Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings

on Spiritual Topics

As noted on the main SPIRITUAL page of this website, one of my greatest frustrations comes from the vast amount of pain and hurt that originates from "religious" folks and "religious" institutions spouting to others what they perceive to be God's will.  Considering that such a large focus of Biblical teaching is one of unity of believers, I'm deeply saddened that to non-Christians, the word Christian conjures up images of intolerant, inflexible, uncompromising folks.

Combining this with the additional political aspects that some Christians in the United States often focus on, without looking deeper, one might get the idea that a Christian in the US is a narrow minded, inflexible, uncompromising person who believes his/her beliefs are absolute and needs to be spread however possible nationwide.

I present this site as a reminder that such individuals certainly do not represent all Christians.  My deepest prayer is that those are but a small minority that simply seem to be a bit louder and more noticed than the rest of us!

This page will highlight refreshing examples I've run across of what a person following the Bible's teaching really looks like.

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Health Care Reform musings

Everyone is talking about health care reform right now … and for good reason. Congress is working on it. There have been many, many articles on the subject.  And, at this time of year (October/November) most employees who have employer provided health insurance are reviewing their employers' health care options available, and signing up during companies' “open enrollment” periods.

The debates have frequently been contentious, and the TV ads oftentimes oversimplifying and sometimes downright inaccurate (full disclosure … I do not have a TV, so I can't really speak to the TV ads first hand … only what I've read about them).

I have been very curious why the general public has not been beating down Congress' doors with emphatic calls for reform. Even those of us fortunate enough to have health insurance have seen costs rise well above the cost of inflation, oftentimes combined with decreases in coverage.

As a registered nurse, I see first hand the shortcomings of our health care system. For patients with health insurance, there is the never ending job of getting approval and authorization for procedures (authorization that is oftentimes denied).

The high toll to human health and well-being is seen most acutely in the un-insured and under-insured. I routinely see patients who are making choices between medications, physician visits, food, and utilities.

The two systems of health care in the U.S. (one for those with insurance and the other for those without) is most repugnant in my view. Folks who utilize our community's Free Clinic face limited hours of operation, obtaining medications via the circuitous route of various drug companies assistance programs, and if specialized care is needed, waiting months for an available slot in one of the office visits donated by area specialists.

Health care is, first and foremost, a PRO-LIFE issue. Oftentimes when that phrase is used, it speaks about life before birth. But as a nurse, I see much, much of life AFTER BIRTH that is damaged, cut short, and lived far below the Creator's design.

Access to good health care is a right due all people. Jesus healed people without regard to who they were, how rich they were, or how influential they were. Each person with whom he came into contact was treated with the dignity due to being created in the image of God.

When we as a nation deny health and healing to individuals based on ability to pay, disease condition, or any other “qualification”, we are saying that the life created and given by God is not important and not having worth or value.

Sources for more information
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• An excellent source of thoughtful dialogue is Sojourners, which presents discussions of current topics of interest from a spiritual perspective.
• T.R. Reid, a correspondent for The Washington Post, and former chief of its Tokyo and London bureaus has written an excellent book entitled The Healing of America, in which he compares health care options available in the US with options in other countries. From the book's inside cover:

  “In his global quest to find a possible prescription for [the US's] ailing system, Reid visits wealthy industrialized free-market democracies, including France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and Canada, where he finds inspiration in example. Reid shares from doctors, governments officials, health care experts, and patients the world over, finding that foreign health care systems often provide more choice and shorter waiting times than the United States.”

  “When the WHO rated the national health care systems of 191 countries in terms of 'fairness,' the U.S. ranked 54th ... slightly ahead of Chad and Rwanda but behind Bangladesh and the Maldives.  How is it that all the other industrialized democracies provide health care for every one at a reasonable cost, something the US has never managed to do?  T.R. Reid shows how they do it, bringing to bear his talent for explaining complex issues in a clear, engaging way.”

• The Health Care Blog is an excellent compilation of many independent voices representing different facets of healthcare and its reform. The discussions connected with each article are as informative as the articles themselves are.

