The Blog to Be Named Later Returns in defense of reason. This is not to say in defense of health care reform, although I reluctantly favor it. More than legislation is under assault today. The American ability to debate issues calmly is in danger of extinction.
This trend is evident in the halls of Congress, on television, on message boards. I am generally of the opinion that Facebook is more enjoyable without politics. What is normally a forum for catching up with friends becomes something of a virtual war zone when politics is mentioned. Yet while I deplore the war, I will not unilaterally disarm.
I readily confess that I am guilty of what I accuse others of. Since last night, when the House of Representatives passed the Senate health care bill, provoking an onslaught of negative commentary from my “friends” on Facebook, I have referred to some of them as “stupid bastards” and posted a quote from scripture that essentially accuses Christians who oppose the charitable functions of this legislation as being hypocrites. However, I am pleased to stand by those remarks. Allow me to explain.
Several weeks ago, Rush Limbaugh announced plans to leave the country if health care reform passed. Although I have offered to help him pack, I am not yet aware of any travel arrangements that Rush has made. Therefore I assume his comment was satirical in nature. I’m not entirely sure what to make of a comment I read on Facebook last night, that perhaps it was now time to “succeed” from the United States. That’s not satirical, it’s just stupid. If you’re going to re-fight the Civil War to avoid giving health care to the poor, then learn what secession is. At least the people who wanted to keep slavery could spell the word.
As for my other remarks, I have no preference for another person’s religious affiliation. The next person I convert will be my first. I’m not even settled on my own religious views. However, because of the nature of my studies, I have become somewhat acquainted with at least the history of religion. I’ve noticed that many of the same people who frequently use Facebook to post requests for prayer, quote scripture and so forth, are the ones furiously typing expletives and complaints in all caps because of the passage of this bill. To these apparently devout Christians, let me offer the following passage: In the book of Mark, Jesus said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
Now, I’m no Bible scholar, but that sounds very different from “Why I gotta pay more taxes to the gummint so someone who don’t work gets to go to the doctor? Nuh uh!”
Of course, I realize that you can find a passage in scripture in support of or against pretty much anything, because these words were written by flawed, imperfect human beings. Still, Christianity, as I understand it, is not religion a la carte, where you pick and choose which teaching of Jesus that you happen to like. It is therefore inconsistent and, dare I say, hypocritical, to oppose these reforms solely on that basis after spending months turning your Facebook page into a prayer group. Find another objection. Say we can’t afford it. Say it’s unconstitutional. Fine. You could make a reasonable case for either of those. But please, take a deep breath and type in lower case characters first.
