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The Nation's Pulse
Can the Religious Left Protect Obamacare?
Not if it’s remembered there are faith-based reasons to oppose growing government authority over health care.
During the 2009-2010 debates over Obamacare, the old-time Religious Left was an enthusiastic cheerleader, preferring the public option, but settling for the final outcome. Like many Obamacare supporters, the mostly Mainline Protestant elites of the old Religious Left hope Obamacare incrementally will lead to a government controlled single-payer system. British style health care has been a cherished aspiration for liberal church elites for much of the last century.
Then Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on the evening of Obamacare’s passage, specifically thanked the United Methodist Church for its support. It’s unlikely that denomination’s Capitol Hill based lobby office actually generated mass support. But Mainline church elites, though seldom speaking for most church members, can still offer a façade of religious respectability for liberal policy initiatives. More revealing during the 2009-2010 Obamacare debates was the new Evangelical Left’s support for Obamacare, while carefully pivoting around abortion funding. Evangelical Left elites share the old Religious Left’s statism, but must appeal for support from still socially conservative evangelicals.
In December 2009, as Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson was about to cave on a compromise that would facilitate abortion, about three dozen mostly Evangelical Left pastors and activists urged accommodation. “We believe that with this direction, Congress is closer than ever to reforming an unjust healthcare system that for too long has cost too much while delivering too little,” they declared, accepting the argument that Obamacare’s purported expansion of health care would “very likely” reduce abortions. Signers included Florida megachurch pastor and National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) board member Joel Hunter, Christianity Today editor and NAE board member David Neff, and immigration activist and NAE board member Samuel Rodriguez. Others were Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action and Emerging Church guru Brian McLaren, along with NAE’s controversial former spokesman Richard Cizik. David Gushee of Mercer University and Glenn Stassen of Fuller Seminary, also prominent Evangelical Left voices. Unsurprisingly, Sojourners chief Jim Wallis was reportedly also a signer.
Virtually this same crowd rehashed their appeal to Congress for Obamacare in March 2010, only this time David Neff and Samuel Rodriguez apparently did not join. “As Christians committed to a consistent ethic of life, and deeply concerned with the health and well-being of all people, we want to see health care reform enacted,” the signers insisted. “Our nation has a rare and historic opportunity to expand coverage to tens of millions of people, make coverage more affordable for all families, and crack down on many of the most harmful practices of the health insurance industry.” They implicitly criticized pro-life groups, which included the Roman Catholic bishops, for not accepting the Ben Nelson compromise on abortion. “We are writing because of our concern about the lack of clear and accurate information regarding abortion provisions in the health care reform bill passed by the Senate on December 24, 2009,” the signers implored, insisting the Senate version would uphold “longstanding restrictions on federal funding of abortion,” while offering “new and important supports for vulnerable pregnant women.”
Purportedly the Evangelical Left represents a new generation of believers less wed to social conservatism and more committed to endless expansion of the federal welfare and regulatory state, especially on health care and the environment. But there seems to be no overall shift of evangelicals to the left, as reflected in 2010 election polling and the Tea Party’s popularity among evangelicals. So will the Evangelical Left as ardently defend Obamacare from repeal as it urged its original enactment?
The old Religious Left is predictably already out front in defending Obamacare from the new Congress’s aspiring repealers. On January 18, the Episcopal Church’s Washington office rallied its supporters with an email alert. “Because of the health care reform law, millions of Americans who lacked access to affordable health insurance or who had trouble finding affordable policies now are eligible to receive and purchase coverage,” the Episcopal office declared. “Now is not the time to remove the benefits and protections upon which hardworking Americans now depend during these difficult economic times. During this crucial phase of implementation of the law, the American people will not be served well by the uncertainty that repeal would bring to our health care system.” Not typically concerned about deficit spending, the Episcopal office included the talking point that Obamacare’s repeal would increase the deficit.
An email alert from the larger United Methodist lobby office on Capitol Hill echoed the same pro-Obamacare talking points, but more passionately than did the staid Episcopalians. Evidently without fear of exaggeration, the Methodist alert claimed that “Well over 100 million Americans of working age have medical problems that prompt insurance companies to either reject them outright or charge them outrageous sums to provide coverage.” Among other claims, it also asserted Obamacare’s repeal would leave “no safety net for poor people” and would eliminate Obamacare’s “provisions [that] increase efficiency and reduce waste.”
