SIDEBAR: The faiths of military chaplains

(RNS) Southern Baptists far outnumber other faith groups in the U.S. military chaplaincy corps, with 448 serving as active-duty chaplains out of a total of 2,992. Joined with other evangelicals, they bring the number of evangelical chaplains to more than 1,000. Chaplains affiliated with mainline Protestant denominations number less than half of their evangelical counterparts, […]

(RNS) Southern Baptists far outnumber other faith groups in the U.S. military chaplaincy corps, with 448 serving as active-duty chaplains out of a total of 2,992.

Joined with other evangelicals, they bring the number of evangelical chaplains to more than 1,000. Chaplains affiliated with mainline Protestant denominations number less than half of their evangelical counterparts, with more than 400 in the ranks. Roman Catholics total more than 250.

Here are totals for different faith groups, based on statistics as of March 31 from the Department of Defense:


Southern Baptist Convention — 448

Roman Catholic Church — 252

Assemblies of God — 119

United Methodist Church — 110

Seventh-day Adventists — 43

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — 37

Orthodox — 25

Islam — 10

Judaism — 21

Buddhist — 1

Sources: Department of Defense, membership lists of National Association of Evangelicals and National Council of Churches.

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