Association of Professional Chaplains

Beam me up, Chaplain.

This piece was originally published in the November 2014 issue of the Association of Professional Chaplains Newsletter. Reprinted here with permission. “For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain… It wasn’t until I was beginning to do Star Trek that the subject of religion arose. What brought it up wasContinue reading “Beam me up, Chaplain.”

Hospice chaplain Karen B. Kaplan sends a postcard from the edge

In her creative nonfiction work, Encountering the Edge: What People Told Me Before They Died, hospice chaplain Karen B. Kaplan shares her patients’ stories–some heart-breaking, some funny, some profound–and refuses to offer easy answers or sound-bite wisdom about what it means to face death. Excerpted below is Chapter One, entitled “You’re Too Nice Looking to Work forContinue reading “Hospice chaplain Karen B. Kaplan sends a postcard from the edge”

False Advertising, Indeed.

Over the past few years, I’ve occasionally asked friends and acquaintances to describe a typical chaplain. If people have any notions at all, they reference Father Mulcahy from M*A*S*H—a Christian, middle-aged, celibate dude with a kindly twinkle in his blue eyes. I suspect that even in the era of the Korean War, that stereotype bore littleContinue reading “False Advertising, Indeed.”

Paging Chaplain Barbie

I came across this great blog post today, written by a young, attractive female hospital chaplain: Paging Chaplain Barbie. “Chaplain Barbie” relates this experience: Patient: “You don’t look like a chaplain.” Me: “What does a chaplain look like?” Patient: “An old man with wrinkles and white hair.” There is a scene almost exactly like this in AContinue reading “Paging Chaplain Barbie”

Why write books about chaplains?

I came across an inspiring blog post today: Life as a queer chaplain by Laura Arnold. I’m at a particularly thorny stage of writing the next Reverend Lindsay Harding book, and I’ve been a bit discouraged. This post really helped reconnect me with my “mission”–to entertain and engage, while reminding people that we are all childrenContinue reading “Why write books about chaplains?”

Too much, but not enough

The Simpsons is a great fun-house mirror for American life. One of my favorite scenes of all time shows Bart and the two devoutly Christian Flanders boys playing a video game in which they throw Bibles at heathens in order to convert them to Christianity. Bart’s biblical projectile glances off of one of the heathens-makingContinue reading “Too much, but not enough”