American adults who have been served by chaplains hail the ministers for providing compassionate and effective care during some of the most difficult moments of life, a new study shows.
“Most people say the interaction they had with a chaplain was valuable to them — 44% call it very valuable and 32% moderately valuable. Another 17% say it was only a little valuable, while 7% describe it as not valuable at all,” according to a December Gallup survey.
“Additionally, people who have interacted with a chaplain almost universally ascribe positive characteristics to that person, with 95% calling them compassionate and roughly nine in 10 recalling them being a good listener, spiritual, helpful, trustworthy and knowledgeable. Relatively few say the chaplain was intrusive, pushy or condescending,” Gallup reported.
