A Different Slant on Healthcare

I found this on reddit.com, and thought how absolutely right this person was. I am amazed that it was posted there, as most of the posts tend to be of an anti-religious, atheist nature, so it caught me by surprise.

A message to Christians who oppose Public Health Care, from a fellow Christian: Read more Bible. Watch less Fox News.

Yes, that was the starter. Can you see that I was drawn to it immediately? It is simply unlike anything I’ve ever seen at the site, and makes me think I am not the only one who disagrees with much of what gets posted there.

Onward.

I keep seeing headlines and articles that seem to put Christians, Republicans and Public-Healthcare-Opposers all in one group together, which is either totally unfair and biased, or suggests that there are a lot of Christians who are actually opposed to a public health care system… I find this a little worrying and confusing, and so write this not as evangelism to non-Christians (you guys can stop reading now…), but as evangelism to conservative Christians, who I ask to turn off Fox News and pick up their bible and see what you find in there about the matter…

The old question of WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) may be a little dorky and a little clichéd, but for a Christian it’s often a good way to start thinking about moral/ethical dilemmas, or even simple every day scenarios.

Now I for one can’t believe that Jesus would be against the public health care option, and I can’t imagine too many people who could honestly say he would be. He asks us to love our neighbour, enemy and friend alike, to help the sick and lame no matter what the social, financial or potentially life-threatening cost (i.e. the parable of the Good Samaritan). He is quite specific about giving away wealth, rather than hoarding it. Jesus would be in favour of the entire public paying what they can afford, towards the spiritual and physical care of their peers.

Now I’m not quite saying that Jesus would be in favour of raising taxes. After all, he was clearly not a fan of the Roman Empire and their over-taxing of the poor. But his problem was with the Empire taxing poor people to increase the divide between poor and wealthy. He was against the continual exploitation of his people. And by “his people” I am of course referring especially to the meek, the poor, the poverty stricken, the injured, the lame, the sick. It’s not that Jesus was only gunning for the sick and lame, but he made a point of trying to bring a voice to those without one.

If Jesus were around today, he would be spending his time helping those without any health care or insurance (probably in quite a different way to Obama, to be totally honest — he would want to wholly subvert the system, rather than work within it). The Pharisees of his time would be today’s Middle America, Republicans and Democrats alike, for they participate in an Empire where success is measured financially and socially, rather than through servitude and grace.

Jesus was not a capitalist. The ‘Free Market’ is not a Christian construct.

It saddens me to see conservative Christians in America using the language of Christ along side the language of capitalism, as if one is ethically and spiritually aligned with the other. As if some how Jesus wants you to be a wealthy CEO. Equally, I don’t think Jesus would strictly align with any of the political ideologies that are commonly believed to be inherently “evil”, like Socialism/Communism/Fascism (BTW, they’re not all the same thing).

Large chunks of the New Testament deal with the Roman Empire and how it oppresses and mistreats the people of God. In today’s world, the Empire is the extreme capitalist movement in America. The leader and army of today’s empire are the extremely wealthy CEOs/managers/etc and massive companies and markets where people are encouraged to consume more and more, and care only for themselves. Capitalism is the new Imperial Cult.

I think it’s best summed up a quote from the J-man himself on the topic of taxation — “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s”.

Taxation and wealth should not be concerns for Christians. Jesus asks us to give our lives to helping others and to worshiping God. I personally cannot fathom how one can be anti-public-healthcare while following Jesus’ teachings.

This flies in the face of most of what passes for the line on things, which is why I like it so much. I have always said I find it a totally incongruous for those who claim to be Republican to also claim to be Christian. The basic tenet of the Republican party, ‘We’ve got ours!’ doesn’t coalesce very well with the idea that we are our brother’s keeper.

§

•