains are out there now?

SFC A.M. Drake — Sun, 04 May 2014 07:23:06 -0400

How many different faiths of chaplains are out there now?

1. I know there is Catholic, Jewish, Christian, etc but what are the others?

2. Are there any bad/substandard chaplains? Is that even a term? Do you know of any?

Your thoughts

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 4 at 2014 7:34 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 May 2014 07:34:39 -0400

There are chaplains for all recognized religions as a whole but not one chaplain for each individual group. There are many religions that do not have a religious leader such as a priest that the Army recognizes such as Atheist and Agnostic.
Christianity alone has 35 different subgroups such as Methodist, Protestant, Lutheran, etc.... So you can see that it would not be cost effective to have that many chaplains.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made May 4 at 2014 7:48 AM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 May 2014 07:48:14 -0400

All I know is that over the last 3 years, I've watched my brother die, my son was born dead (but revived thankfully), and then spent 6 months in the combat hospital in Afghanistan. Lots of death in a short period of time. The Chaplains have always been my go-to when I just want to sit down and talk for a bit. Some really outstanding people and an amazing resource. I've never met a "bad/substandard chaplain". They've all seemed to really care about the soldiers and I think that they're probably one of the best resources we have for PTSD. To see a psych doc (at least where I'm at) you're talking about having to make an appointment often a week plus in advance, whereas you can almost always pop into the chaplain's office.

Response by 1LT Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 27 at 2022 1:21 PM

1LT Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 13:21:48 -0400

Too many to count now.