Posted on 10/20/2003 6:57:47 PM PDT by chance33_98
Bible may be banned from city hospitals
Health region wants to be fair to all faiths
Robin Summerfield
Calgary Herald
Monday, October 20, 2003
Rev. Robert Greene
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Bibles in bedside tables may become contraband at hospitals under a proposal from the Calgary Health Region.
If the policy is approved, the Gideons International Bible, a bedside staple, will be removed from all hospital rooms in the city and all distribution and display of any printed religious materials in hospitals will be banned.
The policy, which is still under review and likely won't be decided for at least two months, has drawn both acceptance and criticism from religious leaders in Calgary.
For the CHR's part, an official says the policy is the best way to avoid any religious discrimination or even the appearance that the organization favours one religious group over another.
"There's no interest in restricting access. It's just that we want it to be non-discriminatory," said Toni MacDonald, the CHR's director of spiritual care. "There's not enough room in the drawers for all of the materials."
"The secularists are taking over," countered Anglican minister Robert Greene, assistant priest at St. John the Evangelist in Inglewood. "This is just one more step in the secularization of society -- to get rid of anything of spiritual content."
If passed in its present form, the policy calls for the removal of the Gideon Bible from patients' bedside tables.
It would also ban the posting and distribution of any printed spiritual or religious material, including the Bible, the Qur'an, the Book of Mormon and any other religious tomes.
"We thought we needed to do a more careful review of what our current practice is to ensure we are being considerate of all religious faiths," said MacDonald.
"The goal is to not appear that the health region is endorsing any one religion over another."
Religious material, however, would still be available upon request through pastoral services at each hospital.
"The idea is not acceptable to me," said Imam Mohammad Al-Nadvi, spiritual leader of Calgary's Muslim community.
It gives the impression, added Al-Nadvi, "that faith is maybe some negative thing, some harmful thing."
"The better option is to solve it, to get together and solve it, than to get rid of it altogether," he said.
Meanwhile, the head of Calgary's Jewish community said hospital patients won't be left out in the spiritual cold.
"I have no problem with it basically because a chaplain is always available when (patients) want them," said Rabbi Moshe Saks, who leads Calgary's 700-family-strong Beth Tzedec congregation. "There's plenty of access."
Spiritual and pastoral services at all hospitals will continue to offer
24-hour, on-call spiritual advisers of all faiths.
Saks said the issue of banning religion in Calgary hospitals is part of a bigger problem -- "zealous pastors" giving the "hard sell on religion" and people "afraid to talk about religion."
In an earlier draft form of the policy, the Calgary Health Region considered prohibiting the sale of religious material and artifacts in hospital gift stores.
A subsequent draft removed that provision and those items will continue to be for sale.
When asked for a copy of the new draft, MacDonald said it would be "inappropriate" to provide the document until after the issue was settled.
There is no guideline or policy relating to the display or distribution of religious materials at CHR sites.
Informally, however, religious material left in waiting rooms and other public areas by different faith groups is picked up and taken to the pastoral care office.
The new policy must have consensus by a community committee with representatives of all faiths, the directors of each hospital and a spiritual care committee.
MacDonald said the CHR does support spirituality, as shown by the eight employees who tend to spiritual issues.
rsummerfield@theherald.canwest.com
Sad and for sure, we will be following.
Of course, many people in crisis do not 'ask' for spiritual guidance, some would never ask at all; but many of those people have been willing to 'reach'. . .and find solace and comfort, close at hand. . .
PC is a seeimingly innocuous attempt to 'protect' people from themselves. The reality is that is designed to change the way people think. . .and then the way the behave. . .and eventually people are afraid to even speak, 'what they think'.
PC, when successful promotes fear and acts as a control; and yes, people do fear being sued. But the threat of PC, and what should be our real fear of PC, is of course, much more sinister than a lawsuit.
Nah....all PC can be boiled down to a desire for thought control.
In their first draft, the CHR had considered drawing and quartering any individual or individuals avowing faith in the existence of God, but had deemed that some might consider that to be unconstitutional.
PC is thought control as perpetrated by lawyers.
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