An e-mail I received from a chaplain

A corn stalk in a bean field is a weed. Tracts have their place, but don't litter other people's property with them. Litter is a nuisance.

 

'Leading them to hell'. Do you really seriously believe that this Chaplain or any other man could lead one of God's elect to hell? Where is God in a theology such as this? Has He no power at all?

 

I'm assuming you are a Calvinist. You've just opened the door to one of the oldest arguments that Calvinist's can't answer. Why even bother with the Great Commission then? According to you, false teachers don't hurt the cause of Christ, so why would telling the True Gospel help?

 

You do have a point about littering private property with a barrage of tracts and literature without first getting permission.

 

Everyone who accepts God's gift of salvation thru grace becomes God's elect. Praise God, that this is offered to all people, just as His word says.

 

:thumbs:
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If it is a private hospital people should respect their rules.

 

This is not even a close question. Would you allow someone of another faith (even another Christian faith) to leave their literature in your church? In your place of business? Of course not. Someone owns that hospital and that someone has an absolute right to control what kind of literature is disseminated there. Case closed.

 

I agree with Zenas. It is not appropriate to leave tracts in a hospital without permission or invitation of the people in charge of the hospital.

I have been in the hospital many times over the past three years due to my cancer. I would not appreciate, for example, Jehovah's Witnesses tracts left in my room, or the chapel, or in visiting areas. Neither would you, I gather. The same rules have to apply for all religious groups whether you like it or not.

Hospital chaplains have to be very carefully non-denominational. They will come and ask if you want to talk and pray, but they will not push their own views on you. I don't think chaplains are there to "convert" people. Anyway, I would rather have my own pastor, of my shared faith, come to talk with me rather than a hospital chaplain.

 

I prefer to give tracts to people, rather than to leave them just 'laying around'. But that's just me.

 

Having served as a Hospital Chaplain I can tell you that it is rewarding and humbling work. While God will use us to spread the gospel, the Chaplain must realize his responsibility to support the faith of others we disagree with, even those who do not believe in Christ. While I have seen deathbed conversions, they were always in individuals who had been exposed to gospel many times before. While I arrived at harvest time there had been in every case, years of prayer and witnessing before me.

Going back to the email that started this thread, I am surprised at the Chaplain’s email. I believe it would have been more appropriate for the Chaplain to simply state the hospital’s policy on the distribution of literature and ask that BibleSender to contact him about how he and his church members can witness while following the hospital’s policy. I can not help but wonder if this was the first communication between them as it seems highly unprofessional.

 

Many hospitals are owned by churches or church related organizations. For example, the only two hospitals in Paducah, Kentucky, are Baptist and Catholic. They don't proselytize their patients, and anyone may visit and minister to a patient. However, I rather doubt that either one of them would want the other denomination to leave tracts in their chapels.

 

We don't know what tracts the OP was leaving. Chick tracts? Now those are guaranteed to offend a hospital chaplain!

NC Tentmaker, thank you for your service as a hospital chaplain. Your statement about a chaplain's duties put it far better than I did.

I don't know when the last time was that you were in the hospital, but people shouldn't - and usually can't - just wander around into people's rooms and talk to them or leave tracts for them. It's an invasion of privacy, for one thing. For another, when I am feeling sick, I don't want people of any religion to proselytize me. I am a Christian, I know what I believe, and I don't need a Chick tract to tell me I'm going to hell.

It's not a time to argue a sick person into faith. If a Muslim or a Jehovah Witness came around trying to convert me, or left tracts, I would be upset. And if they aren't allowed, then no one should be allowed to randomly leave tracts or proselytize. The rules are in place for a reason. Hospital chaplains have to enforce the rules evenly. Now if I invite my pastor to visit me, that is a whole different scenario.

I am a little passionate about this, because I can end up in the hospital in any given week, and I don't want to see religious tracts of any kind randomly strewn around the hospital - especially in my room. Give me my Bible and my pastor and that is good for me! In fact, I got an e-Reader just so I could put the Bible on it and bring it with me to the hospital. I can read it without having to hold a heavy book in my hands when I am sick.

 

Because a gospel that MUST be preached in order for Christ's FINISHED and SUCCESSFUL work for His people from the foundation of the world to the cross at Calvary to take effect upon obedience and belief of the hearer is not the true gospel. And, oh, by the way, in behalf of kyredneck and hopefully with his permission, I venture to say he is not a Calvinist.