Wearing Your Cross at the NHS

Here’s an interesting letter that appeared in the Telegraph (London) last week, signed by six prominent Anglican bishops, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury.  The British National Health Service has decided that a nurse, Ms. Shirley Chaplin, may no longer see patients.  Why?  Ms. Chaplin refuses to remove a cross that she wears around her neck.   The letter points out that the NHS allows adherents of other religions to wear religious insignia while tending patients and argues that the NHS’ decision is an example of a pattern of discrimination against the “Christian community” in British society (see, for example, a similar controversy at British Airways).  The bishops want to make this alleged discrimination an issue in the upcoming general election.

Now, this is a very odd development.  The NHS is a public program and nurses are civil servants.  In the United States, that might raise concerns about neutrality; people might want to make sure that allowing a nurse to wear a cross around her neck did not suggest that the government was endorsing a particular religious viewpoint.  But Britain lacks an Establishment Clause.  In fact, it has an Established Church.   There’s a cross – actually, more than one – on the British flag, which presumably appears somewhere at NHS hospitals.   It’s strange to think that Ms. Chaplin’s pendant would add very much.   After all, the cross is not part of her official uniform.  Any patient could look around the ward and see that other nurses don’t wear crosses.  The likelihood of confusion wouldn’t be very great.

Now, it’s true that Christianity doesn’t require adherents to wear identifying clothing the way some religions do; that may explain why the NHS allows members of other religions, but not Christians, to wear insignia on duty.  And it’s possible that some patients would resent, or at least be made uncomfortable by, someone who advertised her Christianity.   Hospital patients are in a vulnerable position; we wouldn’t want to subject them to inappropriate proselytizing.  But that doesn’t seem to be the case here.  Besides, some patients would be put off by other religious insignia, and that doesn’t seem to worry the NHS.

So, what explains this hypersensitivity?  Are the bishops right?