The other end of the stick.

Ah, yes. I knew I wasn't going to make it through that article without reading a reference to the infamous "Efficacy of Intercessory Prayer on a Cardiac Care Unit Population", published by my long-ago former employer , the less-than-stellar Southern Medical Journal, the house organ of the Southern Medical Association, a group set up by and for white doctors when the American Medical Association admitted black physicians way back when. And I was not disappointed.

BOP reminds me of this: Virtually every time I go to Fresno Community Hospital, the public hospital, somebody eventually mentions god and faith as necessary for healing. However, at St. Agnes no one has ever mentioned such.

This was also generally true at the Atlanta hospitals, where at St. Joseph's, priests and nuns visiting patients were never the first to mention faith. They did however almost invariably all have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Atlanta Braves, even in the off-season.

Good article.

Wow, Ardiril, I just realized I had a similar experience. Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank was the only hospital where I received no spiritual advice as an inpatient (twice). Locally, the CHW bought the failing French Hospital and improved it massively, and my outpatient visits there have been quite agnostic. (I'll let you know how it goes if/when I get sick enough for a stay.)