Wednesday, February 2, 1994

BREAKPOINT with Chuck Colson

Steve Buckley is one dangerous guy. The 6 foot 2 inch, 240 pound
Buckley used to work on the psychiatric ward at a medical center in
Oregon. I say used to because Buckley was recently disciplined and
transferred to another floor so that he would no longer be a threat to
mentally ill patients.

What did Steve Buckley do that alarmed his superiors enough that they
yanked him off the psychiatric ward? Did he abuse patients? Was he incompetent? No. Worse than that, Steve Buckley is a conservative
Christian.

One night at the Roseburg Veteran's Administration Medical Center, a
patient asked Buckley to sing Amazing Grace with his guitar, and he
actually did it. Even worse, when patients asked Buckley how he dealt
with depression and fear he would tell them the truth. He said he prays
and reads his Bible.

For this monstrous offense Buckley was hauled before the medical
center's ethics board, and informed that his activities constituted "a
danger to the atmosphere of the unit." A disciplinary letter was placed
in his permanent file, and he was transferred to the geriatric ward
where is expertise inpsychiatric nursing is going to waste.

When Buckley asked his superiors what they expected him to do when
patients asked direct questions about his faith, he was told to deflect
the question and answer evasively. It's not as though Buckley was
forcing his religion down his patient's throat along with psychotropic medication. Buckley told BreakPoint that he never brought up his
beliefs unless a patient asked him a direct question. "The other staff
people talked to patients about their divorces, or even about the last
man they slept with," Buckley said, "but I can't talk about God, not
even to answer a question."

Ironically, the patients themselves never complained about Buckley. In
fact, they told the hospital's patient advocate they want him back. So
whose rights does the hospital think it's protecting. In the process of protecting the patients' theoretical rights, the staff is trampling all
over Buckley's real constitutional rights.

In a similar case, Roman vs Appleby, the court ruled that a public
school guidance counselor has a First Amendment right to discuss
religion with a student so long as the student initiated the topic and
was not compelled to accept the counselor's views. So the legal facts
here are absolutely clear and in Buckley's favor.

The dirty little secret is that the hospital is not really all that
concerned about the patients' religious rights. The staff is perfectly
happy to impose religion as long as it's not Christianity. Buckley says
he and other technicians were required to lead patients in
transcendental meditation-style relaxation sessions as part of their
therapy. This, despite the fact that a federal court has ruled TM to be
a religion, and banned it from public schools. And may I remind you,
this is all taking place in a veteran's hospital paid for by our tax
funds.

We often hear it said that America has become a secular culture, but the
truth is that religion is perfectly welcome. It is Christianity that is treated as the enemy.

*

Copyright (c) 1994 Prison Fellowship


Eddie,
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