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Hospital chaplain's effort to stop distribution of Gideons' books costs her her job

by JewsOnFirst.org, September 20, 2007

As director of pastoral care for a community hospital in Maryland, the Rev. Kay Myers halted the placement of sectarian Christian books in patients' rooms.

Myers said her decision was one of the carefully measured steps she had taken during her seven-year tenure to move her department to a professional level of pastoral care. The hospital's response was not so measured. The CEO immediately countermanded Myers. Within months she was forced to resign.

Myers, a Presbyterian minister, was in her seventh year directing the chaplaincy of Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury last winter, when she moved to halt the Gideons' long-time practice of going from room to room distributing their books.

The book the Gideons were distributing at Peninsula consisted only of a New Testament and the Psalms, Myers said.

"I told the Gideons that we would not have them placing books in patients' rooms," Myers said in a telephone interview with JewsOnFirst.org.

Concerns about Gideons' distribution of books
Myers said she had worked with the hospital's community relations officials to present the decision as "respectful of all people."

She said she was concerned that the Gideons' practice of personally delivering the books to each patient room was in violation of the patient privacy law known as HIPAA.

Almost immediately, Myers recounted, the hospital CEO phoned her, wanting to know "what was going on with the bibles."

CEO Alan Newberry, had never before called her, Myers said. "He told me that evening that he would make a decision and let me know in the morning."

The next morning, Myers said, Newberry emailed her. "He said the [former] policy would go ahead." Newberry, she said, told her that "as Director of Pastoral Care, I should be taking the lead in placing the bibles."

Infection control issue
Myers said Newberry also brushed aside an email from the hospital's infection control department recommending against placing the books in patients' rooms because they might harbor long-lived pathogens. He was similarly dismissive of a report Myers sent him from an online chaplain bulletin board that discussed bibles as an infection control issue.

Myers told JewsOnFirst that, when she asked the hospital's housekeeping department to assume the task of placing the Gideons' books in patients' rooms, the infection control department emailed her again. Infection control "recommended that the pastoral care department discontinue the practice of placing the books in patients' rooms because they can be a medium for resistant organisms."

Myers said she forwarded the email to her supervisor, a vice president, asking for direction.

Emails about the infection issue circulated around the hospital for a couple of weeks. Ultimately the local newspaper became aware of them and led a Saturday edition last February with a story about the hospital removing bibles.

The following Monday, CEO Newberry called Myers into his office and, she said, berated her for an "overwhelmingly harsh and abusive" half hour.

At her annual review, in April, she found a "blistering" letter from Newberry in her file. The hospital requested her resignation.

A publicly supported community hospital
Peninsula Regional Medical Center is a community hospital. It has never been affiliated with a religious denomination. Like most hospitals, a significant portion of its revenue comes from public funds -- Medicare and Medicaid. Hospitals receiving these funds must affirmatively state that they do not discriminate.

With over 300 beds, Peninsula is the most advanced facility in the area. Local residents are unlikely to have an easy alternative for inpatient care.

CEO Newberry's office forwarded our call this afternoon to the hospital's Community Relations Department, which failed to respond to a message requesting comment.

Rev. Myers remains adamant that that a "market-place ministry" such as a hospital chaplaincy must be nonsectarian. "It needs to be carried out with best practices, with professional standards," she said. "I do believe that people in the hospital need spiritual support. But you need to meet them where they are -- not try to pull them along to where I am."

Florida chaplain fired for insisting on prayers to Jesus
Ironically, just as local Maryland papers were reporting Myers' situation, Christian right militants were ganging up on a Florida hospital that did enforce professional standards by dismissing a chaplain who, despite warnings, prayed in Jesus' name on inappropriate occasions.

The Christian right WorldnetDaily suggested that the hospital president's recent resignation might be connected to "community response" to Leesburg Regional Medical Center's termination of chaplain Danny Harvey. According to the website:

The hospital said it dismissed Harvey from his $48,000-a-year post not because he was praying in the name of Jesus Christ, "but [because] the official duties of a paid position were not being met. Those duties include being respectful of the different religious beliefs of our patients and the ability to lead them in their faith in their time of need."

Commenting on the irony of Harvey's situation, Rev. Kay Myers said: "He should have had my job and I should have had his."

Rev. Gordon Klingenschmitt, who was discharged from the Navy for inappropriate sectarian behavior, and has since risen to stardom on the Christian right, is reportedly lending support to a community protest against Harvey's firing.

Chaplain: Hospital's bible controversy led to resignation

By Greg Latshaw, The Daily Times (Salisbury, Maryland), September 6, 2007

SALISBURY, Md.-- Peninsula Regional Medical Center's former head chaplain says she was forced to resign because she supported uprooting a policy that every patient's nightstand contain a bible.

The Rev. Kay Myers, who resigned Friday, said it is wrong for one religion to receive preferential treatment over another and all religious texts should be available only by request so parity is ensured.

She also favored removing bibles from the rooms because multiple people handling the same bible can be a germ health risk. Continue.

