I'm Only Sayin'...

I was listening to the radio on the drive in to work this week, and I heard a guy who was standing in for the normal host of a particular show. He was referring to a caller from another show who asked, What Would Jesus Do about healthcare? Wouldn’t Jesus WANT us to take care of those who need it and can’t pay? Doesn’t He say love your neighbor and feed the poor? This host said if we were honest, we would admit that’s true. He would.

I don’t disagree with that at all. The problem is that we aren’t living in Jesus’ perfect world. Our world is stained with sin, with self-service and greed. The health care system is built on greed as it stands: costs are so high because of frivolous litigation, doctor greed, hospital greed, and people working the system to get free care without ever giving back. I think we could go a long way toward cutting costs if emergency rooms could turn away people with runny noses and toothaches without being sued for negligence, and had the freedom to care for true emergencies instead of head colds.

“The poor will always be with you.” If you look at those who were mentioned in the Bible as the poor in need of care, they were those with chronic diseases: blind, insane, crippled and unable to do the type of labor that would help them survive. they were widows, the elderly. In America today we have teenagers on welfare rolls because they got pregnant at 15, and our government writes them a check as a reward. They don’t use this money to buy formula or diapers or go back to school. They buy cheetos and cigarettes and pay the cable bill. I know these people personally.  A recent study in NY revealed that instead of using the $200 per child some families received to buy school supplies for their kids to actually BUY SUPPLIES, they bought big-screen tvs, ipods, and video games.

Before you accuse me of heartlessness, I am not generalizing the entire population of the welfare state. I’m merely pointing out abuses. The problem is, those abuses are the norm rather than the exception. I believe public assistance is a wonderful thing when the people getting it understand it’s a tool, not a crutch. It saves childrens’ lives, and I am proud our country is able to help itself.

WWJD? Jesus would tell a good many of those people to get a job and work if you want to eat. I know the economy sucks at the moment, but there are jobs out there. I am not suggesting that every unemployed person is jobless by choice. I’m not that stupid, nor am I that thoughtless – Marie Antoinette I am not. But there are many who HAVE made the decision that government assistance is far more profitable than a menial job, dignity and self-worth be damned. It’s far too easy for some people to cash that government check. I’ve worked as a church secretary in the recent past, and there were people who called every single month looking for help paying electric bills or rent, who said they had never tried to get a job, or had a litany of excuses why they couldn’t pay their bills. They made the rounds of the churches in the phone book. Every. Single. Month. I believe Jesus would have called them on it. More likely, he would have passed them by when they stood in His streets begging for bread, because He would have known their hearts. We don’t have the luxury of a 6th sense, but we can use what little sense God gave us and not contribute to our own problem.

The healthcare issue is so complex, it is insulting to think that the Magic Messiah could fix it in a couple of months. If we truly want to make things work, we need to start with the human heart: as long as we have people in this country who think they are owed care and feeding from the government, we will continue to decline. The government is the people who pay for it, and those people are getting mighty tired of footing the bill.

What would Jesus do? He’d turn over the tables in the temple, set the animals free, and toss the money changers on their ears.

I, for one, wish He’d get on with it already.