We do not interfere with normal religious prayer even during serious calls. It is appropriate to suggest we work and family prays but, if they ask for a moment for prayer it is expected that we make every attempt to do so. What one person's belief may be or lack therof, is his/her business. I will not tell a nun she can't have a breif moment to pray for her sister let alone a man for his wife. Yes, I've been in the field long enough to have been asked to baptize a few. Religion is a protected right in which I am obligated to abide by as long as it is within the laws of our country. This country was founded on christian beliefs and those beliefs are protected by the consititution.
Nobody in this thread has ever suggested that the patient or the family be denied the opportunity to pray. Of course I would allow someone to pray. The only question is whether the EMT should
actively participate.
Where do people get this "Christian Nation" nonsense? The founders protected the practice of religion, yes, but they were also careful to protect government
from religion. If you want to know how the founders really felt about religion, research some of the letters they wrote to each other and to their friends, rather than their public speech. The fact is, no matter what they professed publicly about religion, these men were privately fearful of religion when it came to governance and public life. I'll throw a few quotes at you for starters.
"In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ... they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their purpose." --- Thomas Jefferson, to Horatio Spafford, March 17, 1814"
"But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State." --- Thomas Jefferson to S. Kercheval, 1810
"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" --- John Adams, letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27, 1816
"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not." --- James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785
And, of course, the most important of all: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The first part of that statement is just as important as the second.
