One might find it strange that a guy who spends his time writing and speaking about reconciliation is sticking his neck out on the volatile issue of health-care reform. The attitude of a reconciler, a peacemaker, would seem to be at odds with that of someone who is outspoken about political issues. But the more I understand reconciliation, especially the biblical principles behind the idea, the more I find myself unable to keep my opinions to myself.
In the end, I am not as concerned about whether health-care reform passes or fails as I am with how people who represent Christ to the world are thinking through and communicating what they believe.
It is because I care about the church and its ability to bring the Good News of reconciliation to this world that I feel compelled to offer, humbly I hope, a different perspective to today’s issues.
In the first installment of this three-part series, I wrote about the danger of the seemingly growing fear and hatred of government and how this viewpoint was pushing many to extremes. Again, I didn’t intend to imply that all those who believe in small and limited government are wrong or unspiritual.
What I was warning against is the hysterical fear of government that is based in a particular American worship of individualism that, at best, has nothing to do with the Bible and is perhaps even unbiblical at its core.
Lessons from Burundi
Sometimes we see ourselves better when we look at someone else.
I just got back from two weeks in Burundi, one of the poorest nations in the world. I was there to learn about reconciliation from this people trying to emerge from a civil war that ripped the nation apart between 1993 and 2005.
Essentially the same people as in neighboring Rwanda, the conflicts turned around longstanding tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi people groups.
I was halfway across the world from where I grew up in America, but as I listened to people talk about the problems and solutions of Burundi, I started to see some familiar themes.
I saw the power and amazing resilience of people when they decide to work together for the common good. Like in the States just after September 11, I witnessed many people who had realized that they were in their mess together and that they had to work together to make it better.
But I also saw the utter darkness and destructiveness of selfishness allowed to run its course.
There was very little grey. In this context you could see the end results of two opposing life philosophies. One built people and society up and valued human lives, the other made stepping stones of people, sometimes of their corpses.
I saw poor Burundians working harder than I’ve ever seen people work for pay that wouldn’t buy a bottle of pop in Paris or New York. But I saw these same people willing to share whatever they had with their extended family and other neighbors, and anyone else who might show up with a need.
I saw Burundians taking the little time they had away from work, organizing to help orphans of the war or of parents that had died of AIDS. I saw others working to create new businesses, not to get rich for themselves, but to create more job opportunities for people in the city.
But then I saw the palatial new homes of corrupt power brokers who, without shame, profit from and manipulate their position (in government, military, business or crime) to build their own personal kingdoms. Their new trophy homes are popping up everywhere in Burundi, sometimes just upwind of the simple and often dilapidated homes of some of the city’s poorest residents.
I heard from many sources that people are regularly killed for even mild criticism of certain powerful people or speaking out against this system of greed.
The Politics of Manipulation
These are the acts of the same power seekers who had earlier manipulated long-standing tensions between the minority Tutsi and majority Hutu people groups in order to secure their political power base.
In order to deflect attention from their own misdeeds and profiteering, they told the people that there was an enemy to fear and to blame, that they needed to fight for their freedom from oppression on one side, or fight to protect their culture from destruction on the other.
For these self-centered leaders, no cost was too great. The end of having power justified the means: the loss of innocent life, the destruction of a nation, the worsening of already bleak social conditions of hundreds of thousands of their countrymen.
And the church — which should have been armed with the teaching of Jesus about loving one’s enemy, about turning the other cheek, about the evil of selfishness, and about judging others in the same way as you want to be judged — instead fell right into the system of manipulation.
Burundi churches failed to lead people to forgive the years of discrimination practiced there from the time of their German and Belgian colonial domination and then continued afterward by their own leaders.
The church also failed to lead those who had benefitted from the discriminatory system to repent of its basic principles, to reject the very idea that they were better than the others, or that they somehow deserved their position.
Rather than being an answer to the problem with this formula for reconciliation, churches were enticed by the power brokers’ promises to deliver for them. Unwittingly, perhaps, they served to pass along the demonic messages of hatred, fear, revenge and violence that led to the atrocities that have left a nation wounded.
I walked through the ruins that these messages left in their wake. I talked to the sons and daughters of the slaughtered. I saw them wipe their tears, some with a resolve to love and grow, others with a determination to avenge their loss.
