Via Religion Clause, Stars and Stripes reports on the recent appointment of the U.S. military's first Hindu chaplain. Pratima Dharm will serve all members of the military, regardless of faith, but obviously the 1,000 or so Hindu servicemen and women are especially proud at this news.
Though the Army hasn’t yet publicized her appointment, the rumor has spread among Hindu servicemembers around the world. And Dharm, a chaplain on the medical staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, has started getting emails from them.
“I’m already on the job,” she said. “There’s this tremendous sense of hope and relief that there is someone who understands their story at a deeper level, coming from the background I do.”
Dharm also has a close relationship with Christian teaching and theology, noting that …"[i]n Hinduism, the boundaries are not that strict" between different faiths.
