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God Expects Us to Take Care of Each Other
Health-care reform is an economic, political and medical issue. But On Faith panelist and evangelical leader Jim Wallis says it's also a "deeply theological issue, a Biblical issue and a moral issue." Do you agree? Why or why not?
Health care for all people has to be appreciated for its moral, ethical and Biblical importance in this nation of "believers."
If we who call ourselves believers truly believe in a God of justice, then there is no way we can ignore the fact that this same God would want all people to have access to health care and not be denied because they do not have enough money.
Surely, believers cannot believe that the system we now have is in keeping with the will of God.
Study of the scriptures shows God always admonishing the "haves" to take care of the "have-nots." God gets angry when people are oppressed. God says that the people worship him with their lips but "their hearts are far from me." The disconnect between profession of faith and practice of that same faith seems to be a situation that is extremely bothersome and troubling to God.
The lessons in the New Testament of the Christian Bible point to God's desire that the "religious" use their religion and not just sit in it. The most glaring example of this desire is found in the story of the Good Samaritan, where "religious" people saw a man suffering and walked by, but an outsider, a Samaritan, stepped in and did what God would have done.
The stories of Jesus healing people on the Sabbath, angering the religious faithful, are yet other examples that show that Jesus' message is that morally and ethically, we who believe CANNOT stand by and see someone suffer and not do anything about it. And the further message is that we believers have courage fueled by faith in a justice-demanding God, to do and to support care for the "least of these," even when that care or support falls outside the status quo.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said that we religious types commit "tragic stupidities" when we refuse do step up and step out, to take a stand and to demand righteousness where there is none. There is no righteousness at all in the fact that 46 million people in the wealthiest nation in the world do not have health care coverage. The "tragic stupidity" that America stands to commit at this point is to let the movement for health-care reform fall through the cracks and be stuck for more years with a health-care system that is clearly not working for too many people.
Discussion and debate about health-care reform has been going on for far too long. Presidents going all the way back to FDR have tried to tackle this issue, and headway has been really slow coming. When people now say, "Don't go so fast," one has to wonder how long -- or how much longer -- should the suffering suffer because of this flawed system?
When my mother-in-law, now deceased, traveled to Cuba, she came back and talked about how, in spite of the Communist regime, it was heartening to see that the government made sure all the people had health care. She was a medical doctor and a researcher; in her heart was the wish that medical care not be denied to anyone because of lack of money or lack of insurance.
When a friend of mine went into business for herself, she had no idea that her physician of over 20 years would deny her health care because she no longer had insurance. Even though she had the money to pay for her care, the doctor's office personnel told her she could not be seen and that she would have to be referred to a local hospital as an "indigent" seeking care.
Surely, that is not moral, it is not ethical, and it is not Biblical. Surely people see that. The devil is in the details, but surely this nation is not going to let the suffering suffer one more day because of this health-care system which allows some people premium care yet denies basic care to far too many.
Surely, this nation, which prides itself on being a nation of "believers," believes that like health care, the devil is in the details of one's faith, and a faith that allows us to look the other way while the suffering cry in our midst is an affront to the God who created us all.
By
Susan K. Smith
|
August 19, 2009; 11:34 AM ET
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Posted by: edbyronadams | August 23, 2009 10:51 AM
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Hey Rev Sue:
As I read your blog I too hear those opposing voices as running interference not necessarily against health care, but against the one proposing it. Someone opined recently that Obama would meet indifference and resistance even if Martians were attacking America. I too am amazed that a country with such wealth can continue to behave with third world indifference to the wellness of all. Perhaps when you have great health care coverage as do our illustrious elected pontificators, it crystallizes the attitude that poverty doesn't exist--didn't Reagan say that?
I have always believed that the current stonewalling and shrill outrage is offspring of a slippery and sophisticated racism of "just because." The time is now to turn off the microphones, and challenge the myopia of the politics of fear. The healthcare reform debate has become the Moby Dick of a legion of Haters akin to Ahab. Those disruptive of town hall meetings have no shame. As I said earlier, it's not what is being proposed, it's who proposes it.
Dr. King called for transformed non-conformists to redeem this stifled country, but it seems we have more "shrill" thermometers than we do compassionate thermostats. The living room of America is still unfortunately roped off from the poor and voiceless. I still have a DREAM!
Posted by: jr4111checkitout | August 20, 2009 3:11 PM
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The Samaritan is a good example of how some Christians get things all wrong and are shamed by people who don't profess Christianity as their faith. I believe, PaganPlace, that this was the Reverend's point. The Reverend was paying pagans who get it right a compliment.
How embrarrasing for Christians that many of those protesting health care reform do so in the name of the Christian God and base their protest on the argument that they will become the have-nots. Didn't Jesus say that smelly goats would be on the left because they did not take care of the have-nots and that his smelly sheep would be at his right hand because they did take care of them? There are consequences to inaction on health care reform, ruthless fear-manipulation, and stalling.
PaganPlace, you can be glad to know that the bad Christians will get what's theirs.
Fear mongering about health care becoming a system of rationing is absurd when it already is rationed. In our family's case, a $75 copay is a deterrent, a perverted incentive not to access health care. Fear about death panels, which are already in place at insurance companies, is equally absurd. Death panels exist for the poor, people without health care, and even people who have health care but must pay exorbitant premiums and copays to access that care.
How prescient of Jesus to understand how fear works. After all these years, debates like the one we are having on health care evolve into dribble becuase we are afraid that we who have will become the have-nots.
Posted by: scott1164 | August 20, 2009 2:38 PM
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I think you are right on target, Dr. Smith. The problem (as I see it) is that "the haves" cannot deal with a God who enters history on the side of the poor (through an unwed poor mother, giving birth in a barn with "Joe the Carpenter" standing by (as opposed to Joe the Plumber).
God's preferential option for the poor may be the theme of liberation theology, biblical theology and Jim Wallis' type of Evangelical theology; but it is nowhere near where all the "haves" are when it comes to their understanding of who God is or their understanding of those whom God cares for -- and calls us to care for, pastor.
There are none so blind as those who WILL NOT see.
Posted by: Jamila1 | August 20, 2009 2:06 PM
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Seems right now a lot of the nation is more concerned with exalting the 'believers' and denigrating any 'Samaritans' to be concerned with such 'opinions,' Reverend.
Posted by: Paganplace | August 19, 2009 5:05 PM
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The Good Samaritan performed a personal virtuous act. I fail to see how extracting money from one to pay another, even for health care, has the same virtue.