Spokane police chaplains will no longer wear badges with crosses on them. An atheist who volunteers with the Police Department sued over the issue. The case was settled out of court. The crosses will be removed.

The lawsuit claimed the crosses were an “impermissible incorporation of a particular religious symbol in a government insignia.” The settlement was a fair one, but unfortunately it might fuel more misconceptions about the real work that police chaplains – and chaplains in other kinds of workplaces – do on the job.

They don’t preach. They don’t evangelize. They don’t Bible-thump their way through touchy situations. They aren’t all Christians, by any means. Nationally, workplace chaplains hold personal belief systems of every type. They are Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Hindus – and atheists. And many chaplains have been certified through Clinical Pastoral Education programs. They often do these CPE programs in hospital settings where they are trained to offer comfort and compassion to every patient, regardless of the patient’s religious beliefs.

The Association for Clinical Pastoral Education describes itself as “multicultural, multifaith organization devoted to providing education and improving the quality of ministry and pastoral care offered by spiritual caregivers of all faiths.”

Workplace chaplains possess skills that transcend any denomination, except the denomination of heart and spirit. They learn how to listen without judgment. How to be with people in pain without talking too much themselves. How to bear witness to the incredible suffering people endure.

Law enforcement chaplains in the Spokane Police Department, and Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, perform wrenching civic duties. (They are not paid with public funds, by the way, but with donations.) They knock on the doors of homes in the middle of the night. Inside, family members are awakened to news that will change their lives forever. A teen has died in a car accident. A father has jumped to his death from a bridge.

Law enforcement chaplains, like workplace chaplains in other businesses and institutions, also help employees who wrestle with illness, grief and tragedy. Employees do not leave their private lives behind when they punch the time clock. The burden of private issues can diminish productivity. That’s why workplace chaplaincy is becoming more common in U.S. businesses. And that’s why the military has had a long tradition of nondenominational chaplaincy officers.

Removing the crosses from the Spokane police chaplain badges is the right move, because of the legal issues, but also because the symbol doesn’t reflect the full range of the work they do. Chaplains move into situations that fill the rest of us with dread. And once there, they use their training and skills to ease whatever heartbreak they find.