The CMS, a division of the Federal Department of Health and Human services, is in charge of who and how health care providers get paid. Whatever CMS says, goes. If you don’t follow their rules, you can’t bill Medicare, Tricare, or Medicaid. You lose your Federal healthcare funding, all of it. If they say that you must do something, you do it, or you don’t get paid for providing healthcare services. It’s that simple.
Some bureaucrat who works for CMS in Oklahoma has informed Saint Francis Health System, the twelfth largest hospital in the nation, that they cannot have a Eucharistic candle in their hospital chapel because it is a fire hazard. Never you mind that this hospital has had the candle in its chapel for over 60 years without a single incident. It is not to be noticed that the Church has taken appropriate steps to ensure that the candle is behind two layers of glass, and that the installation has passed inspection by the state fire marshal’s office. Nope. This Federal employee is telling this church based hospital how to celebrate its faith.
Other people claiming to be Christians are saying that the Church is wrong, and that a wax candle can easily be replaced by an electric one. That a candle isn’t needed to praise their God. I will tell you that it is not the place of one faith to tell another how to celebrate their religion.
To say that you can worship god without following the tenets of your church is to allow those who are not a part of your religion to dictate the terms. If this were to be permitted to stand, the next rule may very well be that you can worship God without a physical church. After all, God is everywhere, is he not? Do your praying at home. Maybe they will even allow you to do so in a ‘virtual church’ on the Internet.
I make no secret that I am an atheist. However, I also will tell you that the celebration of faith is one of the fundamental rights that we as Americans have, and I will fight for any and all Americans to celebrate and support their faith. In this case, it isn’t about the candle. Reasonable precautions like having the candle being encased in the chapel have been taken, and the candle represents a lower risk than many of the pieces of equipment that are located elsewhere in the hospital.
No, this is about the government trying to dictate the terms of your life. Some petty bureaucrat makes a decision, and *poof* it’s the a law that you must obey, or else.
That isn’t the foundation upon which we built a nation. Perhaps it is time to revive another tradition- tar and feathers.