Congregating for ex-chaplain

Adrian G. Uribarri, Orlando Sentinel, September 16, 2007

Marchers such as Aaron Schotsch agreed that Danny Harvey should not have been fired as head chaplain of Leesburg Regional Medical Center last month for refusing to stop praying in Jesus' name, even when he wasn't praying with Christians.

"So many of our rights are being taken away all the time," said Schotsch, 39. "Everybody's trying to make everything politically correct."

Joni Smith, vice president of planning and business development at the hospital, said protesters have misconstrued the termination as an act of religious intolerance rather than a response to violation of hospital policies. Continue.

Orlando columnist admonishes Harvey supporters

Columnist Scott Maxwell writing in the Orlando Sentinel, September 16, 2007

A slug to all of those exploiting and hyping the firing of the Rev. Danny Harvey. The hospital chaplain lost his job at Leesburg Regional Medical center because he refused to stop invoking Jesus' name while praying with patients and visitors -- even those who were non-Christian. Think about this for a moment. If one of my children was in the hospital, I would pray to God and his Son, and I'd probably find comfort in Rev. Harvey joining me to do so. But what if he joined me and started offering praise to Allah? Personally, I think I'd take all the prayers I could get. But not everyone feels the same. There is, after all, a fine line between concern and proselytizing. And it seems that one time to be extra careful about not crossing that line is when someone is grieving and seeking solace for a sick or dying loved one. Click here.

Hospital Chaplain Danny Harvey Fired for Praying In Jesus Name

30 Churches will march around hospital after hospital CEO Louis Bremer resigns

News Release, Earned Media, September 14, 2007

LEESBURG, Fla., Sept. 14 /Christian Newswire/ -- Hospital Chaplain Danny Harvey, recently fired for praying "in Jesus name" by the Leesburg Regional Medical Center, will hold two press conferences, Friday at 2 pm, and Saturday at 8:30 am, on the public steps of City Hall (corner of 5th and Main) in Leesburg Florida.

Clergy and citizens from over 30 churches will gather at 8:15 am, to march around the hospital at 9:00am, on Saturday 15 Sep, starting from the steps of Leesburg City Hall. The marchers will walk in silent prayer for two-miles around the South Campus of the hospital, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the rallying cry, "My Jesus, My Freedom, My Stand."

Public outcry in support of Chaplain Harvey has already resulted in the sudden resignation of hospital CEO Louis Bremer, the same man who publicly supported Human Resource director Darlene Stone who fired Chaplain Harvey for praying in Jesus name. Continue.

Chaplain's firing inspires churches to rally

Christian leader dismissed over praying 'in Jesus' name'

WorldNetDaily, September 14, 2007

Dozens of Christian churches ranging from Catholic to Pentecostal in theology are rallying this weekend in Leesburg, Fla., under the name of Jesus, after a local chaplain was dismissed from the Leesburg Regional Medical Center for praying in His name.

"This is not a protest or march against the hospital, or for [Chaplain] Danny Harvey," John Kimer, one of the pastors at Grace Tabernacle, where Harvey is an elder, told WND. "We're uniting all the churches under the name of Jesus Christ. We have almost every denomination in this area, and we're coming together under one name, which is Jesus." Continue.

Florida Chaplain Fired after Praying in Jesus' Name

Hospital says he was not 'respectful of various faith beliefs.'

Citizenlink.com, Focus on the Family, September 9, 2007

A Florida chaplain claims he was fired from the hospital where he worked because he prayed in Jesus' name. The Rev. Danny Harvey was chaplain at Leesburg Regional Medical Center for more than seven years, but was forced to resign for what the hospital said were �concerns� raised by patients.

Harvey does not take God lightly.

�He�s done everything for me," he told a Fox affiliate in Orlando, Fla. "He is my Savior; He is my Redeemer; He is the Restorer of who I am.�

But those beliefs appear to have cost him his job. In a statement, hospital officials said Harvey�s pastoral care was �not consistent with and respectful of various faith beliefs.� Continue.

The offense of Jesus� name

James A. Smith Sr., Florida Baptist Witness, Editorial, September 13, 2007

The name of Jesus Christ can be uttered in a curse in a public place and no one takes notice. But if Jesus is invoked in a sincere prayer in the presence of those who don�t call Him Lord, a controversy is likely to erupt with great offense taken by non-Christians claiming that religious pluralism and tolerance have been violated by the Christian.

This perversion of pluralism and tolerance is killing religious freedom in America. And it may have cost a Leesburg hospital chaplain his job.

Danny Harvey lost his job last month as the director of pastoral care at Leesburg Regional Medical Center after he refused requests by his supervisors to not use Jesus� name in prayers with non-Christian patients and hospital officials.

According to The Daily Commercial, a Leesburg newspaper, LRMC�s president Louis Bremer says the hospital received several complaints about Harvey praying in Jesus� name with non-Christian patients during his eight years on the job. LRMC required Harvey to attend a religious tolerance course in 2002 and was asked to abide by Association of Professional Chaplain guidelines which call for chaplains to respect for the beliefs of others and refrain from imposing their beliefs on others. Continue.