I was paired up this week in golf with a Presbyterian minister I did not know. He retired from full time ministry last June. He said he and his wife were having a difficult time finding a new church home. I told him Joy and I retired last April and were having the same problem. He also said his wife was about ready to give up on church. Being the wife of a pastor in a small town, she had had a very difficult time relating to members of his congregation who were much more conservative than she is. That had helped to sour her on church. I told him I understood how she felt. I also have a difficult time understanding how so many church members can have views on issues that contradict the life and ministry of Jesus.
Take healthcare, for example. How can any Christian not be in favor of the new healthcare law? This has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with simple human compassion. Under the healthcare system we currently have, forty five thousand people die annually because they do not have access to healthcare. Forty-six million have no insurance, which means if they get treatment it is at an ER, which is one of the most expensive ways there is to help people without insurance. In addition, the current system is for profit, which necessarily means insurance companies have to put money before people. That is why they refused coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, and put women in a different category than men because they can get pregnant.
The new law prohibits both of those practices. How can anyone, especially a Christian, be against that? The new law will also offer exchanges to people who cannot afford high premiums insurance companies charge. The hope is that this will lead to lower premiums overall. Again, how can anyone, especially a Christian, be against that? Insurance companies are also required to put a larger percentage of premium collections into actual healthcare instead of larger bonuses for executives. I ask one more time, how can anyone, especially Christians, be against that?
I know some people believe the new law will cost a lot of money. What they ignore is that the current system spends far more. That leaves me to think that the only reason people object to healthcare reform is that they don’t like “big government.” But we all know that is not true. The radical right that wants government to stay out of their lives supports the government telling women what they have to do with their bodies. They support the government telling people who they can and cannot marry. They support government subsidizing corporations such as big oil with tax breaks and tax incentives. They support government spending on firefighting when their house catches fire, or having police on patrol when their home is burglarized.
I could go on, but the point is clear. In this day and time, there is no such thing as “big” or ”small’ government. We may want efficient government, but we should want more than that. The question for every government is whether or not it promotes and protects social justice. That is why healthcare is a government concern. Good healthcare is a right. So is food. So is shelter. So is a fair chance. These are matters that cannot be left to the market place alone. They require government to ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
Which brings me back to where I began. The fact that so many church members hold views that make social justice less likely rather than more is an enigma to me. Joy and I were fortunate to be part of a faith community before retirement that was unequivocal in its commitment to social justice. We didn’t all think alike on issues, but we were of one mind when it came to compassion and seeking justice for all. It saddens me whenever I hear a minister talk about the difficulties of being in a congregation that not only doesn’t support social justice, but gets upset when he or she talks about it. I am sure these people are committed to being good church members, but I have to wonder how committed they really are to taking Jesus seriously.
linnposts.com 
Jan. Well said. Charles
Agreed that we have an obligation to care for others. We also are to be good stewards – monetarily. Will lack of monetary responsibility take away our ability to care for anyone?
In the UK where I live, our taxes pay for our National Health Service, so that essential health care is available to us free at the point of need. From a christian point of view, I see that as an aspect of caring for my neighbour.
I think we as a country need to move beyond thinking healthcare, food, and a decent wage is an entitlement, it is a right. If Ed P is saying monetary responsibility is top down then he is on the right track
Jan, this is REALLY good! I forwarded it to my minister, Jim Crockett. Has your mother read it? I’d love to hear her thoughts… Love,Mary
Hi, Jan. Reading this makes me wish that you had been debating last night instead of Obama. What an awful job he did, starting with health care.
I grew up in the Netherlands and there too part of our taxes paid for national health care. Everytime the issue healthcare comes up it reminds me of what I recently read in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 25: ” Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.” It makes me wonder how many of us even know about this “article 25″?
As a christian I think by implementing our human rights i.e.” this article 25″, the human spirit has an opportunity to move toward respecting the richness of diversity which encourages the unfoldment of spiritual democracy.
Sometimes the best way to understand something, especially ourselves or our culture, is to see through the eyes of another or their culture. Consider this quote from a native american elder observing the teachings of Jesus to native american youth; “I have come to the conclusion that this Jesus was an Indian. He was opposed to material possessions. He was inclined to peace. He was as unpractical as any Indian and set no price upon his labor of love. These are not the principles upon which the white man has founded his civilization. It is strange that he could not rise to these simple principles which were so commonly observed among our people.”
For myself, and others I’m sure, raised in churches where congregants did not “rise” to Jesus’s principles and hipocrissy was clearly evident these words ring profoundly true! Our whole culture, many western cultures, cling tenaciously to our base, ego centered visions of life and craft equally base and ego centered cultures of support. This was true in Jesus time and remains so.
The “caring” health system we all deserve as a basic right, and so many other community supports, was practiced day-in and day-out by native american tribes as normal activity associated with being a “human being”. THEY SEE all people as RELATIVES! Many “first nation” peoples understand brotherhood on an intuitive level. Also, many European and other “first world” cultures have universal health systems supporting their “relatives” nation-wide, in spite of low Christian church attendance. I can’t help but believe that be it from nature or nurture most people “know” health care is a basic human right and we need to SCREAM in favor of making it available that way!
We will never really be Christians until we rise and DO HIS TEACHINGS!
It is interesting to note that some on the religious right denounce the phrase “Social Justice.” When I have challenge them on that, I discover that their protest is on political grounds, not on Biblical concerns.