{"id":186,"date":"2009-09-21T11:23:08","date_gmt":"2009-09-21T10:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=186"},"modified":"2009-09-21T13:54:36","modified_gmt":"2009-09-21T12:54:36","slug":"jewellery-and-dress-codes-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/09\/21\/jewellery-and-dress-codes-redux\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewellery and Dress Codes (redux)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It must have been a slow news day: a nurse is seeking legal advice<\/a> after being told by her employers that she wasn’t allowed to wear a necklace at work.\u00a0 What’s so – ahem – special about this is that it’s a crucifix necklace:<\/p>\n

Mrs Chaplin has sought advice from the Christian Legal Centre (CLC).<\/p>\n

Its founder, barrister Andrea Minichiello Williams, said patients would be “astonished” at the trust’s actions.<\/p>\n

“You cannot separate a person’s faith and motivation from other areas of their life, including what they do with the majority of their time: work.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately an aggressive, secularist, politically-correct agenda is being driven in the NHS and other public sectors at present.”<\/p>\n

The CLC said it intended to assist the nurse in exercising her human rights.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Human rights?\u00a0 Um… nope.\u00a0 You might have a right to religious practice (and even then, it presumably can’t be more than a right to practice your religion in private, can it?), but I can’t for the life of me see how wearing a crucifix is central to anyone’s religious practice\u00a0– rather, it’s an advertisement of faith, and there’s no right to proselytise or advertise.\u00a0 Moreover, talk of “an aggressive, secularist, politically-correct agenda” just looks foolish – which is appropriate, becasue it is.\u00a0 A hospital is a secular institution, dammit.\u00a0 So’s the NHS<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s not about pushing a secularist, PC agenda: it’s about being secular and not having to bend to the non-secular.<\/p>\n

What seems particularly disingenuous about this is the way in which the CLC presents this as an attack on Christianity, rather than a simple application of a rule about jewellery.\u00a0 The Daily Fail<\/em> seems particularly keen to present the story in that light<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Christian nurse removed from frontline duty for wearing cross necklace <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

screams the headline, before churning out the same quotations as the BBC (which makes me wonder whether the journalists reporting the story for either body have done more than recycle a CLC press release).\u00a0 However, across at Tabloid Watch, MacGuffin points out<\/a> that<\/p>\n

[i]f [the story had] read ‘Nurse removed from frontline duty for wearing necklace’ would anyone be interested? No. But that is<\/span> the story.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or, rather, the non-story.\u00a0 Would an NHS trust be justified in forbidding Christian<\/em> jewellery?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Would it be justified in forbidding certain kinds of jewellery across the board?\u00a0 Um… yes.\u00a0 Obviously.<\/p>\n

Finally, the nurse in question does herself no favours:<\/p>\n

“Everyone I have ever worked with has clearly known I am a Christian – it is what motivates me to care for others,” she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To which the obvious retort is this: do you mean that, were it not for your religion, you wouldn’t<\/em> care for others?\u00a0 That the non-religious are somehow uncaring?\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It must have been a slow news day: a nurse is seeking legal advice after being told by her employers that she wasn’t allowed to wear a necklace at work.\u00a0 What’s so – ahem – special about this is that it’s a crucifix necklace: Mrs Chaplin has sought advice from the Christian Legal Centre (CLC). […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,403],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-rant"],"yoast_head":"\nJewellery and Dress Codes (redux) - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/09\/21\/jewellery-and-dress-codes-redux\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jewellery and Dress Codes (redux) - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It must have been a slow news day: a nurse is seeking legal advice after being told by her employers that she wasn’t allowed to wear a necklace at work.\u00a0 What’s so – ahem – special about this is that it’s a crucifix necklace: Mrs Chaplin has sought advice from the Christian Legal Centre (CLC). 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