Back To Us
And as I came back to the West and listened to our current political discourse, I couldn’t help but see it again. I saw powerful people who profit from the system as it is pushing all the right buttons.
“They are going to take your hard-earned money and give it to people who don’t deserve it; to illegal aliens.”
“They’re going to indoctrinate your children with socialist propaganda.”
“They’re going to kill your grandmother.”
“They are going to turn this nation to communism.”
Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, a key motor behind last weekend’s 912 March on Washington, said earlier that health-care reform was “all about reparations.” Obama was using health care as a means to pay black people back for slavery and to right other social injustices.
If you saw images from the March you could see the messages have been driven home for many Americans. They are not talking about the specifics of how much money individual Americans are paying now for their health care compared to what reform could bring. They are talking about vague terms like “the loss of freedom.”
They are not thinking through the very real problems of health-care insurance companies cutting people’s coverage when they become too costly, even hiring detectives to find loopholes and errors in order to get rid of costly patients.
They are talking about “resisting socialism” and “taking back our country.”
What exactly do these things mean? It’s a little unclear. But many people are terrified. They are angry. And they are convinced that reforming health care is part of the “destruction of the America we know and love.”
Consider the Source
Where does this fear and anger come from?
I would argue that it is not a coincidence that just at the moment we as a nation were being led to look closely at the selfishness and profiteering that exists in the current health-care system — at the expense of people who are powerless and vulnerable — that a counter movement would rise up pushing those same powerless and vulnerable people to instead redirect their attention and fears at the man in the White House.
Some powerful lobby groups, like Freedom Works, Conservatives for Patient’s Rights, and others with ties to the multibillion dollar health insurance industry have played a crucial role in organizing and focusing the message to the masses.
From the beginning it was clear that the discussion would not be about what is wrong with health care. It would be about “the enemy that must be defeated.”
Some estimates state that the health-care industry is spending $1 million per day in the battle over health care, and that overall enough is being spent to pay for the health coverage of 30,000 Americans per year.
It has to be this way because, in the United States as in Burundi, selfish interests cannot do what they want without the electoral or military (the unstable democracy’s version of votes) force of the masses. And this is tricky to do when you actually do not represent the best interests of those masses.
How does a Burundian military strongman, making millions from his position of power, convince extremely poor people to allow him to justify living like a king and assassinating his opponents while they struggle to survive? He distracts them with talk of the enemy, chatter about their common heritage, and then whips them into action with talk of the eminent danger facing them all.
See how it works? Sound familiar?
Pick Your Poison
The signs of manipulation are fairly easy to detect. Usually, when you stand on the outside, you notice strange logic. When one listens to Hutus and Tutsis describe the basis of their distrust, it is hard to make sense of it.
In the same way, one can understand that there are good reasons not to trust government, but why then is it so easy to trust billion-dollar corporations and the politicians and lobbyists on their payroll? Personally, I would rather take my chances with elected and appointed officials whom we can oversee and remove through the ballot box than with profit-driven power brokers.
But when emotional and cultural buttons are pushed over and over, it is hard for people to reason this way.
In the United States, the buttons that work are:
• Hatred and fear of the government (keywords: Nazi, Constitution, communism)
• Any loss of one’s ability to be independent (keywords: liberty, freedom)
• Racial fears
• Redistribution of wealth (socialism, lazy, hard-earned)
• Takeover by the godless, which will lead to God taking away his special blessing on America
Pushing Christian Buttons
This is where many Christians are particularly vulnerable to manipulation.
Already convinced they are a persecuted minority group, many in the evangelical Christian community are naturally distrustful of anything that exists outside their church walls, and government in particular. Because their end-times beliefs speak of a popular figure misleading the masses, they also tend to distrust popular leaders.
And often, once you get an idea circulating among Christian and political conservatives, it becomes Gospel truth. Contradicting a silly e-mail about Obama’s birth certificate is nearly impossible if that e-mail was forwarded by a trusted conservative brother or sister.
Washington influence groups figured this out long ago. Check the sites of the groups organizing the anti-government movements and you will see a concerted effort to get common folk to start forwarding e-mails.
