During my summer of health care rallies and town hall meetings, I had the opportunity to talk to many people on both sides of the health care debate and it never ceased to amaze me that most people who identified as Christian were against health care reform. I don’t consider myself a Christian now but I have more than a passing familiarity with the Bible, having spent my fair share of time in Sunday school growing up and even attending private Catholic school for a while. Didn’t Jesus spend most of his time ministering to the poor and downtrodden? He was all about feeding the hungry and caring for the sick. I get the sense that universal health care is an idea he would have liked…so why is it that so many of his American followers see health care reform as somehow un-Christian? It never made sense to me. Tonight I came across an article by a progressive Christian that discusses just that. I recommend reading the whole article but here is my favorite quote:
Forgive the note of bitterness, but my word to American Christians who show more devotion to John Locke than to Jesus in respect to their “I’ve got mine” ideology: We’ll see you in Hell with your good buddy, Dives. And to the patriarchal types who told Speaker Pelosi late last week that they could not support any legislation giving them less than total victory on the abortion issue: Why not be man enough to just come out and say it? You have never liked women, you fear women, and now you would even sink the chance of providing coverage for 36 million currently uninsured persons—including many of the children and immigrants you claim to love—rather than accept a carefully-negotiated compromise on women’s reproductive health.
With Christians like these, who needs other enemies? And will anyone wonder why, with each new poll or census, more Americans will be marking “none” or “atheist” or “anything but Christian” on the religion section?
Hello,
I felt compelled to comment on your post here. I am a Christian and I have the same concerns that you seem to have about the poor and downtrodden. But at the same time I don’t see that government imposition of its will over the American public that in all opinion polls seem overwhelmingly against this current health care bill as the correct answer.
The fact is that the church is supposed to be dealing with the issue of the poor and the downtrodden, the widow and orphan, but unfortunately we have not been doing our job. I apologize for this and I apologize for not being able to completely separate my political views from my “religious” views. I have become increasingly aware that many people equate being Republican to being Christian and that is not right. In fact, our allegiance should be to the kingdom of God and not to any man-made authority.
The Bible states that we are supposed to be subject to those in authority (ie. earthly rulers [including Obama]). This does not mean blind obedience but that we are to obey the laws of the land unless it conflicts with God’s law. This was written during the time of Nero, a very wicked Roman emperor who routinely persecuted the church. Christians were considered godless because they did not worship the emperor as god. Christians were rounded up and given incense, told to walk past an incense bowl to throw in the incense as an act of worship and were supposed to say “Caesar is Lord.” But the Christians instead would throw the incense on the ground and say “Christ is Lord” ensuring that they would be executed.
In the early church even anti-Christian historians marveled at how Christians loved one another and took care of even the pagan (non-Christian) widows and orphans. This was how Christianity spread so quickly throughout the Roman empire. In the very first church, within a very short time after Jesus’ resurrection, the Bible states that everyone shared what they had with each other and gave to those in need. This was not compulsory but people did so willingly.
Unfortunately, this is not the case today. We Christians have bought into the idea of the American dream and have forgotten our roots. We act like Americans who just happen to be christian, instead of Christians who happen to be americans. Or maybe we should simply be Christians with no earthly loyalties. I feel in my heart and that this is the way but it is very hard to break from longstanding loyalties.
Anyway, I hope this rambling has enlightened you as to why some Christians don’t like the idea of government health insurance.
This is my opinion and I’m sure those who are American first or Republican first and Christian second will disagree with me as to the reason. They may even accuse me of being unpatriotic, as if being patriotic is something the bible teaches (it doesn’t).