In Theory

Once upon a time, when I was in Africa on a work team, we visited a Methodist clinic. The clinic was the only health-care facility for 50 miles. The clinic, funded by Methodists from all over the world, was a birth center, an emergency ward, an anti-malaria station, a school for teaching health care and prenatal care, and a hospital. The sign over the front door said, “Jesus wants us well in every way.”

The sign is right. God desires us to be well in body, mind and soul.

The life of the spirit and the life of the body are inseparable. One cannot grow one’s soul without caring for the well being of your body. Neither can one care deeply for God without caring for the well being of those whom God cares about. The Old Testament, New Testament and church history all bear the same witness; the healthiness of our relationship with God is mirrored by how we care for the ill, the poor, the left out and the leftover, and the mortally wounded.

Health care will always be a spiritual issue because “Jesus wants us well in every way.”

PASTOR MARK WILEY

Mesa Verde United Methodist Church

Costa Mesa

I am glad the question is “How do your spiritual convictions influence your feelings about health care?”, because when we elevate the proposition to the level of spiritual convictions, it removes the guess work.

My spiritual convictions are based upon the word of God, not my feelings. On one occasion, a group of people attempted to trick Jesus by asking Him if it was lawful to pay taxes or not.

His reply was to “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things which are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). By this statement, Jesus clearly indicated that certain things belong to Caesar (come under the authority of government) and other things do not. It is my opinion based upon the word of God that health care is not one of those areas that come under the authority of government.

Human government is ordained of God for the protection of civilization, the rewarding of good and the punishment of evil according to Romans, chapter 13. I can find nowhere in scripture that health care comes under the authority of government.

Health care is the responsibility of the individual and the family, not the government. I have no more confidence in the government’s ability to run health care than I do in its ability to run the education system. Neither one was ever intended to be managed by government.

PASTOR DWIGHT TOMLINSON

Liberty Baptist Church

Newport Beach

I believe everyone has to work for health care in the United States. In the Bible, it states that the word for “slave” and “work” are the same word.

Medical treatment and health care have become a significant role for our government and for our president. For years, people have sacrificed to make sure their medical insurance premiums were paid each month.

This is fair, but now things are changing. Some want it to be free. People pay taxes and social security. All citizens should be forced to pay for medical coverage as well. Those without insurance would have to go to county hospitals and free clinics. For physicians and hospitals, for employers and insured and those uninsured, bold decisions threaten to change things fast.

What is different in this administration is that the president thinks that he gets to decide what constitutes part of the government’s money supply solely for medical treatment “to provide for the general welfare of the people,” and whether it is the underprivileged individuals alone that will receive medical treatment, and what they can afford, or not, to pay for it.

It appears, then, that free medical clinics and county hospitals for those underinsured would not disappear, but be even more commonplace. People would be served upon need and not the affordability to pay for medical coverage. Where does that leave the rest of us? Our medical care would not be as good.

There are social aspects of health care, including its distribution, to be answered. The participation and the extent of coverage and/or cost of coverage should be absolutely decided by the individual, and not by any president or by the federal government.

People should pay more for better medical treatment. All citizens should be free to have some say in their medical coverages, especially those who can afford and want to pay for it. The same freedom applies to euthanasia and the practice of how we live and how we choose to age, get older and die. The quality and the quantity of life should be protected and left to the individual and not to the president or the federal government alone.

RABBI MARC RUBENSTEIN

Temple Isaiah of Newport Beach