On Health Care
There’s a thoughtful piece in the current edition of the UM Reporter that gives good Wesleyan and Christian context to the national health care debate that made for, shall we say, an interesting summer.
The crux of the article for me came from Rev. Ken Carter, who recently preached to his Charlotte, NC congregation on the Health care debate. He used the parable of the Good Samaritan to make this point:
When we focus on cost, or fire up the rhetoric, we are in effect walking on the other side, away from the beaten stranger in the road. You can read his complete sermon here, btw.
“If Christians are to participate meaningfully in the conversation,” he said, “we will rediscover the fullness of God’s gift of salvation for all people, even the beaten man on the side of the road,” he says in the Reporter piece.
The article also traces our Wesleyan roots, giving more context as to why our Social Principles state that:
“We believe it is a governmental responsibility to provide all citizens with health care.”
Needless to say, the sermon didn’t sit well with everybody, but the article goes on to say:
Others gathered afterward to review the United Methodist Book of Discipline’s resolutions on heath care. They discussed statements such as “health care is a basic human right” and that it is a “governmental responsibility to provide all citizens with health care” (Social Principles, Paragraph 162.V).
“We didn’t all agree, but we had a civil dialogue,” Dr. Carter said in an interview. “Health care isn’t just the province of TV news and talk radio. It’s also the business of the church.
“Jesus was a preacher, teacher and healer—caring holistically for the spirit, mind and body. Somewhere along the way, we lost sight of that.”
It’s definitely an article worth reading in it’s entirety.
