Proposed Bible ban raises ire in Calgary hospitals
CALGARY, AB-Christian leaders wasted little time in responding to an October 20 front-page headline in the Calgary Herald that declared, "Bible may be banned from city hospitals."
Prominently displayed beside a picture of Pope John Paul II taken at the previous day's beatification ceremony held for Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the article identified a proposal from authorities at the Calgary Health Region (CHR).
"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 Herald claimed.
The news story carried a photo of Robert Greene, a minister at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church, who charged "the secularists are taking over. This is just one more step in the secularization of society-to get rid of anything of spiritual content."
By mid-morning, radio phone-in shows were abuzz with callers wanting to know what was really going on and who was responsible for the proposal.
The negative publicity prompted the CHR to call a press conference that afternoon where executive vice-president Howard Waldner said the region has never considered taking Bibles from bedside tables. When asked, "so there's absolutely no proposal to have Bibles removed from hospital rooms?" Waldner replied, "absolutely not."
The Calgary Sun carried a terse report the next day suggesting there was no truth to the reports. The same issue of the Sun, however, contained a column by editor Licia Corbella, an outspoken Christian, taking the Health Region to task for a proposal she suggested likely catered to the gripes of a tiny minority.
Meanwhile, the Herald stood behind its initial report by publishing portions of a CHR draft policy it said it had obtained that indicated the issue of removing religious materials from hospital rooms is indeed being contemplated.
The draft contained the following: "The random distribution of religious tracts, pamphlets, objects and books will not be permitted in the health care facilities of the Calgary Health Region(CHR). The display of sacred texts, religious tracts, pamphlets and books will not be permitted in the health care facilities of the Calgary Health Region. Sacred texts of one faith to the exclusion of all others will not be provided in patient rooms."
The Herald quoted Calgary's Roman Catholic bishop Fred Henry as saying, "I don't know who should win idiot of the week-the [provincial] government for saying it's going to charge people to live in homeless shelters or the Calgary Health Region for this idiotic proposal."
By Friday, the CHR appeared to be backing off. A letter from Waldner referring to "media speculation" was published in the Herald saying, "The CHR has no plans to ban any sacred texts...we have undertaken a review of a number of procedures and guidelines to ensure a consistent approach is implemented and employed across the newly expanded region.
Staff in our spiritual care program recognized the need to review our guidelines and improve access by patients and staff to the Bible and other sacred texts, with a considered respect for our multicultural society."
In a conversation with CW at week's end, Greene was not prepared to let the CHR off the hook. "It's all a smoke-screen. This is just another example that we're living in a post-modern society where there are no objective values," he commented.
"It's another attempt to deny the principles this country was founded on. One of our ladies who works in a care-centre was telling me the other day that they've had to take down signs in their facility referring to the 'chapel.' They've been replaced with signs that say 'auditorium.'"
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