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BART Chaplains To Be Sworn In

Four chaplains will help BART police officers and others with spiritual and emotional issues.

BART is getting religion.

The transit system will swear in four new police chaplains at noon Tuesday at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission Center in Oakland.

BART officials said the chaplains will provide spiritual guidance and counseling to police officers. That guidance will be for traumatic events as well as general emotional needs.

The chaplains also will help victims of crime and serve as a link between police and the community.

BART officials said the chaplains, who come from diverse backgrounds, have agreed to serve without compensation. They'll wear BART police uniforms with a chaplain insignia.

Leah Hall February 15, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Glad to learn you're on board, Jon. :)
Tom Palmer February 15, 2011 at 03:03 pm
Wow this is the most response and reaction I have ever seen in the short history of PATCH !
Leah Hall February 15, 2011 at 03:12 pm
Nothing like Atheists, Witches, Satanic Priests and Yoga Moves to bring out an intrigued crowd of folks.
:)
Ben February 15, 2011 at 03:20 pm
BART has been around since the early 70's, why now do they need Chaplain services now?
Marga Lacabe February 15, 2011 at 03:34 pm
You should come over to the San Leandro Patch, we have 88 comments so far on the last article on closing the Bal Theater - and the thread is still not dead.
Leah Hall February 15, 2011 at 03:37 pm
Hi Ben,
Great question! :) Charitable Christians, Jews, Budhists, Muslims, Atheists and Yoga Instructors must have been lobbying pretty aggressively for this unpaid volunteer service to our community. Shameless :(
Marga Lacabe February 15, 2011 at 04:00 pm
According to my BART representative, this came out from the Noble report (). I searched through the report and I found one line, in which one of the interviewees said: "The department needs a Chaplaincy program or peer counselors. ". I'll be following up on why they decided to go the religious route.
Marga Lacabe February 15, 2011 at 04:23 pm
Leah, I searched the Wikipedia article on chaplains: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaplain and couldn't find the word "secular" anywhere, perhaps you can quote the appropriate passage? What Wikipedia does say is: "A chaplain is typically a priest, pastor, ordained deacon, rabbi, imam, other member of the clergy, or another representative of a faith or belief, serving a group of people who are not organized as a mission or church, or who are unable to attend religious services for various reasons, such as health, confinement, or military or civil duties."
I'm not sure if your last sentence is supposed to be ironic. Really? "Sensitivity" towards non-believers? Just like whites should show "sensitivity" towards blacks, men towards women and so forth? "Respect" is really what every group aims for.
Leah Hall February 15, 2011 at 04:29 pm
Marga, a fact check:
As I mentioned earlier in this string, I learned that according to wikipedia, there are secular chaplains which means chaplains are not exclusively "religious" or spiritual. There is also at least one organization that advocates for greater sensitivity by chaplains towards those who profess that they don't believe in a god.
Leah Hall February 15, 2011 at 04:33 pm
Hi Marga,
This is the passage I was referring to: Some military's chaplains only work with men and women of their faith group but in many cases chaplains work with military personnel of all faiths, as well as those who claim no faith or religious affiliation. While most military chaplains represent a religion or faith group, some countries, like the Netherlands, also employ humanist chaplains who offer a non-religious approach to chaplain support. Some groups such as the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers,[3] support the idea of such secular chaplains in the military, and also work to make all chaplains more sensitive to the needs and rights of those who profess no belief in a god. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Chaplain
Leah Hall February 15, 2011 at 04:43 pm
My apologies if my last word was sloppy, Marga. Forgive me.
To echo what you are saying about community building, I recently heard an African American speaker on the subject of civil rights talk about the need for our community and nation to go beyond the word "respect" and "tolerance." One word was "honor" towards those of other races, sexual orientations and faith backgrounds. We need to coexist, but we also need to move beyond the idea that that's as far as we need to be concerned about each other's ways of seeing and being in the world. It made a lot of sense to me.
Tony Farley February 15, 2011 at 05:35 pm
Times change Ben.
James February 15, 2011 at 06:31 pm
Kari,
