2024 BAHACON HC Presentation: Yes, There Are Atheists in Foxholes!
Author: Bettianne Hedges
Date: 26 Aug 2024
Humanist Canada (HC) was a proud sponsor of the 2024 Bluewater Atheist, Humanist, Agnostics Conference (BAHACON).
This year, HC’s Executive Director Bettianne Hedges attended the event with Marie-Claire Khadij, Humanist Canada military chaplain, who had the opportunity to address the attendees as a HC member.
Chaplain Khadij started by sharing that thanks to HC, since 2022 she is the first military humanist chaplain in the Americas. She wears proudly on her uniform the international humanist symbol, the “Happy Human”.
She explained that historically, the majority of military chaplains were priests and pastors who offered Christian based care to the troops, but that a lot has changed since then: “As chaplains, we are assigned to units, which is a group of military members. We are therefore embedded with those we serve. This allows all of us to build relationships with the members, making the unit chaplain often the first point of contact when they require support.” She explained that most members now seek chaplains for a listening ear, support and resources to address the struggles and joys of military life.
“Canadian Armed Forces chaplains offer services to all members, no matter their worldview, spirituality or religion,” she shared. However, there are some members who are more comfortable speaking to a humanist chaplain. She has noticed this includes some members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, some Indigenous members, and also some members of non-Abrahamic religious traditions.
Chaplain Khadij’s emotions showed when she shared that in the last year specifically, two members approached her separately. They both needed urgent support and said they only trusted her because she was a humanist chaplain. Through her, they were able to be connected to the much-needed mental health help they needed. “There are indeed atheists in foxholes”, shared chaplain Khadij, “and that is why it is so important to have humanist chaplains as well.”
She also shared that in the three other countries that currently do have humanist chaplains, candidates tend to be younger than chaplains of other spiritual/religious traditions, and have a higher percentage of women’s applying, contributing to a younger and more diverse chaplaincy.
The core message of Chaplain Khadij’s presentation was that she needs support to recruit humanist chaplain candidates. Many in the atheists, humanists and agnostics communities are not aware that humanist can be chaplains in the military now, so she pleaded for everyone’s help to spread the word. She encouraged everyone to use their social network to send potential candidates her way.
Chaplain Khadij received various ovations during her presentation. She was especially touched to realize after her presentation that there were quite a few Canadian and American veterans in the crowd who were overjoyed to hear that humanist chaplain are now a reality in the Canadian Military. Many of them expressed, with emotion in their voices, how much they would have appreciated having humanist chaplains when they served. She also had the opportunity to meet many attendees of BAHACON who offered various type of support and encouragements. Chaplain Khadij was very thankful to everyone for their warm welcome and desire to help with recruitment.
For more information on how to become a Humanist Chaplain, visit the Humanist
Canada Website.