Good health is the will of God for each and every one of God’s children and is the most basic tenets of being truly pro-life. Death, disease, and pain did not exist in the garden of Eden, and Revelation tells of a “new heaven and new earth,” where once again they will not exist.
In the fallen world in which we live, injury and sickness are a fact of life; physical death on this earth will never be overcome. But scripture paints a clear picture that health was God’s intent from the beginning and will be the goal once again in the end. This means that on a personal, national, and global level the physical well-being of all God’s children is close to God’s heart -- and should be close to ours as well.
There is no religious mandate for a specific, God-ordained system of health care or insurance. No amount of biblical exegesis will lead you to a policy conclusion about health care savings accounts, personal versus employer-provided insurance, single-payer public systems, or private insurance plans. Luke might have been a physician, but he never commented on whether or not computerizing medical records should be a national priority.
But these policy questions are still of vital importance. And, as they will be debated in the coming months at the White House, in Congress, and in the press, they should also be discussed in our churches. With an issue like health -- deeply personal but of great public concern -- the faith community has a unique and important role to play: to define and raise the moral issues that lie at the root of the policy debate.
There will be much heat, and maybe even a few fires, over policy specifics. The church has the opportunity to remind our political and national leaders about why these issues are so important -- why they speak to our Christian values.
There are a myriad of special-interest groups who will be promoting their own agendas during this process. The Christain community has the opportunity to step in and advocate for the common good and those who would not otherwise have a voice. We also have a vital role to play in reminding our elected officials that health care is not just about dollars and cents, but is a profound moral issue of life and death. It is fundamentally about whether we are a community that values the life of each person -- poor, rich, or middle-class. The health-care debate is the most basic of pro-life issues...it is the church's duty to be the conscience of our society and to remind our leaders what is really important in the health-care debate.