And when it comes to all things Obama, there is no shortage of material to forward.
Besides all the birth certificate stuff, the socialism stuff and the mails and videos about Obama being a closet Muslim and/or Black Nationalist, Christians have an even deeper reason to fear this man.
I recently received one based on Luke 10:18 suggesting (while including a disclaimer urging the listener come to his or her own conclusion) that Jesus may have told us all in code that Barack Obama is indeed the anti-Christ.
The style of the “teaching,” breaking down the original language to uncover hidden truths, will seem trustworthy to many Christians.
This and myriad other e-mails and videos about how health care will be used to promote everything that Christians are supposed to be against have flooded my inbox on a weekly basis. And I’m sure they come to me far less often than they do to my conservative brethren.
Opportunity Lost?
And so, many Christians who might normally be likely to approach politics in a humble, loving, Christ-like manner … Christians who would normally be led to balance their belief in balanced budgets with their Christian desire for fair play … Christians who would counter their fears of losing their place in society with a repentant desire to see justice for all people … many of these Christians instead line up in the camp crying hysterically against health-care reform, unwilling to even consider anything that comes from this wolf in sheep’s clothing of a president.
Some of them, sadly, hold up signs about Jesus while standing next to those carrying firearms to presidential events and holding signs speaking of bloodshed and rebellion.
Is this really an image that lines up with the teaching of Jesus?
As a reconciler, I can’t help but see something deeply troubling in all of this.
Christians who have a legitimate beef with health-care reform as it is currently being proposed have every right to oppose it. But all Christians — regardless of their political leaning — need to consider carefully the influences shaping their attitudes.
In Burundi, the church and the nation had to learn a bloody lesson from which they have not yet recovered. I pray the American church can lead the nation’s political discourse toward another destiny.
Related Article: Confronting Health-Care Hysteria, Part 1
Holy cow, Todd. I am with you. I grieve daily for the manner at which we keep the current discourse going.
I, like you, receive a barrage of the fear mongering forwards from my evangelical friends who are trying to save me from my liberal “hell-bound death.” Ok, that’s a bit dramatic but it is on point with their intentions and the drama they send to me always. Funny – I did not get these types of emails about Bill Clinton nor did I ever hear people call him a Nazi or call him Hitler-like. Just yesterday I was in a marathon Facebook “conversation” about race and the tone of politics in society today. The other party would just banter and banter about how it has “nothing” to do with race. All I was trying to say was – maybe it does, have you considered that.
It feels different now. It is nastier and more hateful than ever and yes, it is because race is involved. So what’s the option?
I get tired. Exhausted. Angry – you name it but I will not surrender this opportunity to discuss something our community has discussed and tried to resolve on our own for many years. Let’s make everyone in America accountable to reconciliation.
I just keep responding and responding with facts:
We are a damaged nation.
We are the heirs to a disaster that was legalized discrimination against her own citizens for close to 200 years that CANNOT be remedied in 45 years(since the Civil Rights Act was signed)
We must be sensitve to recognize and acknowledge injustice – not dwell on it but recognize it and look for solutions.
Micah 6:8 is the answer – Act Justly – Love Mercy and Walk Humbly
Act with integrity and speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves
Have a tone of mercy as we discuss these volatile topics. Respect should be our first priority. Grace should be second.
Walk humbly with God as we move forward to resolve our issue because he is truly the only solution to these problems.
Thanks for your series – looking forward to the next installment
I love your conclusion Todd.
“In Burundi, the church and the nation had to learn a bloody lesson from which they have not yet recovered. I pray the American church can lead the nation’s political discourse toward another destiny.”
I found myself praying that a lot today. The divisions we are seeing here are truly frightening. We need all kinds of reconciliation and understanding. I am pleased to say that most of my friends of all political persuasions see beyond the hype and understand the real issues. I pray that that will become the norm soon.
It’s hard to decry something and not fall prey to that which we decry. I agree with the need not to get sucked in by unwarranted fear-mongering, but find it ironic that the point is being made partially by using fear of following the “bloody” path of an African country whose experiences we should apparently compare to our own here in this country. But this comparison simply demonstrates the point that sometimes fear is appropriate. There are some things we should legitimately fear because they have the power to damage, corrupt, or injure.
