Just three days after sending its “pre-litigation” letter to HHS, which included the zinger, “If we go to court, you will lose. I write in the hope that you will see reason (or at least the law) and we can skip to the easy part,” HHS beat a hasty retreat.

“The game was simply not worth the candle for HHS,” Lori Windham, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, the religious freedom law firm representing the hospital, told The Daily Signal in a written statement Friday. “It realized it would be playing with fire in court if it stood by its absurd demand, so it chose wisely. We are glad Saint Francis’s can continue to serve those most in need while keeping the faith.” //

Windham noted that there are other sources of fire in the hospital, but CMS only singled out the candle for further scrutiny.

“In this same inspection, they were OK with pilot lights in the kitchen and will gas dryers. It was just the candle that was the problem,” she said. //

There is no doubt that the Biden White House and its parent organization, the Obama administration, are implacably hostile to Christianity in general and public devotion to it specifically. It was Barack Obama who tried to convert the Constitutional Freedom of Religion into FDR’s Freedom of Worship. We have to be constantly on guard or this liberty will be snuffed out by the use of the regulatory power of the administrative state. //

Laocoon
a day ago
Lesson Learned: Push back on these bureaucratic monsters and it's at least an even bet that they'll fold like Streiff's cheap suit.

Solzhenitsyn pointed out that Russians who either resisted or fled from the Cheka often got away with it. It was only the passivity of Russians when faced with authority that empowered the NKVD and other orgs to get away with their atrocities. //

DaveM
a day ago edited
I thought it would change the instant a suit was being brought. There was no way this was going to pass muster.
Looks like the TJC surveyor had a chip on his shoulder. Think of them as the Inspectors General of the Medical World. My own 40+ experience with these people is that they are pretty good at what they do but we do see a jerkwad like this every few years.
I was surprised to see NFPA 99-2012: 11.5.1.1.2 cited for a Chapel. That standard is associated with the administration of medical gas in a clinical environment.

fyi: For those not familiar with it
NFPA 99-2012: is the Healthcare Facilities Code and is one of the Bibles used in assessing Healthcare Facilities during licensing and accreditation surveys. Chapter 11 covers medical gas equipment. Currently the 2012 code is the one used.
The standard 11.5.1.1.2 prohibits open flame in a patient care environment where medical gases are being administered to patients. The context of the chapter makes it abundantly clear that the intent is to apply this to a clinical environment -which a Place of Worship is not.

The NFPA Life Safety Code NFPA 101-2012: (which is the Life Safety Surveyor's Bible) specifically recognizes the importance of candles like this for religious purposes and makes allowance for them to be used safely. The cited Hospital most definitely adheres to a safe practice no one should have an issue with.

In any case the final authority on whether the hospital's practice under NFPA 101 is is not TJC or CMS. The specific regulatory agency is the AHJ (basically the local Fire Marshal).