Carlan's Corner

I don’t usually get political, and you need to know that I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats in my life and have belonged to both parties at different times; yet this raucous debate about health care reform has ‘got my goat.’ What has annoyed me so much about this issue is not that people are debating it; debate is healthy in a democracy. What has irritated me is the purposeful dissemination of misinformation to scare people (Have we not tired of that yet?) and the lack of Christian principles by many who claim to be ‘Bible-believing Christians.’ Newspaper articles and Internet web sites have repeatedly discredited claims that the Obama administration’s proposal would set up so-called “death panels” to promote euthanasia, that the plan would require tax payers to fund abortions, that it would provide health care to illegal immigrants, and that the plan would take away the right for Americans to choose their health care provider. None of these assertions is true (check it out at www.politifact.com.); they are only a smoke screen for the real reason that the health insurance industry and other big players want to sabotage the idea—namely, that they will lose money or profit if health care reform becomes a reality. In the August 15, 2009, issue of The Tampa Tribune, a story pointed out that much of the money and strategy behind the so-called grass-roots groups organizing opposition to the plan and making a debacle of town meetings held in legislative districts comes from conservative political consultants, professional organizers and millionaires who often hold financial stakes in the outcome. That these people are against changing the status quo from which they profit immensely is not surprising, nor is there anything illegal in their desire to hold on to what they have. The only reprehensible thing is to front their opposition as if it were coming from the common people. I was appalled recently when someone gave me a copy of an insert in a bulletin from a conservative church that presented the above debunked assertions as fact and claimed that health care in our country would worsen if it were offered to all. What a horrible face for the Christian community to present—that we who are privileged should hold on to our rights and keep others from decent health care lest it detract from ours!
Who among us does not have someone in our extended family who lacks health insurance? Who among us does not know someone who is just hoping and praying that they don’t get sick enough to require hospitalization because they can’t afford it? How many older people have to choose between buying drugs and food? Just last week The Tampa Tribune reported that the number of uninsured people in Hillsborough County is 219,543 people (21.4% of the population) and in Pasco County is 80,350 people (21.9% of the population). Since our own Hernando County has an even higher unemployment rate, no doubt we are in even worse shape when it comes to the number of uninsured residents. Of course health care will cost us; it costs us now—for doctors and hospitals charge us more to offset the costs of treating those who can’t pay. Yet cannot a nation that spent $1 billion per day on the Iraq war consider spending less than that on taking care of its own people?
Is there a Christian perspective on this issue? Most definitely! Read the prophets of the Old Testament and they all repeatedly condemned the religious and civil authorities for failing to provide for the poor and needy. James, the brother of Jesus, writes in his letter in the New Testament: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” In other words, if we want to be spiritually right with God, we need to be concerned about those who can’t take care of themselves and not be afraid to live counter to the world’s ways. I don’t know about you, but the health care that I have received since moving to Florida has not been so hot anyway. I have been overcharged and over-tested. It’s no wonder our premiums are rising for health insurance! How it will all come out in the end, I don’t know; but this much I do know: I have a responsibility to stand up for those who have no voice of influence. All are equal in God’s eyes; we dare not discriminate based on race or economic standing or societal position or any other reason—especially in a congregation that has gone on record as open to all and affirming of all! Whatever your politics or your economics, I urge you to consider this (a paraphrase from James 2: 14-17): “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is sick and lacks health care, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep well and see a doctor,’ and yet you do not supply their medical needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” I don’t want a dead faith. Let us not determine what is right based on economics or opinion polls but based on what God desires and what Jesus has taught us. Pastor Carlan