Kate Bradford
As a Christian chaplain, what does it mean to have no agenda?[1] I recall the emphatic advice of our philosophy lecturer many years ago, ‘Remember, there is no view from nowhere, a person is not a tabula rasa, a blank slate’ – and cannot become one. A cognitive, thinking human will have encapsulated within their being, hopes, dreams and desires. These hopes and dreams – good or bad – can be changed, modified or transformed but cannot be erased without emptying the person of part of their identity.
To attempt to remove our agenda is to radically modify or change our own hopes, our desires – our being. This change involves realigning of our being. But with what are we being re-aligned and whose agenda determines the re-alignment?
As a Christian, a follower of Jesus has placed themselves under the transforming presence of Christ. Alignment to Christ will articulate the direction of change. A chaplain who is a follower of Jesus faces a genuine personal conflict of interest when asked to present without an agenda. The conflict arises because part of Christian transformation involves dying to self, or an emptying of self, followed by a taking up Jesus’s cross: to put it more bluntly, it is a request that we to leave our agenda and take up Christ’s.
Does this mean that Christian chaplains feel some impunity to act insensitively toward others? No, the Christian chaplain like all chaplains is being trained at a level of deep personal formation and gaining a deeper sensitivity to the needs of others.
Self-awareness is critical for all chaplains in order to be safe. No chaplain may use chaplaincy encounters to meet their own unmet needs. All chaplains need to become increasingly aware of their own internal motivations. Any ministry that is coercive, manipulative or condemnatory in nature is dangerous and moving radically away from Christ-like transformation. Jesus said Christian followers are salt and light, but he also warns that it is possible to be bad salt or poor light.
Any request for prayer by the sufferer, or offer of prayer by the chaplain is handled with great sensitivity but it is respectfully and humbly prayed in Jesus’ name, for the Christian chaplain can pray through no other name.
An effective Christian chaplain is both Christ-centred and other-person centred. They minister as a person being transformed internally by Christ, this re-alignment transforms the way in which the chaplain both, perceives and responds to others and their needs. The chaplain ministers from their own vulnerability as a fellow human, affirming the infinite worth of each person and respecting the freedom of others. In visiting, the chaplain helps create a space for the sufferer to explore spiritual dimensions of life and suffering. The chaplain responds to questions sensitively from the depths of their own spiritual and philosophical system. Any response by the chaplain at this point does arise from a personal, spiritual and philosophical agenda, for even an agenda to have no agenda is an agenda.
[1] Editor’s note: see for example http://www.professionalchaplains.org/uploadedFiles/pdf/web1201.pdf (accessed 19 March 2012) where Rabbi Laura M Rappaport states, “Chaplains are charged with offering spiritual care without agenda or bias.”
