As religious affiliation drops, a chaplain may be the only religious professional available to many people.

By Brian Grim

A new survey report stresses the importance of the chaplain’s role in a society with climbing rates of religious disaffiliation. The survey finds that 18% of American adults (approximately 46.7 million people) have interacted with a chaplain, with the majority of interactions taking place in healthcare settings, including hospice and palliative care (see chart at bottom).

At the same time, the report notes that the “American public does not have a common understanding of who or what a chaplain is.” This reveals a gap not only in understanding what chaplains are, but also how to access them.

The survey report by Wendy Cadge and Amy Lawton, How Does the American Public Understand and Interact with Chaplains? Evidence from a National Survey and Interviews, is published by the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab as part of a Templeton Religion Trust-funded project that explores “Chaplains as Facilitators of Covenantal Pluralism.”

The authors note that a “chaplain may be the only religious professional available to many people” as religious affiliation declines, referring to data from the Pew Research Center. The latest estimates are that approximately 29% of US adults are now religiously unaffiliated, up from 16% in 2007 (see chart). During this time, the share of U.S. adults who identify as Christian has fallen from 78% to 63%.

The survey also found that most people were either the primary recipient of the chaplain’s care (56% of respondents) or met the chaplain as a visitor or caregiver (55% of respondents). Chaplains commonly supported careseekers through prayer (81%) and listening (80%). The most commonly discussed topics were death and dying (53%), dealing with loss (51%), and dealing with change (49%).

Related News

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Coca-Cola Consolidated joins as Platinum sponsor of  Dare to Overcome National Faith@Work ERG Conference, with Vice President of Culture & Care to share how faith is key to the company’s transformational journey.

Mark Whitacre will share about the transformation journey at Coca-Cola Consolidated into a purpose-driven, faith-friendly, and servant leadership orientated organization. The session will include how Coke Consolidated has transformed its workplace culture by providing chaplaincy at all of their production and distribution sites (102 sites), and also how prayer groups and Bible studies play a critical role in culture transformation.

Mark Whitacre’s major passion the past 2 decades is the faith at work movement. Mark is Vice President of Culture & Care and Executive Director of the t-factor initiative at Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. and Mark has worked with Coca-Cola Consolidated since 2019. Mark had served as National Director and then COO of Christian Business Men’s Connection (CBMC) from 2013 to 2019. Mark previously was the COO and Chief Science Officer from 2006 to 2013 at Cypress Systems, Inc., a faith-friendly, purpose-driven biotechnology company located in California.

After completing his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Ohio State University, Mark earned his Ph.D. degree at Cornell University in biochemistry. He worked as an executive for some Fortune 500 companies, including Ralston Purina (now Nestle), Degussa (now Evonik), and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). He was recruited at ADM when he was 32 as the President of the Biotech Division. Mark has extensive international business experience, having lived in Germany for four years working for Evonik at their world headquarters in Frankfurt.

Mark and his wife Ginger have been married over 43 years and have three adult children.

Today, International Women’s Day, is a fitting occasion to both honor past recipients of our Global Business & Intercultural* Peace Prize, and call for nominations for the 2023 Awards to be presented in New Delhi, India, on October 5, 2023, at our global Dare to Overcome “Unity in Diversity” conference.

The Awards are open to both female and male CEOs and senior business leaders who are advancing cultures of mutual understanding in their workplaces and marketplaces.

Award winners come from more than 30 countries on six continents. Below, meet some of women business & peace builders.

Nominations are open – please reach out if you know of a CEO worthy of such recognition in 2023! Deadline, April 30, 2023.

* Previously “Interfaith”

Sean (ESKOH) Koh, CEO of Koherent Inc., delivered the Keynote at the March 3rd Women’s CEO Roundtable. ESKOH stands for “Every Situation Kan Offer Hope.”

Sean introduced his cutting edge #ProofOfReception initiative, a “better internet built on our human intelligence (hi).”

American Airlines hosts top five companies to discuss newest innovations in making workplaces faith-friendly

Yesterday, American Airlines hosted the other five most faith-friendly Fortune 500 companies to discuss newest innovations in their work.

Intel, PayPal, DELL Technologies and Texas Instruments, as well as global Fortune 500 leader Accenture, each shared how they are using RFBF’s REDI Index to benchmark their journey towards increasing workplace religious inclusion. (See more photos.)

In addition to participation from the companies’ various faith-based employee business resource group (EBRG) leaders – including from American Airline’s five faith-and-belief EBRGs and DEI Specialist Millicent Rone – American Airlines Chief Customer Officer Alison Taylor and Chief Diversity Officer Cedric Rockamore also participated.

WASHINGTON DC FOLLOW-UP: Stained glass master artist Tom Holdman, his wife and team brought his 7-panel masterpiece, The Pillars of Humanity, to display in the atrium of American Airlines global HQ. It was originally displayed at last year’s Dare to Overcome in Washington.

Their art reinforced the message that while we are each unique, together we create a more beautiful whole. The glass was blessed at a prayer service in the atrium by Fr. Greg McBrayer, corporate chaplain and chief flight controller at American Airlines.

The REDI Index survey is open – please send me an email if your company would like to participate and join this growing, hopeful and energized movement advancing freedom of religion and belief for all at work.

Brian Grim
RFBF President

American Airlines hosts top five companies to discuss newest innovations in making workplaces faith-friendly

Today, American Airlines hosted the other five most faith-friendly Fortune 500 companies to discuss newest innovations in their work.

