Do you have thoughts about professional practice you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail info@PlainViews.org.

Advocacy

Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs on claiming what we do

Learning from the Fingerprints on Our Hearts

I recently returned to the hospital where I did several CPE units as a student chaplain. It is my neighborhood hospital but I had not had a reason to be there since finishing CPE. The hospital was founded by the Episcopal Church so there is a beautiful chapel located where the main entrance used to be. There are marble steps leading up to the chapel and it has a balcony which was used to let families view the body of their loved one if the person died in the Emergency Room or OR and had not been admitted to a floor.

For old times’sake, I decided to visit the chapel. As I sat in one of the pews, memories flooded back to me. I remembered my first patient visit, where I was able to stay in the room for a whole 10 minutes and then wrote that visit up in a verbatim. (I subsequently learned from my fellow interns that I had not done as well as I thought I had done!) I remembered the nurse with whom I had developed a wonderful relationship and with whom I had deep theological discussions, who suddenly died. I remembered my first overnight, where I had to deal with an extremely upset and outraged family in the balcony of the chapel as they viewed the body of their 26-year-old loved one who had died from a gunshot wound. I thought about the mother of a three-year-old little girl who was unconscious, who sat vigil while her daughter died from an AIDS-related illness. That same first overnight, I sat for three hours with the mother, talking and praying and just being there. I remembered the Jewish man who was dying. His rabbi came to see him and as the rabbi recited the Sh’ma, I could see the patient physically relax. We spent the night sitting vigil together while he died. I remembered the scene in the ER where I had been paged because a child had shot himself. I was startled when I walked into the room to discover a Caucasian mother sitting there. It was at that point that I realized that I had to deal with some racist issues that I had not realized I had buried within me.

So many more memories. I was surprised at my own feelings as I remembered each of these situations and so many others during my training.

Since becoming a chaplain, there have been hundreds and hundreds of people with whom I have come into contact. Each one has left a fingerprint on my heart. While sitting there in the chapel, I realized just how much I had learned from those whom I had served. These people taught me so much about living and dying, and love and who God was for them. I began to wonder what, if anything, I owed to these people who allowed me into their lives at a time that is so painful for most and who now reside in my heart, having forever changed me.

What do I owe them? Perhaps it is keeping their stories alive by writing this article. Perhaps it is by writing about what it is that I do that helped them through a difficult time in their life so that another chaplain intern or resident or colleague or local clergyperson will learn from my mistakes and my challenges and my “aha”moments.

What do you owe to those whom you have served –who are now fingerprints on your heart? What do you do with the knowledge that you have gleaned from your years as a chaplain? What do you owe the next generation of chaplains?

Articles are being written about what we do. They are being written by doctors, nurses, social workers and others. For example, I recently came across an article entitled: “Spiritual Transformation, Relation and Radical Empathy: Core Components of the Ritual Healing Process.”I looked at the byline assuming that I would find it written by someone who was a chaplain and/or had an M.Div. or a D.Min. Sadly, it was written by a professor of Anthropology. Not surprising though, since most articles written these days about spirituality and healing and death and dying are written by other than chaplains…..

So, I want to challenge you to begin to write about what it is that you do and how you do it. If we don’t claim what we do, we will not grow as a profession and we will have no one to blame but ourselves. It is time for us to build the body of knowledge that will ensure our acceptance as a “profession.”It is time for us to claim what it is we do and to pass what we have learned onto those who will follow in our footsteps.

Did you learn anything from a patient or family member whom you served? How about from staff or a doctor? Honor that learning by writing about it. Whether it be for PlainViews, Chaplaincy Today, Vision, ACPE News or any other Journal, we need to grow our body of work so that we can not only claim our rightful place alongside our medical, nursing and social work colleagues, but continue to grow and serve our teachers - the patients, families, and hospital personnel.

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Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs is Managing Editor of PlainViews.

Do you have thoughts about advocacy you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org.

Education & Research

Paulette Heinlein on accepting oneself where one is

Confessions of a “Wise”CPE Student

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”
I Corinthians 1:27

As a student, foolish as I may be, I have had to come to terms about who I really am. I have had to make a decision as to who I want to be. In my first CPE Unit, I was polished, energetic, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic. I considered myself as “the wise.”No challenge was too big. Everything seemed to work out for me, no matter what I was called to do. I was certainly “the wise.”I have come to learn that we are a proud people, but our pride stems from a self-worth that if not attended can quickly turn into self-exaltation, and a simple unhealthy love for oneself.

