Evangelical Left activist Jim Wallis of Sojourners is
rallying liberal wayfarers for the Promised Land of
government-controlled health care, announcing his “40 Days for
Health Reform” crusade during an August 10 media conference call.
The media and political pressure campaign by liberal religionists
represents a “massive escalation” for Obamacare, a news release
promised. Evidently President Obama himself will join Wallis in
his next media conference call on August 19, creating a political
Mount of Transfiguration moment, with both the figurative Moses
and Messiah (or Elijah?) joining to save their people from the
Egypt of private health insurance.
Naturally, Wallis is upset that there is murmuring among skeptics
who prefer the safety of bondage back under Pharaoh. “I see lies
being told, I see fears being raised, and I see violence even
being threatened at these mob sessions,” intoned Wallis about
angry town halls where the Land of Milk and Honey has been
denounced by critics of government health care. “This moral issue
cannot be demagogued in the street,” he insisted, according to a
report by
my colleague Jeff Walton. These untrusting murmurers “want to
shut down democracy,” Wallis complained. This critique from the
old SDS campus and street activist, himself having invited arrest
in dozens of angry demonstrations across four decades, is
humorous.
Wallis’s Religious Left coalition is targeting about 100 members
of Congress across 18 states in its “non-partisan” campaign for
Obamacare, starting with national television ads this week,
followed by local “prayer rallies,” and “large-scale meetings” in
“key states,” and call-in campaigns. “Every so often there is an
issue so clear and compelling, or so alarming and disturbing that
it galvanizes the faith community,” Wallis opined about the
present moment. “The faith community is going to stand in the way
of those that want to stop conversation,” he promised, almost
summoning up terrible visions of the Lawgiver calling down divine
judgment upon the idolaters at the base of Mt. Sinai.
“We will be pushing, pulling, sometimes holding their hands, make
sure they [lawmakers] do not succumb to intimidation,” Wallis
promised, a though speaking of the ancient Hebrews who were
reluctant to cross the Red Sea, even with Egyptian chariots on
their heels. Particularly determined to rally active religious
believers, especially evangelicals, behind Obamacare, Wallis
derided as “irresponsible” widespread “fears” that a government
plan could compel coverage for abortion and euthanasia. “There
are a lot of lies about healthcare reform and euthanasia,” he
bewailed. “A healthcare reform comprehensive plan will support
the sacredness of human life, and there are those of us that will
make sure that it does,” Wallis said. “The key thing is that we
do not want abortion to enter this debate and sabotage healthcare
reform,” he insisted. The Religious Left crusade for Obamacare
“isn’t political in a partisan way,” Wallis declared. “This is a
moral issue.”
Messianic promises about Obamacare were not limited to Wallis’
coalition. The United Methodist lobby office is hyping its “John
10:10” campaign, pointing to Christ’s promise, recorded by St.
John, “That I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly.” According to the United Methodist Board of Church
and Society initiative: “The next 10 weeks represent a rare
window of opportunity to provide health care for all people in
the United States.” Not many in the 2lst century typically
equate government programs with “abundant” life. But much of the
old Religious Left’s statism has barely updated its rhetoric
since the New Deal.
Chief United Methodist lobbyist Jim Winkler pronounced himself
“baffled” over opposition to Obamacare, ascribing it to “talking
points” from insurance companies, which “desperately do not want
a public option to be provided by the government.” After all, the
insurance industry “skims” between 12-30 percent “off the top for
profit,” while government plans far more thriftily operate at
only a 5 percent administrative expense, Winkler unblanchingly
explained. But robots apparently wound up by insurance companies
and “right wing radio” have generated ugly “ambushes at town hall
meetings.”
Winkler admitted distrust of government was understandable, given
“Vietnam, Watergate, Iraq, decades of covert operations and
government-sponsored assassinations and coups d’etats, and
secrecy and lies, and oppression and imperialism have left our
people confused and angry and jaded and distrustful where Uncle
Sam is involved.” He omitted distrust of Great Society domestic
programs, which have often outspent the military, with sometimes
far less to show. But the Religious Left, like much of the
secular left, distrusts the U.S. Government on national security
even while it messianically trusts the same government to seize
and administer vast portions of the private economy. This
schizophrenic view of the state almost completely inverts
historic Christians teachings, which specifically assign to the
state police and military powers, while reserving most other
human responsibilities to private sectors.
Undoubtedly like Wallis and most on the Religious Left, Winkler
would prefer immediate single-payer government health care
instead of Obamacare’s incrementalism. “I, too, am distrustful of
the quality of health-care reform that may emerge through this
process,” Winkler tut-tutted. “It seems to me that placating the
interests of the rich and powerful has been accorded far too much
importance.”
But especially for Wallis, pragmatism and deference to the
Administration take priority over ideological purity. Even Moses
was a realist as he led the often complaining former bondsmen
across Sinai towards the Land of their Fathers. Winkler
warns that the progressive faith community, in its endless
pursuit of justice, can always expect opposition from “those who
have benefited from white supremacy, male superiority and
American exceptionalism.”
Such hyperbole undermines the quest by shrewder activists like
Wallis to affect moderation. Meanwhile, an agency of the 16
million Southern Baptist Convention has
released its own review (pdf) of Obamacare, or at least of
the House of Representatives version, deriding its “increased
bureaucracy and intrusiveness,” not to mention higher taxes,
likely rationing, lower quality, and potential threats to the
unborn and the elderly.
Comparisons between the Southern Baptist critique and the
Wallis/Winkler messianic faith might recall that when Moses led
the Chosen People out of Egypt towards the Promised Land, it was
slavish “bureaucracy and intrusiveness” from which they were
fleeing, not seeking.