Intel, PayPal, DELL Technologies and Texas Instruments, as well as global Fortune 500 leader Accenture, each shared how they are using RFBF’s REDI Index to benchmark their journey towards increasing workplace religious inclusion. (See more photos.)

In addition to participation from the companies’ various faith-based employee business resource group (EBRG) leaders – including from American Airline’s five faith-and-belief EBRGs and DEI Specialist Millicent Rone – American Airlines Chief People Officer Alison Taylor and Chief Diversity Officer Cedric Rockamore also participated.

Stained glass master artist Tom Holdman, his wife and team brought his 7-panel masterpiece, The Pillars of Humanity, to display in the atrium of American Airlines global HQ. It was originally displayed at last year’s Dare to Overcome in Washington.

Their art reinforced the message that while we are each unique, together we create a more beautiful whole. The glass was blessed at a prayer service in the atrium by Fr. Greg McBrayer, corporate chaplain and chief flight controller at American Airlines. 

By Brian Grim

MBA students from eleven of America’s leading business schools competed to design the most sustainable way for a company to institutionalize faith and belief as part of a Fortune 100’s core diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

At the closing banquet of the three-day competition, Sumreen Ahmad, Accenture’s global lead for change, spelled out four distinct areas where faith’s impact in organizational systems cannot be ignored.

Teams from business schools including The Wharton School at Penn, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame, competed for cash and airline mileage prizes at the 1st annual BYU MBA Case Competition: Faith and Belief @ Work at the Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Business in collaboration with the Sorenson Center for Moral & Ethical Leadership.

As part of the learning events at the competition, Paul Lambert, RFBF Senior Business Fellow, shared the three B’s of Religious Literacy: Belief, Behavior & Belonging.

The Case Competition was sponsored by American Airlines, Equinix, PayPal, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, and Spudnik Donuts.

MBA students are also invited to participate in our national Faith@Work ERG and Corporate Chaplain Dare to Overcome Conference in Washington, DC, where Fortune 500 champions of religiously inclusive workplaces will share best practices and engage in cutting edge discussions of where this hopeful and exciting movement is heading.

Please join us in Washington DC, this May 22-24!

Sumreen Ahmad, Global Change Management Lead, Accenture, delivered the following Keynote Address at the February 17, 2023, BYU MBA Case Competition: Faith and Belief @ Work, at the Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Business in collaboration with the Sorenson Center for Moral & Ethical Leadership. Teams from 11 business schools from across the country participated. The Case Competition was sponsored by American Airlines, Equinix, PayPal, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, and Spudnik Donuts. Read Sumreen’s full address here.

Bismillah Ar Rahman Ni Raheem / Peace and Blessings to you all.

Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this incredible event and to be in the beautiful state of Utah and your hospitality at BYU. Being here takes me back to my childhood where I lived 4 minutes away from the temple in Edmonton, Alberta and had the privilege of sharing my years as a student creating memories with the large contingency of my Mormon peers. The shared values of family, community, and service served as a mirror to my own influences, experiences, and expectations as a Muslim – making it so much easier to navigate the challenges that come with high school life.

As I stand here to share my thoughts and experiences on this very important topic of Faith at Work, I want to start with the reminder to myself first that I am simple one in a line of many. In his best-selling book, Built to Last, Jim Collins talks about the successful habits of visionary companies that allow for long term sustainability. I would take it one step further to say the work we do should be through the lens of “built to leave”. The opportunity to be here – with the next generation of trailblazers is such an incredible privilege in knowing that any small seeds that I have had a part in planting have the potential to flourish as a result of the work that you all go on to do – through sincere intention, prayer, and commitment to something much bigger than any one of us in this room this evening.

So, let’s delve deeper into this important topic of why Faith @ work matters – starting with the world as we know it today. … Read the full address here.

To see other talks and discussion by Sumreen on faith@work, visit “Religious inclusion is more than an ERG.”

By Brian Grim

Do you wonder why some people come to work today with ashes on their foreheads? It’s OK to ask them about it. As with any religious act, most people are happy to tell you their “why.”

In short, for many Christians (including me), Ash Wednesday (today) kicks off the 40-day season of Lent, when we focus on repentance from sins and engage in additional prayer and fasting to prepare us for Easter when the season changes from repentance to joy. Learn more here.

Also, see a skeptic’s modern take on the value of Ash Wednesday here: Choosing the irrational sanity of Ash Wednesday.

By Brian Grim

A new study finds that extensive antisemitism has nearly doubled in the United States between 2019 and 2022. In 2022, 20% of American held extensively antisemitic views, up from 11% in 2019.

The nationally representative survey by ADL measured the level of antisemitism by the number of negative anti-Jewish tropes* people surveyed agreed with. If they agreed with six or more, they were considered to hold extensive antisemitic prejudices.

* Antisemitic tropes, canards, or myths are “sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications” that are defamatory towards Judaism as a religion or defamatory towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since the Middle Ages, such reports have been a recurring motif of broader antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Nearly half of the anti-Jewish tropes people agreed with were associated with business (see chart below), which makes business a key sector of society that must engage in combating these prejudices.

ADL has a series of tools for businesses to use, some drawing upon the research and work of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. For example, citing our Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index, they suggest that forming Jewish employee resource groups (ERGs) as a way to both raise awareness of this problem as well as provide support structures for Jewish people and their allies in workplaces.

If your company would like to learn and do more, contact us.

The nationally representative survey of 4,007 people across America by the National Opinion Research Center was conducted September through October of 2022 on behalf of the ADL Center for Antisemitism Research.