Tuesday, August 25, 2009
The Anti-Life Agenda
Most people believe health care reform myths. So nice that good christian folk like Palin and Beck are working so hard to keep people like me and my girlfriend from getting health treatments. Granted it looks like both of us will be starting new careers so we're safe, but I'm not happy just because it looks like I got mine! It is a damn good possibility that Beck and Palin will leave a lasting legacy of shooting down this health care bill. Their impact on the world will be preventing many people from getting treatment they need. The world will be objectively a worse place because they were a part of it. Christianity is claimed to be all about the charity, but this is as far from charity as you can get. This is Anti-Charity, it supports an anti-life agenda and is anti-compassionate.
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2 comments:
Fine, you wanna be pro-life, ok. Wanna be christian, ok. But keep a sustained ethic! Good god, you'd think anyone who ever got a pew-callus on their butts would be happy to see widespread healthcare. You'd think they'd be hopping mad over wars, capital punishment, the squashing of the middle class, the continued financial diapering of the wealthy, etc, etc, since they *all* have a direct logical line to the mistreatment of actual, human people. Not necessarily "pretty" people, or rich, or the "right" shade for notice, but humans.
"Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." Matthew 25 verse 45 KJV. Granted, one could argue about this passage, but I've heard the "least of those" phrase bandied about by religious people of all stripes. If you're going to thump a book, at least read it first! And while we're at it - Beatitudes! Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those imprisoned...eh?
While I do favor a humanist/secular application of these principles, they're just freakin' good things to do - and doing them, as required by, oh, who was that, *Jesus* forces one to regard the disempowered as worthy of basic human rights. Not debris, waste, or garbage. How is this possible?
If you're going to devote your life to the rule of a society, no matter what religion you are, it's a good idea to care for the welfare of the people in it, not just the well-heeled.
Yes, yes, perhaps we're idealistic, but for pete's sake!
PS - I like how I made a cameo in the intro paragraph ;)
See also "Tikkun Olam" - which can also be taken many ways, from the very, very religious to the secular. I first learned it in a secular/really-reform context as "fixing a broken world". And it's a lot more portable than the entire list of beatitudes.
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