The Lords Spiritual, Exorcism, and the NHS

The UK's selection of some of its legislators by their religious beliefs (the 26 Lords Spiritual - senior Bishops - in the House of Lords) puts it in the same club as Iran. Bringing this incredible practice into the spotlight are the frankly bizarre utterances of the Archbishop of York who, in supporting a motion by the crossbench peer Baroness Hollins, explained how the NHS should be bound to take care of the spiritual health of people, not just their mental and physical health.

The Archbishop of York, who thinks that exorcism has relevance to the debate on the Health Bill

He illustrated his point by a wonderful story (from "Archbishop calls for NHS Bill to cover spiritual health" at BBC News):

...when he first became a vicar in south London, he was invited to a home where there was "a presence ", a phrase he said he did not understand at the time. At the home, he said, he found a young girl who had been unable to move for nearly three weeks and would shout out in the middle of the night. He was told the family had been to a witches' coven where a goat had been sacrificed. The young girl was petrified she would be next. Visits from a GP, psychiatrist and psychologist did little to help, he said, but then he said a prayer, anointed the girl and lit a candle on his visit. Shortly after, he received a phone call saying the girl was no longer terrified and was talking again. "That was not mental or physical illness; there was something in her spirit that needed to be set free" he told his peers.

The Archbishop's utterances are not much more bizarre than the motion by Baroness Hollins, who is a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists seem to get themselves into all sorts of problems with matters spiritual. The new Recommendations for Psychiatrists on Spirituality and Religion (PDF Link) is authored by Professor Christopher Cook (Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group) who believes that mental disorder can be caused by demonic possession (published and presumably endorsed by the Christian Medical Fellowship). Here's the astonished response to his beliefs by me and by the medical ethicist Iain Brassington at the BMJ Medical Ethics Blog. Baroness Hollins's motion is equally bizarre, but with supporters like the Archbishop, you don't need me to tell you that. Time for the UK to exorcise the Lords Spiritual from its legislature.

Tolerating the intolerant? Bigoted views not apparently bigoted if they’re held by persons of faith

George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has been taking time out from the House of Lords, where he and 26 other 'Lords Spiritual' enjoy governing power on the basis of their faith, to argue that we discriminate against people of faith (saywha?). Not withstanding this paradox (or the somewhat questionable record of Christian tolerance as indexed by such trifling historical episodes as The Crusades or The Inquisition), he was at the Intelligence Squared debate where the motion "Stop bashing Christians! Britain is becoming an anti-Christian country" was defeated by 378 to 216 with 48 undecided.

More worrying for doctors is his association with the Spirituality Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which held a session entitled ‘Intolerant Secularisation'.* In the chair was the psychiatrist Chris Cook, who believes that mental disorder can be caused by demonic possession. Though psychiatrists are the least religious of doctors, this group has an agenda is to allow doctors to bring their faith into the workplace (with the inevitable foisting of evangelism upon patients) without fear of reprisal that has rightly greeted nurses who offer to pray with patients, evangelical NHS employees refusing to tuck crosses into their shirts, and relationship therapists who refuse to counsel homosexuals.

(Source: Matt cartoon, Daily Telgraph UK)

Lord Carey's argument appears to be that we should tolerate discrimination by religious organisations because it's not really bigotry if it's faith-based; far from being your common-or-garden homophobia, Lord Carey's desire to see homosexuals denied rights that the rest of us take for granted is far more high-minded, you see. His testimony (roundly criticised by a rather bemused Court of Appeal) in the case of the sacked relatonship therapist speaks for itself:

The comparison of a Christian, in effect, with a 'bigot' (ie a person with an irrational dislike to homosexuals) begs further questions...In my view, the highest development of human spirituality is acceptance of Christ as saviour and adherence to Christian values. This cannot be seen by the Courts of this land as comparable to the base and ignorant behaviour [of homophobes]. My heart is in anguish at the spiritual state of this country.

As is mine, Lord Carey, as is mine. And not least because of illogical and nonsensical arguments like this perpetrated by supposed role models for people of faith. How much more irrational can dislike of homosexuals be, if it's based upon freely chosen subscription to iron age ancestral dogma?

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*To give the Spirituality group their due, they did have a dissenting speaker, Prof. Rob Poole, on their programme who argued that faith in the workplace clearly violates important professional boundaries in direct contravention of General Medical Council guidelines. They declined to let me speak on intolerant secularisation as a 'Just War' - my abstract is below - but I received a very polite note from Chris Cook quite reasonably pointing out that the agenda had already been drawn up. The title and text of my abstract submitted to the meeting was as follows:

Intolerance of Intolerance: A Just War.
Religious communities portray predominantly secular society and its healthcare system as being intolerant of their beliefs and right to express them through practices at work. Recent cases, for example, have addressed whether Christians should be allowed to refuse public and private services as diverse as sex therapy and accommodation to homosexual persons whose sexual orientation conflicts with their faith. I argue here that such practices are themselves intolerant, and that a fortiori they therefore have no right to be tolerated by the wider community which sees intolerance as a social ill. In the same way that 'Just war' principles sanction proportional aggression towards actual or threatened military action from aggressive states, intolerance is a reasonable (and possibly imperative) societal reaction towards intolerance. The reaction (such as increasing

secularisation) of society (and its healthcare system) to intolerant religious beliefs and practices cannot thus be referred to as intolerant, in the same way as a proportional and legally sanctioned military response towards an aggressor cannot itself be described as 'aggression'. Dr. Ed Mitchell has begun his CT1 psychiatry training this year. His medical degree was from Oxford University. He has an undergraduate degree in experimental psychology also from Oxford, and Masters and PhD degree from Cambridge University in criminology. He has been a Fulbright visiting research fellow in with the Program in Psychiatry and Law at Harvard University.

Royal College of Psychiatrists spirituality group chairman thinks Demons can cause mental disorder

In 1976, two Bavarian priests were convicted of negligent homicide in the case of 23-year-old Anneliese Michel, an epileptic who died after her treatment was discontinued in favor of exorcism.

It's nice to know that such potential is still alive and well in the UK. I previously blogged about an article appearing on the Christian Medical Fellowship's website advocating that doctors should consider demonic possession as a differential diagnosis in mental disorder. It was picked up on by Iain Brassington at the excellent Journal of Medical Ethics blog.

At the time I didn't realise that the author held office. The article was written by Prof. Chris Cook, who is now the Chairman of The Royal College of Psychiatrists' Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group. He's a consultant psychiatrist who still works for Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. Is it only mental disorder, or are other disorders caused by demons, such as hypertension or diabetes? It's one thing when society stigmatises mentally disordered persons, but quite another when members of the medical profession do so.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/theology.religion/staff/?username=dth0ccc
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/rollofhonour/specialinterestgroups/spirituality/aboutus/executivecommittee.aspx