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Obama to Participate in Faith-Based Call-in on Health-Care Reform
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
President Obama will participate in a national call-in and audio Webcast to push for health-care reform on August 19. The program is sponsored by 25 religious denominations and organizations, and it was announced today by a coalition of faith-based groups that are supporting health-care reform.
The call-in program will also feature religious leaders who support health-care reform, and it will have a definite religious flair. Indeed, on a call-in press conference today, organizers of the event painted universal health care as a religious issue.
Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, an evangelical organization, called it "deeply theological issue, a Biblical issue and a moral issue."
The Obama call-in program was one of several announcements made this morning by the coalition, which has launched several ambitious efforts to promote health-care reform in recent months and announced some more today. That includes a six-figure ad buy on cable TV that will feature local pastors endorsing health-care reform in key states with Congressional representatives--mostly Blue Dog Democrats and moderate Republicans in districts where conservative religious traditions dominate.
They also plan a "health care sermon weekend" Aug. 28-30, where pastors will preach on the necessity of health-care reform.
Leaders of these efforts insisted today that the effort is not a politically liberal effort, but is supported by faith-based groups across the political spectrum. It is true that many of its leaders are anti-abortion. But a look at the faith-based organizations sponsoring Obama's call-in program reveals groups that tend to be fairly liberal, such as the Episcopal Church and Unitarian Universalist Association. I don't see any groups traditionally associated with the Christian right there.
Indeed, the Christian right has also been spending big bucks on its effort to defeat health-care reform. The Family Research Council has raised $500,000 that it will spend on ads in five key states--Kentucky, Louisiana, Alaska, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania, spokesman J.P Duffy told me today.
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Jacqueline L. Salmon
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August 10, 2009; 12:20 PM ET
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God in Government
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Posted by: zoomthru | August 13, 2009 6:58 PM
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I haven't prayed in a long time and have actually questioned myself if I'm an atheist, I have for a long time wanted to believe, but tonight I prayed that real health care reform would be passed.
I didn't want to pray but I did.
Posted by: Nosmanic | August 11, 2009 5:12 AM
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What the healthcare debate boils down to is for-profit vs. non-profit; exploitation of the sick and suffering vs. compassion and care for the sick and suffering; scare-tactics and lies used to deceive and manipulate vs. respectful discussion and research used to inform the public and bring us together in good faith to resolve healthcare issues for the good of all, especially those without access to care.
Especially it is about whether or not the public will allow insurance companies to continue their policy to systematically deny coverage to their customers for profits, or whether we will hold them accountable for providing the care for which their customers contracted, with reasonable premium costs.
Fundamentally, it is about whether or not we will allow our citizens and their medical care needs to continue to be exploited and mined by greedy profiteers, or whether or not we will recommit our nation to the values that America really stands for: the rights and good of each citizen, and the common good of all of us.
It is about whether we worship the gods of profits in the temples on Wall Street, or whether we worship the God of Love and Sustainer of Life whose Son showed us how to offer loving care to those in need of healing. It is about whether or not we will stand with those who endorse the lie, or whether we stand with those who endorse the truth.
If every American has a right to life, then every American has a right to the medical care necessary to sustain life in a moral context. If Americans can spend trillions on weapons of war and Wars, Americans can provide that healthcare for all. The time to do so is now.