Columnist wrong about Jesus’ ministry and health care plan
Jim Evans is “tired of religious naysayers posing as spokespersons for Jesus.”
He thinks we should be “for something,” specifically higher taxes, homosexual unions, and government-rationed health care.
Jews and Christians have long recognized that saying yes to God often means saying no. Half of the Ten Commandments say no—to other gods, to homicide, to theft, to adultery, and to coveting. We must say no to confiscatory taxes, sexual immorality, and abortion to say yes to property rights, marriage, and life.
Evans draws a false analogy from Jesus’ ministry to the sick to government-rationed health care. First, Jesus never used coercion to force anyone into the healing ministry. He said, “Freely have you received, freely give.” In contrast, Evans wants to seize the money of strangers by taxation; those who don’t pay go to jail.
Second, Jesus brought health and gratitude to the sick by his self-sacrificial actions. In contrast, Evans wants to create government entitlements that act as temptations and elicit greed and resentment. We see this in current policies that jam emergency rooms with people unwilling to use their own money to see primary-care physicians and to care for their own minor ailments.
Government entitlements provide powerful incentives to perpetuate poverty. Those who stay in school, plug away at entry-level jobs, say no to drugs, and save sex for marriage lose government benefits. However, those who cultivate disabilities, debilitate themselves through drugs and alcohol, bear children illegitimately, and invite layoffs by poor work habits draw regular income from Uncle Sam.
To reward doctors, pharmaceutical developers, and the inventors of the world’s best health-care technology with a just return on their investments, it is vital to keep medicine in the free market. We do untold damage when we render unto Caesar the things that are God’s.
Bruce Murray
Auburn
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