Evangelicals Helped By So-Called, “Obama Care”
ECC Annual Meeting
As a Regional Superintendent in the Evangelical Covenant Church, last week I attended our Annual Meeting held in Estes Park, Colorado. During one of the business meetings, I was a bit surprised by one of the announcements made by our Executive Minister of Finance. Let me just quote the announcement made based on the following handout-
“Federal Tax Credit Available to Local Churches-
One of the early results of the March 2010 passage of the Health Reform Legislation (entitled Affordable Health Care Act) is the ability for small employers to receive tax credit for years 2010 through 2013, if they meet certain eligibility requirements…We encourage Covenant Annual Meeting attendees to call this issue to the attention of their local financial officers.”
He went on to report that our churches had already saved $500,000 and next year could save between 2 and 3 million dollars. It looks like so-called “Obama Care” is helping small business and in our case, Evangelical churches. This is not an endorsement of President Obama or the Health Care Plan. What it is, is a wake up call to not be duped or enslaved by political division and rhetoric. As evangelicals we must study for ourselves and be willing to support public policy based on truth and Scripture, not based on reports by CNN, Fox, or the self interests of the major political parties themselves. When we study the truth, it’s hard to be totally sold out to either of the major political parties. Sometimes a party will get it right and sometimes they will get it wrong. In this case the Health Care plan, which many evangelicals oppose, is actually helping pastors and local churches with the expenses of Health Care coverage. Some are trying to convince us that the plan is and will actually hurt small businesses and churches. Well, so far in the Evangelical Covenant Church, this is not the case.
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I feel your bolg starts out fueling the negative argument towards the Health Reform Legislation (entitled Affordable Health Care Act). The apperant savings is from the overal reduction in health care cost the Evangelical Covenant Church will be paying out. A fee years ago when the government sent out Tax rebate checks or stimulus check all who got one cashed it. Today if you are told because of federal law changes your taxes are going to be reduced causing you to save $1000. per person in your houshold (in my case $2000. total) per year. What would your response be. Remember the amount is from a cost savings, not the government just writing out a check to the Evangelical Covenant Church.
While that is true that it helps in this the case the Evangelical Church, in the long run it adds trillions to our national debt which helps no one. When it comes time to pay the bills, I think those that give to the church are going to be hit (as well as others) and you will see the money given to the church reflect this.
Not only will each family be responsible for more “national debt,” but the GAO has already estimated, contrary to what the President said, that individual health care subscription/premium costs will go up by 100 to 300 %. There are less expensive ways to provide health care to ALL Americans. There are some estimates, including a recent GAO report, that show there may be MORE Americans without health care, being forced to pay the penalty, which ironically would cover the cost of the premiums pre-inactment. The unnecessary expense is the government’s involvement in these issues of personal choice. This is the same kind of reasoning in the Evangelical Covenant Church which supports breaking into people’s homes “to help the poor” and hiring people who have broken our nation’s laws for decades as employees of the conference. Contrary to your opinion, the ends DO NOT justify the means.
Wow! How sad. This is the problem of the left, “I got mine today, not too worried about who pays for it tomorrow!”. Fortunately, I think those who truly discern see the whole picture.