“The wise”fall into the trap of seeing themselves as the only ones who are capable of working proficiently and sufficiently. Their view of other people becomes one of condescension, and ill-regard. They have placed themselves on a pedestal and can no longer view themselves or others from the same level. How can God use a person like this? From personal experience, I beseech you, He does. As He has promised, He will confound us, and I for one was confounded. I could not understand how someone as “wise”as me could not be used more instrumentally. After all, are people blind?

It was not until my second Unit that I was chosen to be foolish and weak, not to mention, exposed. By God’s grace I was able to choose which one I would be. I worked hard to be foolish, but that “wise one”popped out every so often. It wasn’t until I was fully exposed through an assignment in class, Myth Writing, that I became fully aware of the depth of my problem. The “wise one,”again, had become confounded. Nonetheless, there was now room for the foolish and weak to arise, and work. She was free to ask all the foolish questions, and to reveal all of her weaknesses. As a result, she could truly learn, heal, and grow.

This sense of who you really are invites you to imagine who you can really be, and never allows you to forget from whence you came. The real meaning of humility is accepting yourself for where you are right now, and choosing to be reshaped into what God wants you to be, not for your own glory, but for God’s.

So the real question we all have to answer is, Are we the foolish and weak, or are we “the wise”? If we are foolish and weak, we are teachable, ever learning and healing, and always growing. Simply put, we are transformed into the Image of God, one of peace and happiness. The real question is, Are we willing to admit that we are foolish and weak?

On the other hand, if we choose wise, we will always find ourselves confounded or confused. We run the risk of self-exaltation and unhealthy love for oneself. We become self-propelled, unable to be taught, and stagnant in growth. It becomes increasing difficult to admit who we really are, but not impossible.

Which one have you chosen to become?

 

I would like to dedicate this article to all the people who lived with “the wise one”with patience, perseverance, and love. Simply put, the ones who had to live with me through my awakening and discovery of who I really was and who I await to become. You know who you are. . .

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Paulette Heinlein is a Seventh-Day Adventist Lay person, wife and mother of three, homeschooler, and student at Andrews Theological Seminary in the Masters in Pastoral Ministry program in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Her undergraduate work was in Computer Science.

Do you have thoughts about education & research you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org.

Spiritual Development

Judith Buswell on glimpsing the soul of another

Peace Comes Softly and Unannounced

“Perhaps Umija can help me with this,”I thought as I tucked music for a Bosnian folk song into my purse and climbed into my husband’s Subaru. We were taking Umija Gusinac with us to a concert that evening and there would be time before the event to talk about these strange Bosnian words.

It was only that week that I had met Umija and her husband Rasim. As refugees from war-ravaged Bosnia, they had resettled in the Lakes Region, in the same community where I live. Somehow I sensed she would want to help me, a member of the Pemigewasset Choral Society eager to be comfortable with the lyrics of this music that was a part of our next concert series.

We arrived early and finding good seats was easy, leaving us time to talk. After a few minutes, I pulled the music from my bag and put it on my lap.

“Umi,”I asked, “can you help me with the words to this song from your country?”

“Oh my,”she said, “You are going to sing a song from my Bosnia?”

“Yes, but I don’t think I’m saying these words right. I’ll sing a bit for you. Please stop me and make any corrections you want.”

So I picked up the music and turned to her and quietly began singing the melody from the plaintive folk song, Tuzno Leto, expecting her to interrupt me at any moment. She looked at me and then down at her hands. I sang the first page …and then the second, while she grew very quiet and still.

“Oh dear,”I worried as I continued on. “She is my new friend and here I am butchering her language.”

But I kept singing.

And still she did not stop me. Finally, I sang the last note. There was a long pause of silence and still she looked at her hands. I was certain I had insulted her in a way I would never comprehend.

Finally she looked up at me and her eyes were damp with tears. “I have been in America for four years and this is the first time anyone has sung to me in my own language. You have given me such a gift. Thank you….Thank you,”she said over and over.

