Jesus’ reference to leadership wasn’t about medical care
Jim Evans writes, “Jesus’ insight about to whom much is given much is required, applies to every resource on this planet, from corn to penicillin.” By quoting Jesus out of context, Evans enlists him as a drum major for a government monopoly on health care.
In context (Luke 12), Jesus tells a parable about a manager who gets drunk and beats up the servants under his supervision. He says, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
Jesus is talking to his “managers,” his handpicked, inner circle of disciples on whom he has lavished three years of instruction, and he is reminding them about their leadership responsibilities, explaining that a breach of responsibility is deeply sinful for them. Any serious Christian “manager,” including Evans, knows that Jesus was talking about leadership responsibilities in the church and not about corn and penicillin.
Evans writes, “It is a gross national sin for us to have the medical resources we have and then only provide them to people who can pay for them.” But “we” don’t own any medical resources. We don’t own the expertise of medical doctors who invest a quarter-million dollars in graduate education, or multi-million dollar hospitals, or life-saving medicines and technology.
America built the finest medical system on earth by rewarding doctors, inventors, hospital investors and chemists for their sacrifices with competitive returns in the free market. In contrast to countries with government medical monopolies, Americans can choose their physicians, schedule immediate appointments and receive state-of-the-art treatment.
If government “managers” foolishly destroy this national treasure, we do great harm to the “servants” in our care.
Bruce Murray
Auburn
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