All is Fair in Health and War?
“…I was sick, and you visited Me…” (Read Matthew 25:31-46)
Lately, you can’t watch the news without seeing angry people at a town hall meeting on health care reform. There are angry people (mostly European-American conservatives and in some cases evangeical) who are mad at President Obama and they want to know how this health care plan is going to be paid for. I get why they’re asking how this proposed plan is going to be paid for. To be honest, I have the same question myself.
What I don’t get is the anger about big government spending big money on a monthly basis. If that’s what the anger is about, you’re a few town hall meetings too late. The proposed health care bill could cost 100 billion dollars a year over the next 10 years. Wow! But, before you get angry, what about the 8-10 billion dollars a month being spent on the war in Iraq right now? This monthly cost is probably less than when the war was at its height under President George W. Bush. Where was the anger then? Isn’t spending billions of dollars a month on a war, that brought forth no weapons of mass destruction and may have contributed to our economic collapse big government as well? It funny to me, (but I’m not angry yet) that when it’s about war, for some people the checkbook of the government can be unlimited, but when it comes to providing healthcare for the poor and marginalized, to consider writing any checks at all from the government is socialism.
For the Christian the bigger question becomes, should the church be in the business of healthcare? I believe the biblical answer is yes. Jesus was in the business of healthcare and so should evangelical christians. Now if we were talking about Africa, I wouldn’t have to make this point. But if I’m talking about Chicago, Detroit, or Minneapolis, I’ve probably got a debate on my hands. If you happen to be one of those Christians that are against the proposed healthcare reform of President Obama then you need to be apart of crafting a church run proposal. It can’t be the Obama plan or no plan, this is not a biblical option. When I served as an Associate Pastor at Park Avenue United Methodist Church in South Minneapolis, Minnesota, one of my responsibilities was to serve as Executive Director of the Park Avenue Foundation. This outreach ministry of the church has a computer learning center, a free legal clinic, and a free health clinic still going today. If, as a Christian, you don’t agree with government driven health care reform, then redistribute some of your church budget dollars to starting a free health care clinic in partnership with healthcare professionals in your local area. This is something we seek to do at The Sanctuary Covenant Church, where I pastor now through a larger initiative called, The Exchange Center for Compassion, Mercy, and Justice.
If you’re not willing to take this biblical step, then you should get out of the way of some type of reasonable health care reform. Maybe the problem is that government is working at trying to move something forward that the church should actually be addressing in a creative and innovative way. If I had my way, I’d rather see the church leading the way on this issue, not government. Because the church in the United States of America has lost sense of biblical insight on issues such as housing, healthcare, education, and incarceration, the current government proposal must be at least considered. To be honest I wish there was a town hall meeting where I could vent my anger with the church.
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Pastor I enjoy you’re blogs. I agree with what you say in this one about getting together funds to open a free clinic, but I invite you to take another perspective on the healthcare issue. First, 100 billion compared to 10 bilion there really isn’t an arguement there. Also the evangelicals and others voicing their opinions in town hall meetings have every right. These people including me are the ones who seem to foot the bill for everything in this country and we have every right to question the goverment when they want to take over 50% of every dollar we make to another goverment program, and by the way our experiments with socialist goverment programs are a huge failure i.e. Social security Bankrupt because of the nearly 30% of people that collect on it and have never worked a day in their life and have not contributed to it. Medicare, Bankrupt for the same reason. The well fare system completely bankrupt and out of control (especially in this state). Al these experiments have been complete failures why would anyone thrust the goverment to run another trillion dollar socialized program when they have failed with every other thing, and those “european decent and evangelacals” are ALWAYS the ones left responsible for the bill for yet another failed goverment program meant to help the people when it always ends up hurting them and stifiling their ambition. Again they, more than any have every right to get angry and voice their opinions. I have wonderful healthcare I don’t have a college deree barely graduated from highschool and definitly did not grow up privelaged, but I’ve always worked hard and have a good job because of my hard work and in turn I have good insurance. so the social issue to me bares no weight. One ,more thing do you really want the same organazation that makes decisions for those other three complete failed programs making decisions about your healthcare???? Personally that scares the you know what out of me. You also mentioned the war being a reason for the economic downturn???? This is not the reason. Fannie mae and freddie mac supporting loans to people who had no chance of paying them back who by the way were supported by Barrack Obama and the clinton adminastaration because they wanted everyone even if you couldn’t afford it to be able to buy a home, and guess what, who is footing the bill for all those bad loans now. Me the european evangelical and you Pastor the hard working african american man. This is why so many people are upset at town hall meetings they are tired of footing the bill. Aren’t you????
Great thoughts Efrem. I totally agree and am excited for the Exchange at the Sanctuary. I wrote something similar this week for the Star Tribune here: http://is.gd/2ukMz
peace .
To the initial poster: he said 10 to 12 billion a month. Which equals 120 billion a year, vs. 100 billion a year. And at 120 billion a year, we’re still spending less (maybe half) for the current war than Bush was…Bush was running around 200 billion + a year for the war effort. There is significant math here.
But then, Bush, like many presidents before him, was able to take 800 billion from the Social Security Trust fund to pay for his issues, which is why A. it looks like it’s costing us more now, and B. why nobody has any social security anymore.
