{"id":19753,"date":"2015-04-18T22:54:49","date_gmt":"2015-04-19T04:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=19753"},"modified":"2015-04-19T00:47:05","modified_gmt":"2015-04-19T06:47:05","slug":"religion-poisons-everything-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/religion-poisons-everything-8.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Religion poisons everything!&#8221; (8)"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_19755\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19755\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/04\/450px-New_York_Presbyterian_Hospital.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19755\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/04\/450px-New_York_Presbyterian_Hospital.jpg\" alt=\"Grand entrance to Presbyterian Hospital in NYC\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19755\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to New York-Presbyterian Hospital<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My parents spent all too many days, especially during their last months, in Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, of Whittier, California. \u00a0Both eventually died there.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My granddaughter spent the whole of her brief mortal life\u00a0in Florida Hospital Orlando, part of the health system of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, where the nursing staff and even some of the doctors were phenomenally kind and caring, unafraid to say that they were praying for her and for us.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Taken at his word, Christopher Hitchens\u2019s dictum that \u201cReligion poisons everything!\u201d means that, with such institutions as these,\u00a0religion has poisoned American health care.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019ve said nothing about places like New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York, Holy Cross Hospital and Primary Children\u2019s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital in Memphis, Loma Linda University Medical Center \u00a0and St. Joseph Hospital in southern California, Houston Methodist, the Mount Sinai Medical System in New York, and a host of others.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And have you ever heard of names such as Good Samaritan Hospital and Bethesda Naval Hospital? \u00a0Those names don\u2019t come from the writings of Bertrand Russell, Richard Dawkins, or Christopher Hitchens.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Would we really be better off if such places didn\u2019t exist? \u00a0Have they poisoned us?<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 My parents spent all too many days, especially during their last months, in Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, of Whittier, California. \u00a0Both eventually died there. \u00a0 My granddaughter spent the whole of her brief mortal life\u00a0in Florida Hospital Orlando, part of the health system of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, where the nursing staff and even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Religion poisons everything!&quot; 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