Battalion Landing Team Chaplain in Afghanistan
Chaplaincy
Battalion Landing Team Chaplain, Navy Lieutenant John Hoke, holds Mass for members of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, in the middle of Operation ULYSSES IV, a motorized vehicular reconnaissance of south-central Afghanistan in April 2004.
Cpl. Robert A. Sturkie
Cpl. Robert A. Sturkie. April 18, 2004. "Battalion Landing Team Chaplain, Navy Lt. John Hoke, holds mass for several Marines." Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Navy_040418-M-4657S-001_Battalion_Landing_Team_Chaplain,_Navy_Lt._John_Hoke,_holds_mass_for_several_Marines.jpg.
4/18/2004
Public Domain
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Afghanistan
Stillwater Correctional Facility
Chaplaincy
Minnesota Corrections Stillwater Facility
Michael McNally
Religion Department (Carleton College)
2015
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stillwater.jpg
Stillwater, MN
Explanation of "Healing Spirit" Sculpture
Chaplaincy
A picture of the plaque that explains the history and symbolism of the "Healing Spirit" statue by sculptor Georgette Sosin. It explains the meaning of the “healing spirit” and the symbolism behind the secular hospital’s large statue.
Kevin Dowling
Religion Department (Carleton College)
06/27/2012
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C_PlaqueStatueExplanation.jpg; C_PlaqueStatueHistory.jpg
Minneapolis, MN
Model of "Healing Spirit" Statue at Abbott Northwestern
Chaplaincy
A picture of a smaller model of the "Healing Spirit" sculpture on the building's exterior. Next to the model is an explanatory plaque about the artwork.
Kevin Dowling
Religion Department (Carleton College)
06/27/2012
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C_SmallStatue.jpg
Minneapolis, MN
Unfair Death
Chaplaincy
I see a 21-year-old young woman, just, just married, just had a baby and discovered cancer after her birth with the baby, and she was dead within three months or, I don't remember it, it was quick, and I'm like: 'God, hey what’s this, what is this?' And we all know God doesn't cause this, but if you're feeling that way you might as well just say it. And allowing people that, that's one of the differences between chaplaincy and parish ministry in, in, in the general sense, because I know some parish ministers who will go there. But the parish ministers don't always have the luxury of opening up those spaces to really let people say those things, where we do. They can say whatever and still feel blessed because I’m not going to say, 'Okay, therefore I'm turning you in to God and you will be going to hell when you die because you said these things.' [laughs] No, we don't, we don't, we don't do that, and so that's one of the biggest differences and some parish ministers are not skilled enough to do it but many of them probably have the heart to want to do it but they just don’t have the venue to be able do it as often as they may want to, whereas this is kind of what we're called to do, here in chaplaincy.
Kevin Dowling
Religion Department (Carleton College)
2013
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C_UnfairDeath.mp3
Minneapolis, MN
Chaplain as a Surgeon
Chaplaincy
Chaplaincy, in those cases, is like, you know, a doctor and a surgeon. A surgeon is the one that comes in and makes those small slices and attends to that one piece that needs to be removed and it might be something huge that the person would love to keep but they can't. The doctor's is to do the pre-care, the after-care, continual care of the person. A chaplain may have to come in and go into one of those sensitive areas. I had a patient many years ago come in, she, this particular patient was in almost every other month and we're talking over a period of maybe six years. And always wanted prayer, always wanted prayer, looking at the records, always wanted prayer. Every chaplain in the hospital had seen this person. And so one of the things I noticed in the pattern of the conversations with the person, and I think I saw this person more than others but I looked at all the records and the person would always say, 'Pray for the Lord to make it better.' And doesn't that sound great? You know. [muffled voice over intercom] Okay, that's not my unit, okay, I had to . . . So one day, I just said, a request to make it better and this person's brother was in the room, someone who interestingly I had never met. And I said, 'Okay, but could you tell me what is better?' The person looked at me and said, 'What are you talking about?' I said, 'Could you define better for me?' And they said, 'Well what do you mean?' 'You're always asking for the Lord to make it better, but what is better for you? Do you have a sense of what better is?' And the person kind of went to a [confused noise] you know, and had to realize that they were kind of pushing off, that's kind of the language they'd always used but since they could not name the things that would be better, they were stuck in what was not good for them. And it was very interesting. I left the room, the patient was really happy with me at that point, the brother followed me and said, 'Thank you, for kind of breaking that open.' The tradition was 'Pray to the Lord to make it better, always make it better.' 'Well, better than what?' And at the surface it seemed kind of cold, but I thought it was interesting after that, the person had one more admit and then we didn't see that person again for two and a half years. And it was the, you know, the physical issues were in play, but the getting admitted every other month had stopped after that. And I can't say that I'm a miracle worker or anything, but certainly that question pushed them to the edge and the tradition of, you know, just general praying.
