Necessary Roughness

Found this letter in the opinion section of the Newark(Ohio) Advocate, where the writer advocates voting for Kerry/Edwards because Christ compels us to have government health care, and because Kerry and Edwards are “servants to God’s will”.

The writer postulates:

Jesus told us in Matthew 19:19 that we should honor our mother and father and love our neighbors as ourselves, and in Luke 5:31, Christ mentioned that the sick need a physician. Clearly, to any true servant of God, this would mean that all our brethren, especially our parents need healthcare coverage.

Let’s not ignore the poor neither, for Jesus clearly says in Matthew 5:42 that we should give to the poor and lend to those that ask of us, which directs me to the next subject: taxes. Seeing that everyone thinks that paying this toll is immoral, we should look what the Son of God says in Mark 12:14-12:17. In those verses, Jesus says that we should give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, or in other words: pay your taxes.

People, it is time to wake up, God almighty wants us to do our part. We need to care and provide for those who need it most (like the poor and elderly). This can not be done for free though, which is why taxes are so important. It’s time for a change of course, it’s time for a new leadership. On Nov. 2, cast your vote for the two men who will truly be servants to God’s will, John Kerry/John Edwards.

I’m afraid our writer has ripped Luke 5:31 out of context. Adding 5:30 and 5:32:

30 And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Here Christ clearly says that as physicians do heal the sick (a demonstration, not a command), so he comes to save the sinners. In fact, the irony is that everyone needs to be saved, but the Pharisees do not see themselves as sinful, so they deny themselves of treatment. Furthermore, the Lord does not dictate how the physician receives payment for his work, which is the thrust of government sponsored health care: that the government takes away from my ability to provide health care to my family, against my consent (because HMOs and other insurance are still operating to the consent of the policy buyers) to service the unpredictable and growing needs of an aging population.

To the second point: while our writer correctly identifies that we should in fact help the poor because they have no way of repaying us, he conveniently forgets that people already do this, both inside and outside the confines of government. This year we are spending 42% of our $2,000,000,000,000 budget on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security alone. When is enough, enough? If we devoted even all of our budget in transfer of payments to the poor, we would still be poor, because the surge in demand due to purchasing power would launch prices into the stratosphere, hurting everyone. If transfer of payments is so wonderful, why not transfer it all? Doesn’t everyone deserve not to starve? What does St. Paul say?

10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: If any one will not work, let him not eat. 11 For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living. 2 Thess. 3:10-12

Finally, the most insidious point being made here is that a Catholic (in name only?) who would be denied Communion by clergy in St. Louis, Boston, Portland, and New Orleans because of his anti-Christian views on gay marriage and prenatal termination is a servant to God’s will. How does John Edwards advance the causes of God by using junk science to falsely accuse doctors of causing cerebral palsy, thus besmirching their good name and driving them to financial ruin?

Nobody is perfect, and we deal with our sinful condition daily. The important thing is that we recognize the error of our ways, ask for forgiveness, and do our best not to commit the same mistakes again. We are not to stop trying, because it is in the effort to do good that we find the necessity for Christ’s intervention. When someone refuses to repent from what is plainly against the will of God, such as promoting aforementioned activities, this is when they stop being Christian and become agents of evil. I know a lot of people don’t like the word “evil” because it supplies conviction and drives moral relativists nuts, but if you’re going to say that someone is behaving in a Christian manner, and that person clearly doesn’t, then you’re bearing false witness. There may be some things President Bush does that are evil, but that was not within the scope of the original writer, and we can save that for another time.