Constitutional Rights

Whatever happened to “Freedom of Religion” – isn’t that in our Constitution?


I just spent some time in a local hospital and an incident that occurred during that stay makes me wonder what is happening to our rights. One of the days that I was there, the lady responsible for cleaning my room came in to clean and placed a small tent card on my table. Apparently this is standard procedure at the hospital, as the lady the day before left a similar card. This is a pre-printed card that says “Your housekeeper today is:” and a place for the person to write their name. It also has a place for them to fill in the date. On the back of the card is a short pre-printed “Thank for choosing….” and has the extension number for housekeeping should you have any problems.

The lady who cleaned my room on this day filled her name in on the card, a little note saying “Get well soon!” and filled in the date, and wrote “Wherever you are God IS!” She also verbally told me, “Have a Blessed Day.” She then told me that her supervisors had instructed her that she was not to tell people this. But, to her credit, she says that she does it anyway.

Now, this brings me to the question, what is happening to our Constitutional rights – specifically the Freedom of Religion right. Have we become so concerned with whether our comment is going to offend someone that we now choose to leave God out of our lives? Of course, we all know that we are not supposed to say “Merry Christmas,” but instead “Happy Holidays” to avoid offending anyone. I am not sure why – I do not take offense at the way you choose to celebrate your holidays – why should you be offended at the way I choose to celebrate mine?

The other thing that struck me as “odd” about this was the hospital that I was in. The hospital was St. Vincent’s East. Is this not a faith-based hospital? I checked on a little history of this establishment: St. Vincent’s Hospital was originally opened by the Daughters of Charity in 1898. Their website displays their Mission Statement which reads as follows:

“Rooted in the loving ministry of Jesus as healer, we commit ourselves to serving all persons with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable.”

I find it especially odd that a housekeeper at this institution is forbidden by supervisors to tell patients to “Have a Blessed Day.”

What do you think? Do you have a problem with someone telling you to have a Blessed Day?