Kevin Dowling
Religion Department (Carleton College)
2013
Sound
.mp3 (audio)
C_ChaplainAsSurgeon.mp3
Minneapolis, MN
Prayer and its Complexities
Chaplaincy
We're learning so much in quantum physics these days about the power of energy and thought, and that we're all energy, that everything is energy, that when I think about it I think: What is prayer but intention and energy directed towards a positive outcome? So at its very basic level, I don't think you could ever go wrong praying for someone. You're sending positive intent their way, and I believe positive intent makes a difference. I can ramp that up. For some people that translates into very specific requests to God for concrete responses, you know, 'Please God heal my cancer.' I've prayed and been with enough people where that hasn't come true to know the damage that that kind of prayer can be, but if a patient wants me to pray for that who am I to not pray for it? I might ask them, you know, 'So what is your sense about that?' 'What do you think?' 'What would healing mean for you?' Because sometimes we make assumptions too that when patients want us to pray for their healing that it means that their cancer goes away and it isn't really always that. Sometimes they need to have their attitude healed and they need to come to a place of acceptance that whatever happens that they'll be okay with it.
Kevin Dowling
Religion Department (Carleton College)
2013
Sound
.mp3 (audio)
C_PrayerAndComplexities.mp3
Minneapolis, MN
Rabbi Liberman Interfaith Language
Chaplaincy
I speak in a more interfaith language and more inclusive language, for sure and trying to be able to stand there in my own skin, but also be available to them. So I'm not gonna pray in the name of Jesus, but it's not a Jewish prayer to say in the name of anybody. So like, for example, I will say, 'in the name of God.' Which is a doorway to open to them and it's okay for me to do. If I'm with a Jewish patient, I don't even have to go there, because I know what the particularity is of our faith tradition.
Kevin Dowling
Religion Department (Carleton College)
2013
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C_RabbiLibermanInterfaithLanguage.mp3
Minneapolis, MN
Rev. Dunbar-Perkins A New Normal
Chaplaincy
Many people, especially after you have a colon cancer or some other, sometimes Crohn's disease, diseases that interfere with your large intestine, your bowels. This is a hospital, this is how we talk. And you may have to have something where all of your waste material comes through this bag that's put on the side of you and you have to manage that every day. You can't do it how everybody else, you got to, that's got to be physically worked with. I've heard people being told, 'Well you oughtta be glad, this colostomy saved your life. Now that you have this, you don't have to worry about this.' But what about the woman who says, 'Oh my God, when I'm sitting in church, can people smell me?' We're talking about the most basic parts of the human body, the functions. So yeah, you feel marginalized because your life, the normal that you had, is gone.
Kevin Dowling
Religion Department (Carleton College)
2013
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C_RevDunbarPerkinsNewNormal.mp3
Minneapolis, MN
Rev. Dunbar-Perkins Marginalization 2
Chaplaincy
And even us in the health care profession, we think when we say, 'Oh no, you can't eat that bacon, it's gonna make your blood pressure go up.' But you know, you live for having that bacon and eggs every Saturday morning. And it's the ritual around it; it's not just the eating of the food, it's the people that you're with and what you're talking about, and now you've been told you have to get rid of that. So people are marginalized, they're grieving. They're in a constant state of grieving, loss. Because of the changes that they have. And it takes you to a deeper level. And we know that we're trying to help people by saying, 'You have to change your life to be able to survive.' But that change is grief. And in chaplaincy, we get to recognize that, we get to lift that up. And say, 'Yeah, we get that. That is loss.'
Kevin Dowling
Religion Department (Carleton College)
2013
Sound
.mp3 (audio)
C_RevDunbarPerkinsMarginalization2.mp3
Minneapolis, MN