Frederickton, Canada—The administration of the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Frederickton, New Brunswick, has decided to ban the bedside Bibles that once comforted patients on the grounds that they are a health hazard. Hospitals in Canada are facing a rise in the rates of serious infections due largely to staff carelessness and poor implementation of prevention protocols. Since the SARS scare in Toronto in 2003, hospitals have taken greater care with possible outside instruments that might carry illness-causing bacteria.

At the same time, however, hospitals are also advancing in the secularizing trend of most Canadian institutions. The mayor of Frederickton has accused the hospital of acting on “political correctness” that abhors any expression of Christianity in public.

The Rev. Karl Csasz, a hospital chaplain, objected that the hospital’s action was inconsistent. “If the Bible is a threat in a drawer, where does it stop?” said the pastor of Frederickton’s Skyline Acres Baptist Church. “Is it possible for these germs to reside and live on lampshades, curtains? You see what I’m saying.”

The hospital administrator also did not mention any plans to prohibit any other printed material such as magazines which are handled by many people every day.