.jpg)
- VIGILANTE, SOZADEE, CA -
.jpg)
Jesus never excluded anyone He healed due to a ridiculous "pre-existing condition" clause. He never engaged in healing for profit, either.
He repeatedly instructed His followers and humankind in general to tend to the poor and sick. He did not give instructions to exploit them, deny them help, or profit off them, plain and simple.
Why, then, should insurance and pharmaceutical companies be practicing such unfair, profiteering nonsense? Why, then, do conservative Republicans and members of the far-right "religious right" (who loudly claim this to be a "Christian nation") support the unjust status quo and oppose health care reform which would limit profiteering on human health and guarantee medical care for all citizens regardless of their physical condition or income status?
Jesus never instructed humankind to make the rich much richer at the expense of everyone below them.
It is clear these people who actively support health insurance companies' pursuit of excess profit at the exclusion of millions from coverage are not only not following, but are actually contradicting and opposing the teachings of Jesus. So are the defenders of the greedy health insurance and pharmaceutical companies when they loudly protest on their behalf.
This is not a mere economic issue. It is a moral one as well. For this reason, it is high time Christian churches enter the discussion on health care reform, just as they did regarding civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. It is high time they come out strongly in support of a plan that will ensure everybody gets the same high quality medical treatment regardless of their ability to pay (i.e. a universal, national health care plan). Just as Jesus threw the money changers out of the Temple for a good reason so long ago, it is now time for the religious community to throw greedy, immoral profiteers out of our medical care delivery system. It is time for all our synagogues and mosques to come out in support of this, as well.
Failure to do so would be defying the will of God.
---------------------
ADDENDUM: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2009
I awoke this morning to the news that Senator Edward M. Kennedy had passed away, losing his battle with brain cancer. For all who care about social justice and health care for all citizens, this is a very sad day.
Teddy Kennedy made some mistakes in his 77 years on this earth, to be sure. But the truth remains that he could have lived a life of leisure, enjoying his wealth without another care in the world. Yet he chose instead a lifetime of public service, devoted to the causes of the poor, the weak, and the sick. He was, understandably, entirely devoted to the adoption of a universal national health care system for this country. He was recently quoted as saying, "that is the cause of my life."
So, too, must it now be OUR cause.
It is time to, in Teddy's memory, put petty partisan bickering aside for just long enough to do the right thing and pass a health care reform bill that forbids exclusion due to pre-existing conditions, prohibits recission, and guarantees medical care to every citizen of this country. NOW.
That is most certainly God's will.
