Rev. Jim Rigby: Why Is Universal Health Care ‘Un-American’?

[marmar]

Published on Wednesday, September 2, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Why Is Universal Health Care ‘Un-American’?
by Rev. Jim Rigby


Last week supporters of health-care reform gathered around the country, including in Austin, TX, where 2,000 people crowded into a downtown church to hear speakers talk about different aspects of the issue. Asked to speak about the ethical dimensions of health care, I tried to go beyond short-term political strategizing and ask more basic questions. This is an edited version of what I said.


Is anyone else here having trouble with the fact that we are even having this conversation? Is anyone else having trouble believing this topic is really controversial? I have been asked to talk about the ethical dimension of health care. Here's one way to frame such a discussion:

If an infant is born to poor parents, would we be more ethical to give medicine to that child so he or she does not die prematurely of preventable diseases, or would we be more ethical if we let the child die screaming in his or her parent's arms so we can keep more of our money?

Or, let's say someone who worked for Enron, and now is penniless, contracted bone cancer. I've been asked to discuss whether we are more ethical if we provide such people medicine that lessens their pain. Or would we be more ethical to let them scream through the night in unbearable agony so we can pay lower taxes?

I can't believe I am standing today in a Christian church defending the proposition that we should lessen the suffering of those who cannot afford health care in an economic system that often treats the poor as prey for the rich. I cannot believe there are Christians around this nation who are shouting that message down and waving guns in the air because they don't want to hear it. But I learned along time ago that churches are strange places; charity is fine, but speaking of justice is heresy in many churches. The late Brazilian bishop Dom Hélder Câmara said it well: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist." Too often today in the United States, if you talk about helping the poor, they call you Christian, but if you actually try to do something to help the poor, they call you a socialist. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/02-5

[babylonsister]

1. Rec'd. Thanks. nt

[Warpy]

2. Mah pappy and mah grandpappy didn't have no socialism

so I don't want none of that socialism!

It's TRADITION.

Never mind pappy was afraid to go to a doc and died of something curable at 50 and grandpappy died of an infected tooth at 40.

There are people in the world who are so fearful of any change in their lives they will resist the most necessary changes with everything they've got.

A wise government knows this and makes the changes anyway.

[eShirl]

3. When they say "un-American," what they mean is "un-Republican."

They do not consider non-Republicans to be real Americans, just like they don't consider non-Conservative Christians to be real Christians.

[raccoon]

4. I just now read this. For those who missed it, kick.

This Rev. Rigby rocks!