(CNN) – Callahan isn’t afraid of digging into the deep stuff. In fact, he runs toward it. Sometimes, though, he’ll encounter patients who brush him off when they learn he’s a chaplain — they aren’t believers, they tell him, and aren’t particularly in the mood for a sermon.

He isn’t there to preach or pray, he reassures them. His job is to be there for them as a human being: To listen and to comfort them through whatever they’re struggling with.

In these conversations with patients who are wary of religion, Callahan slips in another detail: He’s an atheist himself. (Read More)