My hand touched hers, our eyes locked and for the briefest instant, thousands of miles of wrenching pain and horror seemed to fade and I was able to cross that span between her culture and mine. It was a sacred moment that I will remember forever.

Only then did I understand that moments of real peace come softly and unannounced, quite like dust on the wings of a butterfly. What allows tribes and nations to live side-by-side never comes at the end of a rifle or through an edict from a pulpit or podium. It simply follows a precious glimpse into the bare soul of another.

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Judith Buswell from Laconia, New Hampshire, is the Planning and Resource Coordinator for the Belknap County Citizens Council on Children and Families, a county department. Judy earned a BA in Music Education from Brigham Young University in Utah and an M.Ed. from Plymouth State College in NH. She is also the Music Director with the Unitarian Universalist Society in Laconia. An avid choral musician, she is a former member of the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle Choir and now sings with the Pemigewasset Chorale Society and with the NH Music Festival Summer Symphonic Chorus.

In preparation for the 2006 Pemigewasset Choral Society Christmas concert series, choral society members were invited to offer their personal written reflections on peace, the theme of the concerts. Judith's reflection caught Rev. Dr. WIlliam Zeckhausen's heart and he asked her to submit it to PlainViews.

Do you have thoughts about spiritual development you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail of any length to info@PlainViews.org.

EthicsWalk

EthicsWalk addresses spiritual care as an ethical enterprise. It explores why relationships between spiritual care providers and those they serve need protection, and examines what that protection entails. PlainViews invites our readers to share their responses to each EthicsWalk column, which will be published in the following issue.

If you’d like to respond to EthicsWalk, please send a comment of no more than 100 words. You can use the e-form below (click on "hearing from you," link) or submit your commentary to the editors in the body of an e-mail (or as a Microsoft Word attachment) sent to Info@PlainViews.org. Please put the phrase “EthicsWalk” in your subject line.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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Attorney Ethics: Not an Oxymoron

Patient Autonomy v. Family Comfort: The Provider’s Dilemma (PlainViews, 12/6/06, vol. 3, no. 21) portrayed a family divided over withdrawal of life support in a medically futile situation. The accident victim’s wife disagreed with the health care proxy’s decision for withdrawal. Advance directives clearly demonstrated withdrawal would be the patient’s wishes. The family’s minister and the hospital chaplain said “beneficence”dictated giving the wife more time to accept the situation. She hired an attorney who challenged the validity of the proxy and threatened suit if withdrawal occurred before determination.

The column elicited this response from Chaplain Gordon Putnam: “I am confused about the duty of the wife’s attorney. With an advance directive that seems so clear, isn’t there an ethical responsibility for the attorney to explain the law to the wife rather than threaten a lawsuit?”

Both chaplain and attorney had ethical responsibilities to counsel the wife. The chaplain’s duty flowed from the principles of autonomy and beneficence. Those principles attached to the patient whose wishes the chaplain needed steadfastly to articulate to the wife.[1]

The attorney’s duty was to the goals of the client-wife. Client autonomy is foundational to the attorney-client relationship. The attorney’s obligation is to advocate what the client believes to be the client’s best interests. Ethically, the attorney had to advocate for slowing the withdrawal process in spite of patient directives. Threatening a suit bought time for the wife’s grieving process.

Attorneys can educate and counsel clients, indeed plead and prod, but once a case is accepted, attorneys are ethically bound to advocate for their client’s wishes. Attorneys cannot knowingly permit clients to break laws or commit perjury. But attorneys must advocate for the interpretation of law or facts that best meet a client’s interests.

Most attorneys take seriously their role as “counselors at law.”They maneuver through clients’emotional and psychological attachments recognizing those that can be compromised and adapting to those that cannot. They attempt to inform, educate and guide clients to reasonable decisions. The American Bar Association Model Rules[2] state: “In representing a client, a lawyer shall exercise independent professional judgment and render candid advice. In rendering advice, a lawyer may refer not only to law but to other considerations such as moral, economic, social and political factors, that may be relevant to the client's situation.”[3]

However, the client, not the attorney, ultimately determines the goals and chooses the course of action to achieve those goals. An attorney is the client’s alter ego, not the client’s super ego. Quoting again from the Model Rules: “a lawyer shall abide by a client's decisions concerning the objectives of representation and…shall consult with the client as to the means by which they are to be pursued. ... A lawyer shall abide by a client's decision whether to settle a matter. …(b) A lawyer's representation of a client, including representation by appointment, does not constitute an endorsement of the client's political, economic, social or moral views or activities.”[4]

Health care providers must provide competent medical services for patients in their care regardless of judgments about the patient’s values or life choices. Attorneys must represent the positions of their clients regardless of the attorney’s own feelings about those positions. A surgeon cannot walk out in the middle of an operation unless an equally competent surgeon is present to take over. An attorney cannot withdraw from representation in a case unless another attorney has entered an appearance on the client’s behalf.