The Methodist appeal defended Obamacare by citing a higher authority. “The prophet Ezekiel denounced the leader of ancient Israel whose failure of responsible government included failure to provide health care: ‘You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them’ (Ezekiel 34:4, NRSV).” The Methodist lobbyist warned: “May we heed the words of the prophets.” So apparently the Lord brought down judgment on the ancient Hebrews because they lacked their own version of Obamacare. According to the Religious Left, God always favors Big Government because it is more efficient and more compassionate. This version of the deity apparently has no knowledge of the findings of social science over the last half century.
Meanwhile, the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has published its own brief email alert, urging support for repealing Obamacare. “Under the reform rammed through the previous Congress, we can expect federal funding of abortion, massive cuts to Medicare and Medicare Advantage, heavy taxes on individuals and businesses, higher premiums, and strong government control that will inevitably lead to a decline in patient care,” wrote Richard Land. “Now is the time to begin the process of turning back this harmful law before more damage is done.” Land more plausibly represents his constituency than do the United Methodist and Episcopal offices. He also cited not just abortion and end of life issues but the inevitable “decline in patient care” under government control.
In 2009-2010, many evangelicals and other conservative religionists focused on abortion without presenting faith-based arguments for opposing growing government authority over health care. In the debates over Obamacare’s repeal, religious conservatives will need to persuasively show that traditional Christianity’s understanding of fallen human nature warns against unlimited central authority over any area of human life, least of all one so personal as health care. The expansion of state power almost always fuels secularization and reduced influence for families, religious institutions, and other private actors more attuned to personal needs and far less politicized than distant, unchallenged bureaucrats. Why would American evangelicals or other believers want the U.S. to resemble more secular Canada or Great Britain?
Debates over Obamacare may helpfully inspire religious conservatives to expand beyond traditional and justifiable concerns about abortion and other social issues, as the Evangelical Left advocates. But this expansion of scope will not replicate the Religious Left’s facile and discredited equation of Big Government with godliness. Instead, it will rediscover Christianity’s own vital historic role in limiting state power in defense of liberty.
About the Author
Mark Tooley is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C. and author of Methodism and Politics in the Twentieth Century. You can follow him on Twitter @markdtooley.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (29) | Leave a comment
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Kenny| 1.20.11 @ 6:47AM
To the Left, the state is God, and it is the state the Left worships and looks to for graces.
Bill | 1.20.11 @ 7:12AM
Good article. First it was never God's will that people have a centralized form of government. God always intended that Israel be a Theocracy but it was due to the out cry of the people to be like other nations that God allowed them to go down that road. He did first point out all the consequence of that decision. Interesting reading because it talks about enslavement to government dealing with taxes and the expansion of government control over life. So we live with the result. That being said our form of government, which if one reads the historical accounts regarding it's foundation, was put in place based on understanding of Christian values and man's fallen nature. Yet God is God and the founding fathers always had that in mind.
Regarding the Episcopal Church, they have strayed from what they were back in the 50's to being a very liberal organization with few if any core values. Some questioning foundational doctrine of all Christianity. They are losing membership at a alarming rate as are the Methodist that have traveled down the same path. God will not be mocked. God takes a dim view of a nation that condones the elimination of fifty million unborn. Nor will God, patient as he is, continue to over look the oppression of his people.
Lizabeth | 1.20.11 @ 2:16PM
But but but, Bill! Don't you know All Is Well in the buddhist-islamic-episcopal 'church'? They welcome EVERYONE. They are INCLUSIVE. HA! Unless you don't agree with their world view. Gosh, now why does that sound familiar? :-)
MikeD| 1.20.11 @ 7:35PM
There is a huge disconnect between the politically driven left wing 'leaders' of the old line Protestant sects in Washington and the people in the thousands of churches around the Country who are clueless about the subversive activities being perpetrated by their supposed leaders on their behalf.
Religion is alive and well in the United States; just NOT the left wing politically driven 'religion' being perpetrated by these charlatans who speak for nobody but themselves. Americans really need to pay attention that their hard erned money is not being misdirected by their church leaders. Better yet, specifically earmark contributions to ensure that the funds stay in the local communities benefitting local people and local institutions. These liars in Washington are in bed with the lefties of the democratic party that have done their best to get us into this mess. The solution to doing away with these people is the same as stopping the lefties in the congress: Deprive them of their funds they use to make mischief.
Clint| 1.20.11 @ 7:20AM
THE FACTS
* Workers and Families Face Increased Costs: Businesses will suffer under Obamacare by facing higher costs. They are struggling to meet disruptive employer mandates; accommodate new taxes on insurance, drugs, medical devices and investment; and comply with piles of Federal agency regulations and IRS paperwork. These costs will be either passed on to customers or to employees who will face lower wages or lost jobs.