----posted 10/30/09

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ECLA's (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
August, 2009 convention

The ECLA's annual church wide Assembly voted to allow gays and lesbians in committed, monogamous relations to serve as clergy in ECLA churches.  Chris Duckworth, whose blog always reflects a thoughtful, discerning discourse on a variety of subjects (see next paragraph), posted his sermon, preached the Sunday following this convention.  True to Chris's form, it is most thoughtful and full of wisdom.

----posted 08/23/09

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Why does the church care about gay marriage?
Or any marriage?

Sometimes, it takes a unique perspective on things to find the common ground needed to focus on unity and mutual support rather than divisiveness and tearing others down.  One area that is in desperate need of the former (since there is so much of the latter) is how hurtfully so many christian (small "c") churches respond to gay and lesbian individuals.

Given that churches are supposed to be a place of open acceptance and loving refuge from the world at large, such open negativity is even more inappropriate.  May as well put up a sign saying "All Are Welcome (except gays and lesbians)".

Personally, I have never quite figured out what it is about the gay and lesbian issue that commands so much negative energy and vitriol in some church folks.  Yes it's a hot button issue.  But why?   Why this issue and not another?  While I can certainly accept that some individuals do not agree with gay and lesbian relations, surely there are other things in life that such folks also disagree with that do not garner such vocal condemnation (divorce, gambling, unmarried heterosexuals living together, tattoos --- just to name 4 that some church going folks I've met feel are wrong).

Chris Duckworth writes a very thoughtful blog entitled The Lutheran Zephyr.  He has written a number of posts discussing the sometimes messy melding of church and state when it comes to the area of pastors performing weddings.  See here, here, and here for some of the freshest thinking I've read in a while on this matter.

He describes his ideas as "admittedly radical".  I disagree.   I find them very logical, to the point of "Why has no one else ever thought of this?" type of reaction.

Why does a church body feel any need to define what a marriage is or isn't for the nation as a whole?  Certainly not on any biblically based examples ... while the oft quoted Genesis 2:24 mentions "a man ... will cleave to his wife and the two shall become one", the Bible's examples of marriage taken from the culture of its times run the gamut of the Old Testament's norms of polygamy to the examples of women as property.

Legally, so many areas of life are affected by marital status ... ability to obtain health insurance via one's spouse's job, tax rates, how an estate is divided up if one dies intestate, who can visit a hospitalized person, as just four examples.  Do churches really want to limit individuals' access in these areas?  Or are they only more narrowly focused on defining who may and may not get married?   If the latter, has any concern been given at all to the repercussions that occur in this society for individuals without a marriage license?

An excellent article outlining the financial disparities between a heterosexual couple and a same-sex couple appeared in the October 2, 2009 issue of the New York Times.  The article shows the many areas of differences between how the financial laws in the US treat same sex couples quite differently ..... from the dearth of employer sponsored health insurance, to the lack of Social Security benefits, to estate taxes.  Even for those gay couples for whom one partner works for a company that DOES provide domestic partner health insurance coverage, that coverage is counted as TAXABLE INCOME for the covered partner, and pre-tax dollars may not be used to pay the premiums.

Chris Duckworth in his various blog writings posits the very logical compromise of having a marriage be a purely legal (politically and legally defined) state.  Churches may grant their blessings to any of these legal marriages that they wish, or withhold such blessings (as, for example, the Catholic church does with second marriages of divorced individuals).   But marriage, and the benefits associated with it, would be determined from a purely legal perspective.

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No, you are not allowed to
receive Communion at this church.

Sarcastic Lutheran is a blog I follow regularly.  It is written by Nadia Bolz-Weber, pastor of a church in urban Denver, Colorado.  The name of the church in and of itself is pretty descriptive of their mission:  House for all Sinners and Saints (HFASS).

Take a look at her post for June 11.  It talks about one of her church's members who was denied communion while returning to her hometown church, the heartbreak that caused her, and how HFASS tended to her hurt in a most unique way.

----posted 07/26/09

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