Congregating for ex-chaplain

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Congregating for ex-chaplain

By Adrian G. Uribarri, The 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.

"It is not about praying in the name of Jesus at all. It's about respecting the beliefs of our patients and their families," she said. "Where it's getting confused is that someone, or a group of people, is trying to interface this with religious persecution. Somehow the lines got blurred because he happened to be over pastoral care."

In a line that stretched several blocks, demonstrators walked from City Hall to the hospital, where the marchers gathered in front of the hospital as employees and patients watched from its entrance.

At the start of the walk, demonstrators were so quiet that only their footsteps upset the sound of jazz piped in from the ground-level speakers around the downtown's main square.

"I hope they make it clear to the rest of the country that the name of Jesus is the name that nobody's afraid to speak," said Robert Reyes, who said he volunteered at the hospital as an associate chaplain. Reyes said he wanted to join the march but could only watch from a bench outside the hospital because he was under treatment for an infection.

Some marched despite disabilities. Elderly demonstrators clung to younger people. Others rolled along in wheelchairs.

Hobbling toward the hospital, 57-year-old Wendell Southard leaned on ahand-carved cane. The Vietnam veteran said he worked for the hospital several years ago, and that he is disappointed with its actions against Harvey.

"It's all politics," he said. "This is all political, and it's all wrong."

Both Southard and Reyes, the volunteer chaplain, said they worked with Harvey at the hospital. Each backed the preacher's claim that he has notprayed to Jesus in front of someone who objected.

But some of Harvey's supporters said that as a Christian, it is his duty to pray to Jesus regardless of others' beliefs.

"We are commanded to pray in Jesus' name," said 62-year-old Daniel DeLibro, a retired auto technician. "The Bible says, 'When you pray to me, you pray to Jesus.' "

Dale Fonville, a demonstrator and a pastor at North Lake Chapel, took a more moderate position. He said that while he sides with Harvey's right to express his faith, he understands why the hospital would try to protect patients' rights as well.

"I have mixed emotions," Fonville said. "We're based on religious freedom, right? So it cuts both ways."A fire official said that by the end of the march, about 10 people were treated for heat exhaustion, and that several ended up in the emergency room of the same hospital that requested they stay off the premises during the demonstration.

The above-90-degree heat took its toll on Marie Cribb. The 67-year-old sat on a bench by City Hall as fire officials gave her oxygen. She said her fatigue was worth it.

"I'm a born-again Christian," Cribb said, "and I don't care who tells me not to pray for Jesus."

Saturday evening, Smith said the march will not change the hospital's decision to terminate him, and that it is in the process of finding a new chaplain who will follow hospital regulations.

"We hope that we have a replacement very soon," she said. "That will be a comfort to patients."

Leesburg

Like a shepherd, Danny Harvey led more than 1,000 followers on a quiet march Saturday to protest his ouster as chaplain for a Lake County hospital.

"I was terminated because I prayed in the name of Jesus Christ," said Harvey, wearing a straw hat, black pants and, like many of his supporters, a T-shirt that read, "My Jesus My Freedom My Stand."

"It's religious discrimination," Harvey said."

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