“ONLY six weeks into his new job as a salesman with Baillie Lumber in Hamburg, N.Y., Brian Fox faced a parent’s nightmare. His 22-month-old son, Andrew, fell into a pond and had to be hospitalized. His son clung to life for a month before he died.
“When Mr. Fox got to the hospital, he was almost immediately comforted by Stanley Kent, a Methodist chaplain working for Baillie. Mr. Kent helped Mr. Fox that month, and Mr. Fox has stayed in touch with him in the three years since the accident. ”I’m a guy; I don’t dwell on issues,” Mr. Fox said, ”but it was nice having somebody around that knows what you’ve been through.”
“Corporate chaplains have long been employed by a smattering of companies, mostly in the South and West, representing a range of mostly Protestant denominations. But now the phenomenon is spreading as companies add chaplains and companies that employ chaplains make acquisitions. According to Rev. Robert Vickers, the former director for chaplaincy evangelism at the Southern Baptist Convention, anecdotal evidence suggests that use of chaplains in business and industry is growing more than 10 percent a year in the United States.
“For employers, the motives can range from simply wanting to help their workers in a time of crisis to trying to bring religion to workers who are receptive to such discussions. For some employees, the chaplains not only can provide comfort during hard times, or friendly conversation in normal times, but they can end up performing at special events like weddings or funerals.
“Companies that use chaplains range from small private concerns to large publicly traded companies like Tyson Foods in Springdale, Ark., and Allied Holdings, a transportation company in Decatur, Ga… Some chaplain programs are employee driven, like one administered by the United Auto Workers and run by 200 locals nationwide.”