A Pennsylvania pastor is objecting to how reiki - a form of alternative medicine involving energy manipulation - is being used in a local hospital. He considers it contrary to Christian belief. However, he is not insisting they stop offering the treatment; merely that they disclose the practice has foundations in Buddhism.
How about this alternative: disclose what reiki is, and let the patient decide whether it has religious connotations? While I do understand the pastor's concern, and I applaud him for trying to make decisions for all of us, I disagree that announcing that reiki has "foundations in Buddhism" clarifies the latter any, as there are plenty of reiki practitioners who are not Buddhists.
In disclosing what reiki is, I'd also be awfully interested in hearing how the hospital sees it as relating to medical treatment, as the medical community in general is rather skeptical of its supposed benefits.
This pastor is reaching pretty far in trying to condemn a belief other than his own. Does he not realize that all religion is descended from animism and other forms of spiritualism? The differences in religions are from human and socio-economic forces. How many times has the Bible been translated, edited and rewritten? Who knows what the original copies of all the various manuscripts incorporated in it really said.
Maybe the hospital promotes it for its psychological uses. Sort of like letting cancer patients have animals with them. Gives them hope, makes them feel happier. I have no idea if this stuff actually has any real medical use, but I know hospitals allow it all the time, and many in the medical field advocate for it all the time.
They should probably tell people that these things have not been objectively proven to help in the healing process. That way the patient can decide for themselves effectively whether they want a treatment that may be entirely useless.