* Senior Americans Lose Access: Many seniors will find that access to health care will become more difficult because of massive reductions in Medicare payments. Deep cuts to private Medicare Advantage options alone will cause 7.4 million seniors to lose current coverage.
* Physicians Lose Too: Obamacare did not fix the Medicare physician payment formula, so doctors face a 23 percent payment cut in December 2010. The increase in the number of Americans enrolled in Medicaid, combined with the fact that Medicaid pays doctors an average of 56 percent of what they would get in private practice with paying customers, will test the willingness of many doctors, and especially specialists, to continue to serve the Medicaid population. Further, under Obamacare doctors face more Federal Government regulations and reporting requirements, driving up the cost and hassle of practicing medicine.
* States Already Objecting: States understand the Obamacare disaster and have sued the Federal Government. Their goal is to try to strike down as unconstitutional Obamacare’s commands to States to expand their Medicaid programs and set up federally designed health insurance exchanges and to individuals to buy insurance or suffer penalties.
* Federal Taxpayers Hit The Hardest: Obamacare will add a trillion dollars in new Federal spending and create spending "time bombs" set to go off in 2014. These come in the form of prohibitively expensive new entitlements for long-term care and for insurance subsidies (which discourage work and penalize marriage). Obamacare will also impose about a half-trillion dollars in new taxes over the next decade, which fall heavily on the middle-class.
Stan Redmond| 1.20.11 @ 10:29AM
Yeah but it's free!!! It's coming from Obama's stash.
Or if that's not the case just give a big check to the Democrats and get a blessing from The Won [pbuh] to exempt your company from the new law.
lizabeth| 1.20.11 @ 2:28PM
Thanks for this post, Clint. Here's some interesting facts I was presented with during a department meeting this week. I work for one of the largest healthcare provider systems in the State of Oklahoma. We must cut another 5% out of our total budget for fiscal year 2012 and a total of 14% by fiscal year 2014. The financial LOSS our company will suffer is predicted at $178,000,00o PER YEAR, 2012 through 2019, once Obamacare is implemented. That's just the healthcare system I work for, there are others large and small here in Oklahoma. Let's pretend there are 3 healthcare provider systems in each of the 50 states and that each will take a loss of roughly the same amount stated above. That's a loss of $26,700,000,000 PER YEAR from 2012 through 2019. We know that figure is only a drop in the bucket because I was only pretending there are 3 systems in each state and the loss incurred the same - some have many, many more, but all have large and small. This does not even take into account whatever cuts in Medicare/Medicaid come along. Guess what happens next? Yep, job losses, businesses closing, doctors 'retiring', understaffing...I could go on and on, but y'all get the picture. This is what truly brought it home for me, a dollar amount that will be suffered by my employer and me personally. Scary stuff!
Ryan| 1.20.11 @ 8:31AM
I know I probably sound like beating an old drum, but the song remains the same...
Mainstream, old-line churches have abandoned preaching the Gospel - the message that man is a sinner in need of a Saviour.
ddn| 1.20.11 @ 9:30AM
True Christians look to God for all aspects of their lives. God is faithful! True Christians have entered into the kingdom of God and they have a King. They petition their King (through prayer) for their needs and place their welfare in His hands. Those who seek their welfare through the world and the things of the world have not entered into God's kingdom. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness...
Citizen Jerry| 1.20.11 @ 10:11AM
Sorry Mark, but "religious left" is an oxymoron. Choose this day whom you will serve.
Oldefarte| 1.20.11 @ 10:37AM
The term RELIGIOUS LEFT is possibly an OXYMORON! What has/is occurring is that the left/liberals have/are clandestinly invading various religions in order to effectively work from within same to propagandize the messages of these religions [and to destroy them in the process]. This can be seen from their invasion of the Catholic Church by pedifilic priests, and the resultant social, organizational, criminal, moral, etc damage was inflicted by same. Also, the election of a homosexual bishop by the Episcapalian Church is another example [as are the examples of this editorial's statements from the Methodist Church, etc]. As to this healthcare legislation, it also is a example of the trojun-horsed takeover of government in order to effect additional WELFARE. Since 1977's CRA enactment, the governmental mechanism to provide [welfare] housing to financial indigents has now resulted in an implosion of our real estate/credit/economy sectors. This healthcare legislation is another form of this governmental mandated WELFARE, and it has to stop. The 11/2/10 elections was a beginning, and now we taxpayer-voters must follow through by electing MORE CONSERVATIVES to congress in 2012 and beyond!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Richard Baker| 1.20.11 @ 10:47AM
Religious Left? Is this some new grunge band?
