is similar to how they are used in the military. To facilitate the spiritual needs of its members.

You are a Christian, let me direct you to Chaplain Smith. Jewish? Rabbi Jones can help. And so on.

You don't need to be religious to direct that and run that, and you have the bonus that you can yourself service those who aren't religious but are spiritual or just need help.

I think it's fine. You need a good person in that job who is a good manager...sounds to me like his fellow spiritual leaders thought he was the person for the job.

or Campus Crusade for Christ?

When students graduate and move away, there won't be someone directing them to the right church for their beliefs and needs.

where they could call or go to or look up online to deal with any spiritual needs?

Sounds like a great idea. Now they just need someone to run it...

subscribes to a particular doctrine. They can get out of their own way and help the person with what the person needs which is specific to them without any particular baggage on the chaplain's side.

Besides, while it is certainly not true for ALL atheists, often atheists have studied more different religions than believers, who often have focused their studies on their own religion (or subvariations therein) while being rather ignorant of others.

regardless of system of thought. I was going to say "belief" but that might be an issue among non-theists and agnostics. I was in t the DoD for over 25 years, and if this "manager" is half the manager that our chaplain was, Harvard students should be well-served. One of the chaplains we had was Christian in his own theology, but true to his actual mission in the military and DoD, he got out of his own way in order to help people with where -they- were coming from -- including this very out-of-the-closet witch. I have always been a Seeker, and in my seeking, the one thing I've seen is when you boil all religions down to their very core, they are all pretty much say the same thing - do good, love each other, don't cause harm, know yourself. The problem are those in the religion who have alternative issues - much as our own talibangelicals, or the Islamists in the ME.

I can't say enough good about this Christian pastor we had. He helped me through a very difficult time in my life. And he did it keeping all the buzzwords and beliefs inherent in Christianity out of it.

I contrast that with what the cadets at the AF College have had to put up with all these many years, and see how lucky we really were. Unfortunately, when it came time for our pastor to PCS, he was replaced with an evangelical who was everything "our" pastor had tried hard not to be. Needless it say, it was the last time the pastors' department ever saw me.

spiritual. He called the Judaism of his youth silly myths, but could not endure thinking of the cosmos existing without a plan. And if a plan, then a planner.

Spinoza's pre- pantheism is where he ended up, and he spent a fair amount of time at the Ethical Culture Society in NYC. He scoffed at religious mythology, but admired the spirituality behind it.

He once said that, given a choice, he might have been a Quaker.

I doubt Einstein would had the time or temperment to be chaplain, but he was on to something.

Father Mulcahy was an ideal chaplain, btw- subordinating his beliefs for the benefit of his charges.

FWIW, I have been hearing about mainstream Christian denominations not supplying clergy to the chaplain corps. This has left it open to wingnuts.