The United States judicial system for all its flaws works because people can obtain legal representation regardless of their psychological quirks, emotional entanglements, political proclivities, or alleged crimes and misdemeanors. Judges and juries render findings and decisions, not attorneys. Ethically, attorneys can render only their professional advice and vigorous advocacy and must do both without publicly criticizing their clients.

Next month’s column will suggest ways in which people can work effectively with attorneys –their own and another’s –to prevent or to resolve conflict.

 

Footnotes:

[1] Arguably, the chaplain breached ethical responsibility to the patient by supporting the wife’s contrary position. The chaplain should have welcomed the intervention of the attorney as an ethically proper means of advocacy for the wife.

[2] The American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct are the basis for each state’s ethical conduct code for members of its bar.

[3] The American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Counselor Rule 2.1, Advisor

[4] The American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Client-Lawyer Relationship, Rule 1.2, Scope of Representation And Allocation of Authority Between Client and Lawyer.

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Anne Underwood has an undergraduate degree in religious studies, a master’s degree in rural sociology and a mid-life law degree obtained after working over a decade as a college administrator. She has mediated for the Maine family courts since 1983. Currently she serves as an advisor to the ethics commissions of ACPE, APC, the CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis), and NAJC, and consults with a variety of Protestant faith communities on issues of power, fair process, and congregational conflict management. Her articles on mediation and restorative justice have appeared in the ACPE News, The APC News and on the ACPE web site. Articles on clergy accountability and judicatory processes are published by the Alban Institute and The Journal on Religion and Abuse. A chapter, “Clergy Sexual Misconduct: A Justice Issue,” appears in Body and Soul: Rethinking Sexuality as Justice-Love, Marvin Ellison and Sylvia Thorson-Smith, editors, The Pilgrim Press, 2003.

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CaseConference

We post an ethical or situational concern that has arisen in a facility where one of our readers works. It has no identifiers included. It gives you only the facts of the case. Then, you can respond to that concern. This is an ongoing dialogue, with comments added as they come in. In the following issue, assuming it has been resolved, we give you the outcome from the facility where the incident took place. Please send any cases that you would like considered for inclusion to: info@plainviews.org

We hope that this new addition will help to inform not only those who are dealing with the issue, but will enable all of our readers to learn from the experiences and perhaps mistakes of others.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to unanticipated continuing responses to both the case and the resolution of the case, added responses can be viewed in the archives. Click HERE.

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CaseConference #16 Resolution

The chaplain and the wife talk about options that are open for her children - traveling with a friend, taking public transportation, etc. The chaplain asks the wife to put herself in the place where her children are. Did she think that she would want to know that her dad had died right away or hold out hope that he would survive? The wife thought about it and decided that it was better to tell her children the truth so that they would not arrive with false expectations and feel that she had not been honest with them. She called and told each one. After crying with each of them on the phone, she was able to talk with them about who they could connect with to travel with them. She also arranged for them to call her every so often on their trip back.

The Chaplain arranged for the children to see their father while his body was still at the hospital. When they arrived at the hospital, the chaplain and one of the nurses from the ER escorted the family to the viewing room, where the children were able to spend private time with their mother and their father's body. The children expressed their thanks for being able to have that time before the body was taken to the funeral home.

 

CaseConference #16

A 49-year-old man collapses on a basketball court, where he is playing with his friends. EMS arrives and is able to restart his heart. He is transported to the ED. Once there, his heart again stops and he is revived again. His wife arrives and is able to be with him for a few minutes before his heart stops again. They are unable to revive him the third time.

The chaplain is called when the patient is brought in and meets the wife when she arrives. The chaplain stays with the wife and, when it becomes apparent that her husband cannot be revived, walks her to the family room so that she can sit in private and begin to consider the consequences of her husband's death.

