We The People Health
The Morality of Health Care
The Morality of Health Care As my family and I travel the ‘open roads’ of America, seeking to awake our nation to the plight of our times, we often find ourselves taking rest in random hotels in small cities and towns along the way. On Sundays, we like to tune in one of the local faith broadcasts to see what our churches are teaching about these times.
The Sunday after speaking at the 9/12 Rally in Aurora, Illinois we tuned into a program where two elderly ministers, a man and woman, were emphasizing our “moral obligation to support this President’s universal health care plan.” They went on to chastise opposition to the government plan on the basis of racism, citing that the Bible teaches us “not to mistreat the foreigner,” alluding to the opposition of some Americans to the abuse of our present system by illegal aliens, which will naturally worsen if that system is expanded. They also said that it was every Christian’s"moral obligation” to provide health care to all Americans.
Like many Americans today, I am appalled by the shear blindness of so many religious leaders, and it speaks to a larger, deep-rooted problem that is threatening the very foundation of what made our nation so great. Since when, has the fear of government abuse, misuse or misappropriation of their authority violated the tenants and teachings of the Bible? Is it the good that our government may do with the power we give them that we fear, or the evil? If history has taught society anything, including biblical history, it is the simple fact that governments, seduced by power and greed, have committed evil on an immeasurable scale. Was this not the reason our founders sought to establish a constitution that limited the role of government, rather than empower it?
This past August, a small group of ‘believers’ set out to launch a government alternative to solve the health care problem in America. We called it We The People Health and it now has over 120,000 registered members without a single ounce of political support. You see, true followers of God’s Law know that it is the individual’s responsibility to care for his or her neighbor, whether a foreigner, and not the state’s. True students of biblical history understand all too clearly what happens when you empower kings and queens with reckless abandon. True believers know the consequence we all will pay when we ask to become like the other nations of the earth, when it was We The People of the United States of America who were established to be a nation and a people set apart. What beacon will the world follow, when the light of our nation has gone out?
Thus, on the evening of October 29, 2009 at a small Tea Party gathering in Mishawaka, IN, a group of fifty some American believers exercised the true meaning of our moral obligation to one another. Earlier in the day, my family and I had lunch at a nearby Red Robin and met one of the managers, a young lady who came over to meet us and proceeded to seat herself at our table to learn about our journey. After sharing a few details of our purpose and some of the more hilarious pitfalls of life on the road, she shared with us a program that Red Robin has cultivated within their organization called “Unbridled Acts of Kindness.” This program rewards employees for committing “UBA’s” for fellow colleagues, as well as guests. As an example, she shared with us that one of their servers on maternity leave recently gave birth to a baby girl, only to discover that their newborn daughter’s brain had not developed beyond a brain stem. Evidently it is a rare condition for which there is no cure, and usually results in the child’s death within the first week. Naturally, this family has incurred incredible medical expenses during this ordeal, and their daughter is still struggling to live after FOUR WEEKS! Therefore, as their business culture encourages, the staff at this Red Robin took up a collection to ease this family’s financial burden. This UBA by the staff resulted in a collection of about $200—just enough to give this family some temporary basic needs relief.
We soon began to discuss the government’s takeover plan for our health care system, wondering how much care this child would have been given under a so called ‘Universal Health Care System.’ We talked about Terri Schiavo’s death (remember her?) and how that was a window into the value the state places upon life. It’s not a measure of heart and soul, but of money. I also recalled how I had recently read an article about a British woman’s experience under their health care system when she gave birth to a child just days before the state funding cutoff date for premature infant care. The hospital staff in that case told this woman that all they could give her was a chair to sit and watch her baby die. You see, the state does not believe in miracles and they do not invest in the heart. The state is a soulless entity that will only measure such matters on the basis of return on investment, as though such matters ought to be regarded with an economist’s slide rule.
This brings us to the Penn Library Tea Party gathering in Mishawaka that night. I had initially planned on a message of “taking our country back,” but quickly decided that the time has come for We The People to start giving our country back to each other. At the end of that meeting, after pointing out many of the possible horrors that a government run health care system can mete out, and lamenting all the ill- deeds our elected officials have done with the power invested in them through our votes, we shared the hardship of this family and their daughter. Then we prayed for this family as though we were at a Sunday service. Then we gave.
In all, we collected seven hundred and one dollars to the penny. That’s right, 700 and ONE. What an incredible blessing for those of us who participated in this God- given UBA. There is nothing on this earth like prayers and giving from one group of strangers to another. Amen!
If you would like to pray for the Lord to bestow his blessings upon this family, offer your prayers for Marilyn and her daughter Melanie in South Bend, Indiana.
Thomas N. Tabback, Author of Things Forgotten Co-author of Joe The Plumber—Fighting for the American Dream Pearl Gate Publishing
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