Commentary
Should Christians weigh in
on health care reform?
By Carmen Fowler, The Layman, September 10, 2009
We have heard Christians say all kinds of things in relationship to the health care reform conversation. I heard a woman after worship this past Sunday say to two others, “Jesus is the Great Physician, He healed people. In that spirit, we should take care of everyone.”
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The other woman responded, “Jesus healed some people, but He didn’t heal everyone. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, God has given miraculous powers of healing to the Church in order to reveal Himself to others. So, I think that we should allow God to be the Great Physician and miraculously heal people as He sees fit.”
A third person was aghast, “What? Are you joking? God has given us medicine and medical technology and it’s our responsibility to use it to His glory by helping as many people as possible. The big question for me is who is going to pay for it. Thank God we’re already in the Medicare crowd and we’ve got supplemental insurance with AARP. It’s my kids and grandkids I’m worried about.”
Christians are already weighing in on the conversation: the real question is whether or not Christians are weighing in with their own opinions, from their own perspectives, or with Biblically informed perspectives that reveal to others God’s view.
This series of articles and interviews is offered as a means of more fully equipping Christians for the conversations they will have in the bleachers at high school football games, neighborhood block parties and even hospital waiting rooms. For the most part, people simply repeat to others what they have heard some commentator say. What impact might be made if Christians offered godly counsel that others in turn repeated?
To kick off the conversation, consider for yourself what the Bible says about your health and the care of your body.
- Your body is a gift from God.
- The care of your body is an important part of your stewardship responsibility.
- Your body was designed by the manufacturer to function best with certain recommended daily allowances of water, nutrients, sleep and exercise. Too much or too little and your body will not function properly and over time, it will break down. Breakdowns require more expensive intervention and overhauls and even replacement parts. Preventative maintenance is expected.
- What you put into your body matters to God but so does what comes out. Time to check your inputs and your outputs. If, as a Christian, you are going to engage in the public conversation about health care, you need to be a faithful, healthy, credible witness.
- Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body is to be offered as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Which means no defiling of it.
The second part of the conversation for which Christians need to be more fully equipped is the discussion of our corporate responsibility for the health and welfare of others.
- The prior conversation bears on this conversation: Jesus did not heal everyone but He did heal some. Why? Jesus was certainly “able,” possessed all of the necessary resources, could have done it with no trouble, so why did he heal some and not others? Why not everyone? Christians need to study the Scriptures and be prepared to engage the world with faithful answers to this question. If Jesus is not only our Savior but also our Lord, the one after whom we are patterning our own behavior, then we need to know why He healed those whom He healed and why He did not heal everyone. He did not take a “universal” approach to healing. In light of that, should we?
- Certainly, like the good Samaritan, we must show compassion to those who cannot help themselves. There must be a system that provides for the basic health care of the least of these our brothers and sisters. No question. As Christians, does that Biblical mandate recognize geographic national boundaries? As Christians, do we live under a moral obligation to work tirelessly to see that all people have access to clean water, nutritional food, a shelter in which to sleep, and vaccines for the most common of killers? You see that the concept of “universal” health care at one level goes too far and at another level does not go far enough.
- So, what is our moral obligation or Christian responsibility to those who “will” not help themselves? Does the same “good Samaritan” mandate apply? Shall we usurp their free will to do with their bodies as they choose? Shall we alleviate everyone of the consequences that naturally follow choices like over-eating, failing to exercise, drinking alcohol in excess, smoking, abusing drugs or having unprotected sex?
How will your Christian conscience be protected from having to participate in a system that includes payment for procedures and practices that you find contrary to your religious convictions?
- Are there health care questions that impinge upon your Christian conscience? Are there practices and procedures that are contrary to your understanding of God’s demonstrated will? Abortion? Euthanasia? Gender reassignment surgery?
- What will be covered and what will not be covered and how will we, as a society, decide? How then, as a Christian, will you decide whether or not to participate in a system? If you opt out, will you still be required to pay for others to have the option through your taxes?
Finally, there is the question of “who” is going to pay for such an overhaul:
- The Bible is clear here: render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. So, how’s your tithe these days? If you already fall short of the Biblical mandate to tithe the first 10 percent of all your earnings to the Lord, how do you imagine that you’re going to muster an additional 20 percent for universal health care? A single payer system in a democracy means the people are the single payer.
- Honor your father and your mother. Absolutely. But here’s the question: does God intend for younger generations to live in bankruptcy in order that older generations can live beyond their means? It is a question of legacy, inheritance and love. What is your legacy to the next generation? Have you imparted a legacy of the faith? What will your grandchildren inherit from you? Health? Wealth? Debt? Social bankruptcy? We cannot pay for that which we cannot ourselves in our generation afford by saddling the next generation with more debt than they can bear. It is not godly, it is not Biblical, and it does not honor God, which is a prior command to honoring father and mother.
In conclusion, consider that this life is not all there is. When we seek to extend our earthly life through extreme measures, we betray our lack of faith in the promises of heaven. Jesus died so that we might live and Jesus rose again in order that though we die, yet shall we live. As Christians, we believe in the resurrection of the body. We believe that because He lives we also will live. We believe that heaven is not pie in the sky but a reality that one day will be fully realized, fully actualized, the substance of that which is only now hoped for. Here on earth we offer care; in heaven we will each be cured, finally and fully.
Our goal over the coming weeks is to bring you articles and perspectives that challenge your current thinking, Biblically inform your conversations and more fully equip you to engage as a Christian in the national conversation about health care r
eform. We invite you to engage in the debate by sending us your perspectives at laymanletters@layman.org.