Additionally, if the average person is going to pay something like $300 a month plus (at least) a $5000 deductible before their health insurance is going to pay anything, if they have, say, a family of four, that’s going to cost them nearly 25k a year before they ever get any benefit out of it from the insurance company, and unless they’re having babies or getting major surgery, they aren’t going to see that. And that’s more than a lot of people make in a year right there, especially among the minimum wage crowd.
43 million people times 25k is 1,075,000,000,000, vs. 100,000,000,000. So, you’re asking those 43 million uninsured people to pay more money than it would cost the entire nation as a whole for healthcare (260 million people). The math seems to speak strongly to the idea that if those 43 million people could afford healthcare, surely we could afford it for everybody?
I have to say I am mixed on this issue. I know that we are to care for the poor and the sick, yet at the same time I can’t help but feel that when people get something for nothing, then it creates a “dependency” factor. I know there has to be a middle ground where we help with immediate needs, while working towards something that will allow them to not be dependent on “universal healthcare.” I know this isn’t very good wording…but it is jumbled in my head as well.
Any thoughts?
Everyone wants to spend money on what they want to spend money on, and call it irresponsible when other folks want to spend money on something else. That’s politics in America, eh?
Unless you are strongly libertarian or an anarchist, it’s not that you don’t think the gov’t should spend money, or even LOTS of money sometimes…it’s WHAT you think the gov’t should spend money on that divides folks. You illustrate that so well in your observations about war versus health care.
A supposed fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals is that conservatives want small gov’t and liberals want big gov’t. This is a false distinction. Again, the division is really over WHERE differing folks want gov’t to be larger or smaller…more or less “intrusive”, more or less “regulatory”…and so on.
We all want someone else regulated or intruded upon or financially imposed upon, but not our own selves or our own group. There are hypocrites across the political spectrum. True “believers” in a specific political ideology are rare. Most want to pick and choose from an ideology what is convenient and what will win the argument of the moment.
But the Church should not be this way, right?….
Pastor Efrem, let me know when and where that town hall meeting is going to be where you vent your anger with the Church. I’ll be there in the back quietly and prayerfully supporting you.
I agree with Mark in the sense that people seem to pick and choose where they want the government to interfere. And venting anger might be bad wording…I would want to vent disappointment in how we have missed the mark on where Jesus calls us to minister. One thing I struggle with is this idea of dependency. By this I mean, history has shown that a “handout” (i.e. universal healthcare in my opinion) doesn’t do anything to help the long term problem, it is a “quick fix.” My struggle is that I know we are supposed to meet immediate needs of the sick, poor, and hungry, but what can we as a church do to alleviate long term suffering, namely finding a way for people to get back on there feet and working. I businessman from Laos once told me, “If you just give something away for nothing, it robs people of their God given dignity.” I believe this is true…giving someone something doesn’t give anyone value, it just makes them feel even more like they can’t make it, while helping them get back on their feet where they have a job and sustainable living seems to be the answer….I think…again, it is an ongoing struggle. I definitely believe the church should be leading the charge in offering an alternative to the Obama plan.
Seth, I encourage you to consider that — as a Believer and follower of Christ — it is impossible to “hand out” anything. Whatever you have in your hand to give to someone else was already given to you first. We own nothing, not even our own bodies or our time..let alone worldy resources. The earth and everything in it (my understanding is that means EVERYTHING) is the Lord’s…not ours. If we as the Body come to understand this, and walk it out, what would/should that look like?
Having said that, I confess I struggle with owning stuff versus being a steward of stuff every day…EVERY DAY. But — again, as Believers — wouldn’t starting to act like we understand that we own nothing be part of the Truth we’re challenged to live out?
And understanding and respecting this as we serve those in need will prevent anyone’s dignity from being diminished: ie…this stuff I gave to someone wasn’t mine in the first place, so this isn’t about me. When we “hand out” something, we’re trying to make the focus on us…”I” am so good that “I” am giving you this thing. When we “give” or “serve,” it’s about God and only God, regardless of the outward appearance or circumstances of the “giver” or “reciever.” When you “hand out,” you are implying that you are better than someone else because you “got it like that” to give this certain thing and they don’t. Watch out, my friend, I’ve been “ministered to” by many who I thought I was “handing something out to” over the years. God is God, and God is Good, and I think we rarely understand just how ridiculously Good He is.
If we as the Church don’t like what’s going on in the “political process,” than maybe the Church shouldn’t have gotten so entangled in the political process over the last 40-50 years. The Church should be a voice of conscience to the political process, not a player in it. I mean…c’mon now…the Church has gotten SOOOO political that it’s not even possible to say “We as the Church…” about anything right now.
And yes, I’m angry about that.
Grace and Peace,
Mark
Todd first president Bush is definitly not the reason social security is bankrupt this was another debunked govermnet program from its inception. The reason its broke is the vast number of people who draw off it and have never contributed to it in their life. Look at our deficit and how much this is going to cost. There are free market soulutions to this problem socializing it will have the same result as the other failed goverment programs
God has commanded us to care for the widows, orphans and poor. Ironically, healthcare in the hands of the state will increase the blood already on our hands. God’s commands with regard to the poor, etc., will be further disobeyed, as abortions, euthenasia, and general devaluing of life will most certainly increase.
I think it’s my duty to keep gov’t from growing for this reason, and even more, it’s my duty to care for the poor, widows, orphans, etc. and I can only account for myself. Only through God am I able.