{"id":3311,"date":"2009-03-18T09:12:21","date_gmt":"2009-03-18T14:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=3311"},"modified":"2009-03-18T09:12:21","modified_gmt":"2009-03-18T14:12:21","slug":"to-improve-decorum-hospice-chaplain-is-not-allowed-to-use-the-word-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/to-improve-decorum-hospice-chaplain-is-not-allowed-to-use-the-word-god\/","title":{"rendered":"To improve decorum, hospice chaplain is not allowed to use the word "God""},"content":{"rendered":"

A chaplain at Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton has resigned because she is not allowed to use the word ‘God’<\/a>. Not a nurse or a doctor, a chaplain:<\/em><\/p>\n

A chaplain at Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton has resigned, she says, over a ban on use of the words “God” or “Lord” in public settings.<\/p>\n

Chaplains still speak freely of the Almighty in private sessions with patients or families but, the Rev. Mirta Signorelli said: “I can’t do chaplain’s work if I can’t say ‘God’ – if I’m scripted.”<\/p>\n

Hospice CEO Paula Alderson said the ban on religious references applies only to the inspirational messages that chaplains deliver in staff meetings. The hospice remains fully comfortable with ministers, priests and rabbis offering religious counsel to the dying and grieving.<\/p>\n

“I was sensitive to the fact that we don’t impose religion on our staff, and that it is not appropriate in the context of a staff meeting to use certain phrases or ‘God’ or ‘Holy Father,’ because some of our staff don’t believe at all,” Alderson said.<\/p>\n

Signorelli said that she and other chaplains were told Feb. 23 to “cease and desist from using God in prayers.”<\/p>\n

Signorelli said her supervisor recently singled her out for delivering a spiritual reflection in the chapel that included the word “Lord” and had “a Christian connotation.”<\/p>\n

“But that was the 23rd Psalm,” Signorelli said – not, strictly speaking, Christian, as it appears in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n

“And I am well aware that there were people from the Jewish tradition in attendance. I didn’t say Jesus or Allah or Jehovah. I used ‘Lord’ and ‘God,’ which I think are politically correct. I think that’s as generic as you can get.”<\/p>\n

Signorelli resigned Feb. 25.<\/p>\n

None of the six other chaplains objected to the ban on God’s name, she said.<\/p>\n

Alderson said she was surprised by Signorelli’s reaction to what she characterized as a minor administrative directive aimed solely at improving the decorum of monthly staff meetings, where the desired tone from a chaplain should be motivational, not religious.<\/p>\n

Alderson said it started after she asked a chaplain – not Signorelli – to say something “inspirational” and “thought-provoking” at a staff meeting. The remarks did not strike the secular tone she wanted, Alderson said. So, “I issued some guidelines.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The obvious question that comes to mind is, why does the hospice employ chaplains if they don’t want them to talk about God? Asking a chaplain to motivate people, but refusing to allow her to refer to that which motivates her, is like asking Richard Dawkins to explain evolution without mentioning Darwin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A chaplain at Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton has resigned because she is not allowed to use the word ‘God’. Not a nurse or a doctor, a chaplain: A chaplain at Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,307],"tags":[2080,2267],"class_list":["post-3311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-the-fall-of-the-west","tag-christianity","tag-the-fall-of-the-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}