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.


8 Comments

It Only Gets Worse · May 7, 2023 at 9:02 am

Joe Slovo Brandon is a Catholic they say.
Actually a Jesuit and they love commies and the red RAT Francis considers himself to be one.
Bathhouse Barry already signed everything over to the UN.
That includes arms and ammo ban.
They knew hopey changey would be the time to get away with all kinds of stuff as the hive drooled over their man made messiah.

BobF · May 7, 2023 at 10:31 am

I’m like the atheist at a table with a sign saying “I’m atheist; prove me wrong.” Sort of, maybe, maybe not. However, I agree with you, and further, that the freedoms in the Bill of Rights come as a package. Affect one and you affect them all in time.

Green eyeshade pincilnecks are far to numerous and are allowed to wield far too much power/authority.

It seems forgotten that the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, which preceded the Constitution, doesn’t say the government grants our rights, rather that they are “endowed by their Creator.” Could be an alien, could be a Christian god, could be a Buddhist god, but it is NOT the government.

Later, in the Constitution, those rights were more specifically enumerated.

The Declaration of Independence further states Government’s purpose is to SECURE our rights, not infringe upon them. How more misguided coud bureaucrats and Congress be?!

The following link is to an article bringing all three of our founding documents, and more, together. It is an easy but comprehensive read:
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/white-papers/the-declaration-the-constitution-and-the-bill-of-rights

If there is ever to be a sweeping change in our federal governments (heh, by Republicans???) I believe it should begin with closing the doors of several agencies and a reduction in force of several others. I really don’t care which is first to be padlocked as long as numbers 2 and 3 are already within “eyesight” of it.

ChrisJ · May 7, 2023 at 11:07 am

Perhaps it’s time to name-and-shame these clowns and introduce them to ostracizing and shunning?

Aesop · May 7, 2023 at 11:35 am

The correct response is to publicly tell the fed responsible to go self-fornicate, light the candle, and dare them to respond. Including putting Candle Cam on the internet live, 24/7/365.

And then dogpile the shit out of them by every means available until they fire the sonofabitch, apologize, pay $50M for violation of civil rights, along with making that agency responsible for supplying that chapel with an endless supply of candles for free for the next 100 years, and kiss the Pope’s ass on the Capitol steps while promising to never ever do anything like that again.

It’s the only way they learn.

Big Ruckus D · May 7, 2023 at 11:37 am

The pricks who make these decisions and then hand them down as dictates have names and addresses. Get that information, and as the lyrical stylings of Young MC once stated, “you know what to do dawg, bust a move!”

This shit doesn’t stop until the people doing it feel the pain directly. Presently they think themselves supreme and untouchable; they need to be disabused of that notion. I have no problem with it at all if they get done up like the cartels do in Mexico. Fuck ’em, they need to be cut down to size and shown what FAFO truly means.

And yes, at this stage of the game I consider the petty tyranny of functionaries on an authoritarian flex to be a capital offense. The lesson that we intend to be left alone needs to be taught in the most brutal possible terms so that it permeates societal memory for generations to come, and evokes crippling fear into any busybody cunt who so much as conceives of going on a power trip.

Aesop · May 7, 2023 at 11:45 am

DM,
I made this for you in shop class:
https://i.imgur.com/fQw1b5h.png

oldvet50 · May 8, 2023 at 6:21 am

I think the main problem with the so-called religious freedom found in the 1st amendment is that ‘religion’ is not defined. The founders never imagined it would be perverted into what is called ‘faith’ today. Any religion that preaches ‘death to infidels’ , for example, should never be recognized as a religion by sane people.

    Aesop · May 8, 2023 at 11:48 am

    If you’re going to play semantic games like that, you sow the seeds of giving the government the power to destroy any religion with impunity.
    Of course Islam is a religion. You don’t interfere with them as a religion.
    You simply note that the tenets of their faith allow you to prosecute their members criminally.
    The last time this country dealt with religious fanatics like that, we ended up nuking two of their cities.
    Shortly afterwards, their deity abdicated.
    Dulce et decorum est.

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