Health Care and Baptism
"Will you strive for justice and peace among all persons?" What does this have to do with health care?
A friend's adult child recently experienced some troubling manifestations in his body. Imbalance, confusion, muscle inability were among the symptoms. As he did not have insurance, he chose not to go to the emergency room immediately; after all, he was truly middle age, 40 something, and this might just be a bug of some sort, though unlike any bug he had felt before. By the time he was convinced by others to go to the emergency room, the symptoms of the stroke he was experiencing had deepened significantly and the time lost in response was critical.
It should not surprise us that health care is such an emotional issue for us, it deals with two of the most primal and powerful things in our lives: our bodies and our money. It raises issues of how we are caring or not caring for our bodies, it raises issues of our mortality as well as our financial present and future. This is truly the stuff of primal anxiety.
This summer's General Convention ratified two particular resolutions (links below) calling on us in the church and our elected leaders to work toward basic health care for all Americans. The resolutions did not promise that all would have unlimited care at any cost and understood a solution would entail both private and public sectors. It did call for a community which cared for the 'least of these.'
I have signed a letter written by leaders of faith communities in Asheville that is being sent to our local and national elected officials calling for their work toward this end. It includes signatures from around 40 leaders including the pastors of First Baptist, Central Methodist and many other faith traditions. It recognizes the complexity of this issue, matters of personal and communal responsibility, the need for clear thinking and the inclusion of private and public sectors in this work.
While recognizing the complexity of this matter, what is not complex is Jesus' call to care for all members of the community, "When did we see you sick and care for you? To the degree you did it to the least of these, you have done it to me." In the gospels and in our baptism we are called to live in relationship to and in mutual accountability with all persons. May we move beyond our personal and corporate anxiety, move beyond the hysteria and fear promoted around this issue in order that we might recognize once again, "We live in an inextricable web of mutuality; what affects anyone affects me, and what affects me affects all others." May we, from our courage and clarity, work toward a community not divided by us/them, but a community that recognizes in all persons their and Jesus' sister and brother.
Peace,
Todd Donatelli
http://gc2009.org/ViewLegislation/view_leg_detail.aspx?id=1094&type=Final
http://gc2009.org/ViewLegislation/view_leg_detail.aspx?id=942&type=Final