After several minutes, the wife turns to the chaplain and says the following: "My two children are both in college several hours from here. They need to come home but I am afraid to tell them that their father died because they will not be able to drive here safely. What should I tell them?"

What is your response?

 

CaseConference #16 Responses:

Continue the conversation further and reflect before making a call. I would validate her feelings and wisdom. It is hard to tell such news by phone. It is just as hard to tell it in person.

I generally think people deserve the truth. Maybe the children will use the drive time to begin their processing of this tragedy and have some of their tears in private.

Even knowing Dad is deceased they may want to hurry to be with their mother. She recognizes they may not drive responsibly. This is a reminder of how little control we have over others in the situation.

Disbelief and sorrow will roll in quickly. Consider calling the college and asking for a chaplain, counselor or friend to go and be with the student so they are not alone when they get the call. That person will be there for comfort, can help guide them in packing and focusing.

I would ask if there is anyone who could travel with them or pick them up.

I would offer her a prayer before the call. I would pray about the needs of each of them. I would pray for peace, safety and comfort as God guides them, cries with them and receives the husband home again.

My sister-in-law was on the other side of the state at a convention when her husband was killed by a bull. She learned the news on the phone. Other women who went with her, drove her back. She had company, she had tears, she had disbelief. But she knew her husband was already dead and nothing could have changed by her being there. Her daughter (34) handled all decisions until her mother arrived five hours later.

Kathleen Brown, MAPS, NACC
Regional Chaplain

I would begin by agreeing with the wife. Yes, she did need to have her children with her, and yes, she has every reason to be concerned about their safety as they drive back from college. However, I do not think that they would drive any more safely if they believe that their father is alive but in grave danger. In fact, they may be even more inclined to rush back recklessly. Better, I would counsel, that you tell them the truth, tell them of your need for their presence as well as your fear for their safety. then ask them to meet you at a time that would allow them to collect themselves and drive with more composure. I might suggest meeting 3 hours after the call at the mother's home for example. Other options might include encouraging the children to ride together, asking a friend or nearby relative to do the driving, or to take public transportation.

The desire to not tell the kids is very understandable and typical in the earliest moments of grief, and feeling anxiety about her children who are distant is also an appropriate reaction. Blending these responses however does nothing to improve the situation and in fact may heighten the situation's emotional volatility for everyone. As her chaplain, I would work to help her separate these two critical feelings and to address each one in a complimentary order.

Keith Goheen
Chaplain, Beebe Medical Center
Lewes, DE USA

 

Please check the archives below for comments made about the last CaseConference.

 

Send your comments about CaseConference to info@PlainViews.org.

Reviews

Sarah Masters reviews the CD series

Christian Meditation: Entering the Mind of Christ

Consider this 6-CD set a meditative retreat. James Finley, a former Trappist monk, guides the listener through some of the fundamental practices at the heart of Christian meditative tradition.

Finley was for many years a brother at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, and he shared a cloistered existence there with Thomas Merton. In 1967, Merton traveled to Thailand to engage in Christian-Buddhist dialogues, and during that journey he passed away unexpectedly. Before he died, Merton wrote a letter to his fellow Trappist monks at Abbey of Gethsemani, and in it Merton acknowledged that the world within the abbey walls contained all the knowledge of Christian tradition that he had been seeking throughout his life.

In that spirit, James Finley has created Christian Meditation, an exploration of Christianity’s contemplative tradition.

Finley calls his narration “a personal retreat experience,”and in twelve sessions he provides step-by-step instructions on how to achieve a state of awakened consciousness. Woven into the narrative are historical anecdotes about the original Christian mystics and instruction on how to “move beyond the tyranny of the past.”

The text for this audio series targets novitiates in Christian meditative thought and may prove particularly instructive to those Chaplains who practice other faiths.

Completed: 2003
Running Time: 7½ Hours
Distributor: Sounds True

If you are interested in purchasing this 6-CD series, you can do so at www.hartleyfoundation.org. Just click on “Sacred Sounds”on the homepage for more information. The cost of the set is $69.95.

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Sarah Masters is the Managing Director of the Hartley Film Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to cultivation, support, production and distribution of the best documentaries and audio meditations on world religions, spirituality, ethics and well-being.

