{"id":542,"date":"2009-08-21T16:16:01","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T16:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/christianizing-the-health-care.html"},"modified":"2009-08-21T16:16:01","modified_gmt":"2009-08-21T16:16:01","slug":"christianizing-the-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/christianizing-the-health-care.html","title":{"rendered":"Christianizing the Health Care Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is time to Christianize the health care debate.  <\/span>Ok, before the radical atheists come at me with their blazing keyboards let me explain the reference.  <\/span>A hundred years ago  <\/span>my great grandfather Walter Rauschenbusch wrote a book called Christianizing the Social Order<\/a> which called for a society that reflected the economic and social justice preached by Jesus in the Gospel with a special emphasis on the needs and concerns of the working poor being crushed by the industrial revolution.     <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

When I say Christianize the health care system I mean that we should change the vantage point from where we hold this debate.  <\/span>Whether talking about a single payer plan, or an additional national government plan the loudest objections are coming from those who have excellent health care such as members of congress, lobbying groups, and the wealthy.     <\/span>The impetus for our need to correct our health care system is not that it is failing the rich – it is that it is failing the poor, the fifty million or so  <\/span>Americans who have no or little health care and for whom getting sick requires deciding whether or not to risk bankruptcy to get healthy.  <\/span>Christianizing the health care debate would give the concerns of poorest of our society equal weight to the concerns of the wealthy.  <\/span> <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

In the past few decades Christians have too often thrown their lot in with free market Darwinism emphasizing personal free will over collective responsibility.  <\/span>This has led to the ridiculous prosperity preachers and dangerous missionary mercenaries.    <\/span>But if we look back a bit further we can see the important role that Christians had in the civil rights movement, the Great Society and the New Deal.  <\/span>Christianizing the health care debate means applying the inspiring power of religion to promote self sacrifice and compassion in one of the most pressing issues of our time.  <\/font><\/p>\n

Passing health care reform requires that we love our neighbors as ourselves.  Meaning that if you are enjoying good health care yourself, Jesus MANDATES that you work to provide that for your neighbor.  As some Christians like to say – they are commandments, not suggestions.  <\/font><\/p>\n

Christians should join with people of compassion from all religious traditions including secular ones and put pressure on our elected officials to serve the needs of those whom Jesus loved best and who are the most vulnerable of our society.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is time to Christianize the health care debate.  Ok, before the radical atheists come at me with their blazing keyboards let me explain the reference.  A hundred years ago  my great grandfather Walter Rauschenbusch wrote a book called Christianizing the Social Order which called for a society that reflected the economic and social justice…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[413],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care"],"yoast_head":"\nChristianizing the Health Care Debate - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/christianizing-the-health-care.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christianizing the Health Care Debate - 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}