67 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
67 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
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Wednesday, February 2, 1994
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BREAKPOINT with Chuck Colson
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Steve Buckley is one dangerous guy. The 6 foot 2 inch, 240 pound
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Buckley used to work on the psychiatric ward at a medical center in
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Oregon. I say used to because Buckley was recently disciplined and
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transferred to another floor so that he would no longer be a threat to
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mentally ill patients.
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What did Steve Buckley do that alarmed his superiors enough that they
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yanked him off the psychiatric ward? Did he abuse patients? Was he
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incompetent? No. Worse than that, Steve Buckley is a conservative
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Christian.
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One night at the Roseburg Veteran's Administration Medical Center, a
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patient asked Buckley to sing Amazing Grace with his guitar, and he
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actually did it. Even worse, when patients asked Buckley how he dealt
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with depression and fear he would tell them the truth. He said he prays
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and reads his Bible.
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For this monstrous offense Buckley was hauled before the medical
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center's ethics board, and informed that his activities constituted "a
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danger to the atmosphere of the unit." A disciplinary letter was placed
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in his permanent file, and he was transferred to the geriatric ward
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where is expertise inpsychiatric nursing is going to waste.
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When Buckley asked his superiors what they expected him to do when
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patients asked direct questions about his faith, he was told to deflect
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the question and answer evasively. It's not as though Buckley was
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forcing his religion down his patient's throat along with psychotropic
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medication. Buckley told BreakPoint that he never brought up his
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beliefs unless a patient asked him a direct question. "The other staff
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people talked to patients about their divorces, or even about the last
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man they slept with," Buckley said, "but I can't talk about God, not
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even to answer a question."
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Ironically, the patients themselves never complained about Buckley. In
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fact, they told the hospital's patient advocate they want him back. So
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whose rights does the hospital think it's protecting. In the process of
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protecting the patients' theoretical rights, the staff is trampling all
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over Buckley's real constitutional rights.
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In a similar case, Roman vs Appleby, the court ruled that a public
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school guidance counselor has a First Amendment right to discuss
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religion with a student so long as the student initiated the topic and
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was not compelled to accept the counselor's views. So the legal facts
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here are absolutely clear and in Buckley's favor.
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The dirty little secret is that the hospital is not really all that
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concerned about the patients' religious rights. The staff is perfectly
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happy to impose religion as long as it's not Christianity. Buckley says
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he and other technicians were required to lead patients in
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transcendental meditation-style relaxation sessions as part of their
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therapy. This, despite the fact that a federal court has ruled TM to be
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a religion, and banned it from public schools. And may I remind you,
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this is all taking place in a veteran's hospital paid for by our tax
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funds.
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We often hear it said that America has become a secular culture, but the
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truth is that religion is perfectly welcome. It is Christianity that is
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treated as the enemy.
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*
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Copyright (c) 1994 Prison Fellowship
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