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Book Review

Chaplain Joan Paddock Maxwell reviews

The Rebirth of the Clinic: An Introduction to Spirituality in Health Care

This book –by Daniel P. Sulmasy, a distinguished, erudite, and thoughtful Franciscan Friar, physician, and ethicist –makes a diagnosis with which every hospital chaplain will agree, and then offers a prescription which some will find troubling. The diagnosis is that spiritual issues frequently arise in connection with physical illness, and that at times these issues can be gravely disturbing for the patient. Hence “Attention to the spiritual needs of patients is a moral obligation.”(p. 169) Dr. Sulmasy makes and remakes this diagnosis powerfully and well throughout the book. If your hospital’s administration or medical staff is not supportive of chaplain services, you may find some useful assistance here.

The potentially troubling prescription is that “health care professionals [should] explore spiritual issues with patients.”(p. 178) By health care professionals, the author means physicians. He makes a strong case for this point of view, arguing that because physicians see patients at various stages of their illnesses they are well placed to monitor whether or not the patient is experiencing any spiritual difficulties. Dr. Sulmasy offers a list of possible objections to physicians engaging in this activity and counters them one by one. You will need to read these arguments yourself to evaluate their effectiveness. He says that he believes physicians should not try to engage in explicit spiritual healing themselves, but that they should refer patients in spiritual need to chaplains or their own clergy, if available. Unfortunately, while he consistently calls for physicians to assess patients’spiritual condition, in some chapters he does not always explicitly call for referral.

One objection Dr. Sulmasy does not raise is the problem of available time. In today’s managed care environment, the time pressure physicians endure often gets in the way of good medical practice. Patients are sometimes interrupted before they have been able to fully articulate their presenting complaint.[1] One wonders how physicians will find the time to do a careful spiritual assessment. Perhaps he did not address this issue because he is presenting a “moral obligation”and hence morality trumps time (would that it did).

According to the author, most patients “...want soul medicine and scientific medicine at the same time.”In The Rebirth of the Clinic Dr. Sulmasy makes a strong case for the importance of meeting this desire.[2] In the first part of his tripartite book, the author looks at the historical relationship between spirituality and medicine, arguing that the loss of the spiritual component in health care does a grave disservice to the patient. In Part II, he takes a careful look at scientific investigation of the effect of spirituality on patients’health. I found his brief chapter on “What the Data Cannot Mean”a helpful checklist in considering such publications as Benson et al.’s recent study on heart patients and intercessory prayer (STEP).[3] And the final part focuses on spirituality at the end of life.

As a non-physician chaplain, I found the book’s window into physicians’thinking enlightening. On the whole, it is not overloaded with in-group discussion. I found his understanding of patients’key spiritual issues during grave illnesses and at the end of life –meaning, value, and relationship –in keeping with my own experience. I found his ethical and philosophical analyses generally impressive and compelling.

The Rebirth of the Clinic is derived in great part from various lectures and essays Sulmasy has delivered over the years to a variety of audiences. While the author has worked hard to make his vocabulary understandable to non-professionals, carefully defining both medical and philosophical terms, an intrinsic unevenness to the writing remains. Sulmasy is open about the confessional nature of his Roman Catholic faith. For me as a Protestant, this is generally not a barrier, but in one chapter (11: “On Praying for a Cure”) the author draws much of his authority from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a work not generally known among non-Roman Catholics.

 

[1] Speaking and interruptions during primary care office visits. Rhoads, D.R. et al. Fam Med 2001 Jul-Aug;33(7):528-32.

[2] The book’s title refers to Michel Foucault’s understanding of the modern medical clinic as a place where medical care “was liberated from the trappings of religion and based on science and reason.”Yet, Sulmasy observes, “...the power of science, untethered from religion’s moral constraints, became the source of [the clinic’s] corruption and death.”

[3] "Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: A multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer." Benson, Herbert MD, et al., American Heart Journal. 151(4):934-942, April 2006.

Sulmasy, Daniel P. The Rebirth of the Clinic: An Introduction to Spirituality in Health Care, Georgetown University Press (2006) pp 246.

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Joan Paddock Maxwell, M.T.S., is the Palliative Care Chaplain at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC. She is endorsed by the Episcopal Church.

Do you have thoughts about these reviews you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org