The Invasion of Health Care

The Cult of Spiritual Care

Hospitals and hospices have redefined what is means to provide "pastoral care". Pastoral care is now called "Spiritual Care" in nearly all heralth facilities. Medical institutions have differentiated between spirituality and religion. Their definition of religion is "a religious practice that focuses on rituals and beliefs" while spirituality is defined as focusing in on that which "brings emotional wholeness, meaning and purpose, and the values of the individual". If you notice, their definition of religion and spirituality both leave out God.

There are two praimary reasons why God has been omitted from health care. First, health care is Medicare driven. Perhaps you didn't know that health institutions depend greatly on Medicare for their funding. In turn, Medicare has stipulated a job description for nearly all professions within the health industry including chapolaincy. Because of this, chaplains can no longer express their personal faith but must act as spiritual chameleaons validating anyone's faith or lack of faith even if it directly violates their own beliefs. Second, hsopitals and other health care institutions are concerned about their accrediation. The Joint Committee on Acreditation and Compliance for Health Care Organizations, (or JACHO) is the accrediting body for health care. Again, JACHO's view of spirituality is that it must be an all-inclusive form of spiritual care that generically provides care for all faiths and beliefs even if one contardicts the other, or contradicts the spiritual values of those providing care.

Because of these two factors, hospitals and hospices prohibit chaplains from talking with patients about their paricular belief system. This includds Christian chaplains, Muslim chpalins, Christian Science chaplains or any chaplain. Chaplains have to violate their own faith beliefs or run the risk of loosing their jobs. To put it in the vernacular, hospitals and hospices take the view that "there are many pathways to God". If a chaplain is a sincere Christian, he or she will find themselves in a "Catch 22" situation where they must contradict their personal integrity and their own faith belief system in order to have a job. This means that regardless of their faith background, chaplains must violate their own personal integrity in order to have a job.

What does all of this mean to Christians. First, it means that Christians who are patients at health care facilities may want to think twice about relying on chpaliancy care instead of the pastoral care provided by their church. Chaplains may validate your faith, but they may be prohibited from sharing that which is spiritually helpful to you. In fact, they may even mislead or misguide you in order to meet their institutional requirements. Second, chaplains in the industry who not only must support the relious beliefs of all individuals but embrace them as well may want to re-consider if they want to work in an environment that violates their own personal belief system at all. As believers we must adhere to the words or Jude 3 which states that we are to "contend for the faith". Health care is being invaded today by a form of spirituality which denies the very existence of God and instead, mbraces every religious belief that opposes the name of Christ. Let us be discerning and differentiate between faith in CChrist and the idea of "spritual care'".