
This week we’ll consider the health care debate from the perspective of our faith. Like many of you, I have been alarmed by the shrill voices we have heard in town hall meetings and on Op-Ed pages. Many of these voices worry about the cost of care, which seems deeply relevant to the debate, but others simply seem to trade in fear and anxiety, hinting at the idea of health care rationing and Americans going without. The truth is, of course, that rationing is already here and millions of Americans go without every day. According to the National Council of Churches, nearly 50 million of us currently have no health insurance coverage whatsoever, while tens of millions more either suffer from inadequate coverage or find themselves one or two paychecks away from being bankrupted by a serious illness. One of the voices that I feel is missing from the debate is the religious voice of compassion, inclusion, and, dare we say, liberation from this dehumanizing status quo.
With this in mind, we’ll consider health care reform on Sunday. Among the things I am reading or rereading this week are James Cone’s book of liberation theology, God of the Oppressed, Harvey Cox’s essay, “Mammon and the Culture of the Market: A Socio-Theological Critique,” Arnold Relman’s A Second Opinion: Rescuing America’s Health Care, T. R. Reid’s The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, and Maggie Mahar’s Money-Driven Medicince: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much. (The last two volumes listed are detailed in recent episodes of the PBS television programs Frontline and Bill Moyers Journal, respectively.) Each of these sources influences the way I read our lectionary text, or vice versa, as we hear some old words from the Book of James that invite us to see through our privileged systems to glimpse the poor and the outcast, suggesting that faith is meaningless if it doesn’t act to meet the physical needs of our sisters and brothers (Jas. 2.1-10, 14-17).
Liberation theology affirms that, while all people possess equal dignity and value, we must take the side of those who are poor, marginalized, and struggling for the basics of life and health. This side-taking is often referred to as the “preferential option” for the poor. I wonder what it would mean if more people of faith began to raise the voice of liberation theology in the current debate. I wonder how it would change the conversation to move from the fear of what some of us might lose to the hope of what we all might gain. I wonder if each of us might find time to call, write, or visit our representatives during this critical moment. The reform on the table is, in my view, hardly the stuff of systemic liberation. But the voices of liberation might help us see where we are more clearly and take one more step on the road to a better life for all.
What do you think?
J