I've been unfortunate enough in my life to always find myself in bizarre situations. I'm always encountering something or someone that's not on the up and up! .... Prostitute urinating on the side of a parked vehicle in San Francisco, Woman doing non PG13 acts with her Animal in the Hills of Garin park, a Male dressed in woman's clothing at Coyote Hills, getting caught up in in the middle of a Gay drama just to name a few..... The most interesting character I have met so far was at Newark's Annual Newark Day's Festival two years ago. Every time an NPD Officer walked by, the guy would drop his pants right there in Public! He said he did it, because NPD is always searching him LOL
Ann February 15, 2011 at 07:30 pm
James, I have a friend like you. He's the nicest, most unassuming person you'd ever want to meet but all the craziness in the world seems to be drawn to him. We used to travel together for business so I observed that his powers extended beyond just the Bay Area. It happens wherever he goes.
Max the Teacher February 15, 2011 at 08:35 pm
Smell your own herring, Leah. There is no connection at all between "we are all human beings..." and "we all need a religionist in our faces." Less religion and more logic, please.
Leah Hall February 15, 2011 at 10:14 pm
Religious, spiritual, secular, let us all join hand to work together to make the world a better place.
May we have compassion in our hearts and minds and honor for other ways of seeing and being; and may we have the courage to stand up for those in need of our help and support.
Leah Hall February 15, 2011 at 10:16 pm
Moderator, is Max the Teachers comment, "smell your own herring" in bounds or out of bounds? :)
Marga Lacabe February 15, 2011 at 10:37 pm
So as far as we know there are no secular chaplains in the US - so it sounds like a red herring. Why the need to have chaplains at all, when peer counselors will do?
Leah Hall February 15, 2011 at 10:46 pm
As long as they are good at what they do and volunteering there talents I believe we should encourage this type of community service and not limit it based on denomination or practice.
It sounds as though efficacy is related to many factors relating to the background of the person in need. We are complex beings with diverse needs.
Marga Lacabe February 15, 2011 at 10:55 pm
And yet, Leah, by chosing to start a chaplaincy program rather than a peer counseling program what BART had done is limit volunteers to clerics, and apparently, to Christian clerics. I don't have a problem with them having a counseling program that includes clerics but to be it exclusively made out of them is, well, exclusive.
Leah Hall February 16, 2011 at 02:48 am
I am with you regarding the need for our leadership, in all its forms, to reflect the diversity of our community.
Max the Teacher February 16, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Sarah, you sound pretty condescending. I'm sorry you are driven to pathologize a rational defense of the separation of church and state. I find that educating myself on the issues leads to an appreciation of a valid viewpoint.
The "you're so angry" tactic is just a cheap rhetorical ploy to derail legitimate discussion. You'll find more about that game and other similar means of derailing discussion here: http://www.derailingfordummies.com/
Max the Teacher February 16, 2011 at 12:44 pm
Fine. Listen to your own herring. Embrace your own herring. Observe your own herring. Tango with your own herring. When I think of a herring, the first thing I think of is the smell. My point is that you seem to be quick to point out an alleged "red herring" in other folk's posts, but oblivious to how often you toss them out in your arguments.
Max the Teacher February 16, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Rather than obsess pointlessly about anonymity, why not point out what is "nuts" in all the "anonymous" posts? Otherwise, what you're saying is as silly as saying "Why are the nut cases always the ones with two-syllable names?" I believe you started out in the Bal thread by saying we should look at what the person is saying rather than just attacking with a broad brush. Is that your rule for others,or does it apply to you as well?
Leah Hall February 16, 2011 at 04:25 pm
Hey Teacher, so true! Gotta love me :)
I'll leave red herrings out of my posts from now on and must confess that you are the expert on creatures of the Clupea family. May I call you Max the Charmer?
Max the Teacher February 16, 2011 at 07:18 pm
Ann, a friend of mine refers to herself as a "psycho magnet." In frustration, she once said, "I am the locus of universal psychosocial entropy. I need to be the subject of some kind of study."
Max the Teacher February 16, 2011 at 07:23 pm
My charm is a subtle and exotic thing. Let's not cheapen it.
Leah Hall February 16, 2011 at 08:40 pm
Maxie,
Subtle? No. Exotic? Yes. Modest, certainly!
Max the Teacher February 16, 2011 at 08:59 pm
Okay, Leah, let's not play infantile games with people's names. This little sub-thread is totally irrelevant to the article, so if you can live without the attention, move on.
Leah Hall February 17, 2011 at 01:26 am
Okay Maxie, whatever you wish, sweet talker. :)

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