11/01/2026
Can you imagine what the world would look like if religious leaders treated one another the way the military chaplains I trained did?
For about three years, I trained chaplains from many faith traditions and branches of the military in trauma resolution. They had their own deeply held beliefs, but their job required them to comfort people whose beliefs might be entirely different — without judging, evaluating, or proselytizing.
They taught me something important about my own work as well.
This new piece is about military chaplains, trauma work, religious tolerance, Santería, Vodou, one unforgettable rabbi, and why honoring another person’s truth does not require abandoning your own.
What three years of training chaplains taught me about faith, tolerance, and honoring someone else’s truth