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The Collegiate Sports Chaplain: Kindred or Alien?,
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Waller, S., Dzikus, L. and Hardin, R., Chaplaincy Today 2010, 26, 1: 16-26.
This paper examines the role and function of collegiate sport chaplains. It is in two parts: a summary of the status quo and a report on a study on collegiate sport chaplains.
The author states: “The primary purpose of this paper is to Introduce the specialized and emerging field of sport chaplaincy to practitioners or professional chaplaincy and to provide an overview of the role and functions of this specialty. It also includes a descriptive profile of the collegiate sport chaplain and presents key findings from a pilot study on collegiate sport chaplaincy in the United States”.
The question which explains the title is posed: Are sports chaplains kindred to more traditional types of chaplaincy, e.g., hospital, military, corporate or are they more ‘’alien” in the sense of emanating from a different family so that they are outsiders to traditional chaplaincy.
The paper expresses surprise at the lack of research in the area given that “sport chaplains have been at the forefront of triumph and tragedy in collegiate sports for half a century”.
The research study “conducted by the authors of this article provided a descriptive profile of collegiate sport chaplains. The purpose of this research project was to explore the state of collegiate sport chaplaincy. The study addressed three key questions:
1. What training do collegiate sport chaplains have?
2. What affiliations do collegiate sport chaplains have?
3. What role do collegiate sport chaplains see themselves having?”
149 chaplains were invited to participate and 55 completed the survey.
There is a detailed summary of results and a discussion of them. The conclusions included two questions which required more thought: “ What qualifications should the collegiate sport chaplains possess? How do we bridge the gulf between collegiate sport chaplains and professional chaplains?” The authors continue: “In the final analysis, in the eyes of professional chaplains, are collegiate sport chaplains who lack In the final analysis, In the eyes of professional chaplains, are collegiate sport chaplains who lack answered with more scholarly Inquiry and an open dialogue”.
Two more detailed conclusions were of interest: “As a significant number of collegiate sport chaplains engage in pastoral counselling without appropriate credentials and/or a license, this is an area that should be addressed expediently for both ethical and legal reasons”. And
“Respondents in this sample were primarily Christian and do not reflect the interfaith tradition of chaplaincy as a vocation. Both public and private universities increasingly recruit non-Christian to work alongside their Protestant and Catholic colleagues.