Faith leaders advocate health care reform Staff and wire reports, Sep 1, 2009
Barack Obama
Staff and wire reports
President Barack Obama and several faith leaders launched a campaign for U.S. health care reform with an Aug. 19 audio Web cast. The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) was one of the interfaith event’s sponsors, along with dozens of other faith groups.
“I know we’ve got thousands of people listening from many different denominations and faiths,” Mr. Obama said during the Web cast. “But the one thing that you all share is a moral conviction; you know that this debate over health care goes to the heart of who we are as a people.”
The Web cast launched the “40 Days to Health Reform” campaign, which, according a GBCS news release, seeks “to make sure that the faith community has a strong voice in the outcome of the health-reform debate.” Plans include a TV ad, prayer vigils, rallies and meetings with members of Congress before they vote on a reform bill this fall.
United Methodist speakers on the Web cast included the Rev. Cory Sparks, pastor of Faith Community UMC in Youngsville, La., who criticized insurance companies “that deny people coverage for pre-existing conditions, jack up rates when people become sick, or force folks to pay more than they can afford for the care they need.”
It’s crucial, Mr. Sparks said, “to make sure our fellow worshippers, neighbors and co-workers hear what it means for our families.”
The United Methodist Book of Discipline calls health care “a basic human right,” and states that it is a “governmental responsibility to provide all citizens with health care” (Social Principles, Paragraph 162.V).
In a separate initiative, the “John 10:10 Challenge,” issued in July by the GBCS, urges church members to advocate for health care reform based on Jesus’ declaration in John’s Gospel: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” A Web site at www.1010challenge.org includes a petition to Congress and op-ed columns by Jim Winkler, the board’s top executive and an outspoken supporter of comprehensive reform.
The denomination’s stance on health care reform, however, has met with some controversy.
Mark Smith, an optometrist and member of First UMC in Pine Mountain, Ga., responded in a letter to one of Mr. Winkler’s columns. The reform bill supported by the White House, Mr. Smith said, would give employers an incentive “to drop health coverage for employees, since providing such coverage may cost more than dumping the employees into the public system.”
The 2008 General Conference, the denomination’s highest legislative body, adopted a resolution that supports “a totally non-profit health-insurance system, a single-payer system administered by the federal government.”
Lana Hannen, a member of Harleton UMC in Harleton, Texas, opposes the reform effort and says the resolution went too far.
“The church should not take a position either way on an issue that is so sensitive to its members,” Ms. Hannen said. “We are not a political body, and this is not a religious issue. . . . It is really a test of faith, when the church you love takes a stand against you.”
Sam Marullo, a student at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., teaches a Sunday school class attended by several homeless people at Capitol Hill UMC. Seeing their plight, he said, leaves him unsure how to feel about health care reform.
“I think some people are scared, and maybe legitimately so,” Mr. Marullo said. “If somehow the health care system turns into a place where the quality of care is negatively affected, I’d be scared of that.”
But, he added, “As Christians, we’ve got to think about how in God’s kingdom there is enough for everybody.”
Barack Obama
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