George S| 1.20.11 @ 1:41PM
Dear Church:
We have an agreement with you -- we do not tax you because the power to tax is the power to destroy and, hence, an end run around the First Amendment's protection of free exercise of religion. But in exchange, we expect you to keep out of politics because when you do, it can affect me, the taxpayer. So go ahead an champion liberal causes, but don't expect me not to object to your imposition of policy against my wishes. And the best way for me to counter that would be to tax you to cover my share of tax increases your favored policies will lead to.
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (That's from II Corinthians in case you forgot during all that hectic lobbying.)
Michelle Pierce | 1.20.11 @ 2:12PM
As lead attorney in the Florida & Multi-State Lawsuit case, David Rivkin was the first lawyer to identify the law as unconstitutional. That's it, unconstitutional! He initially said ObamaCare did not pass the smell test and finally the rest of America is waking up!
Doctor Right| 1.20.11 @ 5:29PM
Joel Hunter...David Neff...Samuel Rodriguez...Ron Sider...Brian McLaren...Richard Cizik...David Gushee...Glenn Stassen...Jim Wallis...etc.
They like to be seen as pious and "caring" by people who have fallen for their hypocrisy. Like those who publicly wailed and gnashed their teeth at the Temple in Jerusalem, they have their reward.
Once day, Christ will tell them all: "Away from me. I never knew you."
George Rekers| 1.20.11 @ 9:36PM
Didn't Jesus call on us to protect the poor? Doesn't that mean ensuring that they, and everyone else, has access to healthcare?
I don't remember Jesus saying anything about protecting the poor UNLESS they have a pre-existing condition.
jstwndring| 1.20.11 @ 9:52PM
But Jesus never ever forces us to do anything against our own will. He gave us freewill to do what we wish. He would rather we excercise that will to help the needy. So, by all means help the poor. Dig into your own pocket whenever you want to. Most people arguing this point aren't really interested in helping the poor. It's just an attempt to justify the ridiculous over-reach by the federal government to force us all on the same plan that most of us do not want, and did not ask for. You want to help the poor, fine. Introduce free-market solutions that increase competition and reduce prices. In other words, get the government out of the way, and prices will come down. The expected increase in insurance premiums for the average family will increase by $2,100 dollars/yr. under Obama. Not helpful.
Ryan| 1.21.11 @ 8:59AM
There's no scriptural mandate that the state must force giving.
Healthcare access has long been well-provided by independant charity.
jstwndring| 1.20.11 @ 9:44PM
Yeah, these clowns are phonies. Poseurs. They do not represent the real church of Christ. They are not preaching His Gospel. They are preaching the gospel of the state. These are left-wing political hacks pretending to be Christians. Their lame attempt at using scripture to justify the expansion of state power is quite amusing, considering the fact that our Constitution was written to empower the individual over the state. But, let's follow their example and use the scripture to justify state actions. Fine. Exodus 18:19-26. Specifically, it outlines the selection of individuals to rule, judge, and settle greviances among the people. Verse 21 talks about the need to select able men that fear God:
But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.
That would eliminate a good number of the thieves currently running Washington. So, you left-wing evangelicals want to run things the way God wants? Ya' sure? You better be, because that would eliminate all of the Democrat party, and a fair number of Republicans from ever participating in America's political scene again. And, by default, it would eliminate that hideous monstrosity masqeurading as "health care". Yeah. Let's do that! See, I too can quote scripture to justify the selection of Godly men and women to run our government, which is what was intended all along. Don't believe me? Read the references to God in our Declaration of Independence.
C.K. Amos| 1.21.11 @ 8:27PM
Religious Left? Now there's an oxymoron for those who've written their own gospel and rejected the Gospel.
Lakewood Bob| 1.22.11 @ 12:48AM
Colombian philosopher Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913-1994) wrote the following: “If we believe in God, we should not say ‘I believe in God,’ but ‘God believes in me.’”
I cannot believe that God ‘believes’ in anyone on the Left! Their actions are self-aggrandizing and destructive. I suggest that everyone, especially those on the Left, read Matthew 25: 14-46 that includes “The Parable of the Talents” and “The Final Judgment.”
Also, I am a Christian and a Southern Baptist, and I am pleased with the stance taken by their Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. The abortion issue is very critical but also forced philanthropy is not a Christian virtue!
"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." -- John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty" 1859
May God continue to Bless America!
Adidas | 8.11.11 @ 5:07AM
is good
العاب بنات | 4.11.12 @ 2:23PM
Once day, Christ will tell them all: "Away from me. I never knew you