DJ Says...

Talk about a bizarre 'policy': chaplains at a hospice in Florida are banned from using the word God or Lord in public.

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.

Signorelli, of Royal Palm Beach, said the hospice policy has a chilling effect that goes beyond the monthly staff meetings. She would have to watch her language, she said, when leading a prayer in the hospice chapel, when meeting patients in the public setting of a nursing home and in weekly patient conferences with doctors, nurses and social workers.

"If you take God away from me," she said, "it's like taking a medical tool away from a nurse."

Pretty incredible. The administrator claims she was just trying to respect the faith of people without faith and only in staff meetings.

"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.

But as with most attempts to control people, the law of unintended consequences takes over.

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."

"But that was the 23rd Psalm," Signorelli said — not, strictly speaking, Christian, as it appears in the Old Testament.

"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."

Notice that it wasn't a staff meeting, it was a chapel service. If you can't say God in a chapel service, where is it appropriate? Also notice how the supervisor decided to extend the administrator's policy beyond staff meetings. I call this "policy creep". You see it in every business and bureaucracy in the world, which is why you have to be very careful of unintended consequences when implementing any restrictive policy. For the most part, I've found that it is better to not implement restrictive policies and deal with situations on a case by case basis.

On a larger, societal scale, this is simply another indication of how far America has moved from its foundation of religious freedom. Can you imagine George Washington not being allowed to say God in public?

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."