It’s also interesting that everyone is up in arms about how the President is supposedly being “attacked” by haters and people who simply want to pick a fight and disrupt his presidency because he’s black. That’s a bit of a cop out, especially considering the vicious and unrelenting hate that came from people, including the media, against George W. Bush during his tenure. Why was that ok? Truthfully, it’s not ok in either case, especially for Christians who are called to love, and to respect those in authority, but it cheapens the responsibility of love to always attribute criticism, even violent disagreement, to racism. President Obama is a big boy. Some of this comes with the territory. He took this job by convincing people that he would change things. But he has a responsibility to do that in a way that does not bankrupt the country he’s sworn to serve, and does not do justice for the chief among those “who can’t speak for themselves”-unborn children.
We should also remember that sometimes things have to get a little ugly before they get right. Vis a vis, the revolutionary war, the civil war–you get my point. Jesus Himself even said He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Agitation can sometimes stir up stale, stagnant and potentially virulent ideological sludge that needs to come to the surface so that it can be dealt with. We can play a valuable role in this as holders of ultimate truth, not as those taking sides but as those holding up a standard of righteousness and holistic justice.
I meant to say “does not do injustice” for the chief among those who “can’t speak for themselves”-unborn children.
This is very well written. Unfortunately, it is also very biased.
Christ never taught us to consider only one side of an issue. It would be a more complete account of the facts if you had given as much time to the research of the opinions of those whose beliefs you seem to discount. Did you mean to imply that your points are more valid than those who you point to as people who believe they have reason to be afraid of the changes that are happening in this country?
I have recently begun to spend time among black liberals. There is now one thing I know for sure. They are much more vicious about my literal faith in the bible than those who are being pointed out in this post as the ones who are “against” health care reform.
The fact that you use the topic of health care reform as the only reason these people feel they should be afraid is also very revealing.
You also leave out the fact that there are very few people in this country who are actually against health care reform. Was that intentional?
Chandra: The difference between the current protests against President Obama and those against former President Bush is that Bush protesters opposed specific acts, including: his invading Iraq, when no evidence existed that the country was involved in the September 11 attacks; his inviting certain corporations to benefit from the war; his use of torture and flagrant disregard of the Geneva Conventions.
Obama protesters are not critiquing the President’s policies, they are making personal attacks. No evidence exists to suggest President Obama is a communist, a socialist, a Nazi, that he is not a natural-born citizen or that he wants to kill anyone’s grandmother. And in fact, there is evidence that many of the attacks are based on race, because in several instances detractors have depicted him using racist language and imagery.
There are dirty players on both sides, but the people who fired cheap shots on Bush questioned his intelligence, whereas Obama haters question his citizenship and humanity. If he were white, I doubt these argument would have been made.
The Federal Act Security Card
November 9,2009
F.A.S.C. Concepts in and Pay It Forward
As of today we still stand strong and as we move forward we offer the concepts within this web page in the same forum as in the start. We will take the letters of 250 million Americans and build a health care program that is and for the people.
We will take the Federal Act Security Card and place it side by side with the 1900 pages of Bill that is considered to be law.
We will take the 1900 pages of Bill and remove any attempt to force health care in any form, if this force is within this Bill. The idea to put people in jail if they do not submit is not a Reform.
What is the –
Federal Act Security Card merged with what we call ,a Health Care Reform Stimulus Package. The inter facing of the two will build a security on two fronts first and ut most important the people .
2nd., It will build a net work that in it concept is a anti crime / war prevention forum to maintain the National Security Of The United States Of America.
3rd Placed under the protection of the Patriot Act
4th The right for the people to build their own health care with in our Government and charge the Officials Of Government the task of its safe keep.
5th Within the Constitution of the United States Of America , that if a person or a people see e into a issue that is so wrong not is only our right it is our duty.
6th In order to form a more perfect Union it has been suggested that both the Republican and Democrat parties sit down and work out this health care issue. So seeing how this will not be allowed please see Constitutional Law within the sand box concept. It will be found through the http://www.federalactsecuritycard.mysite.com link.
7th There is also a merger concept that states that a insurance company that stand alone can not endure heavy medical cost by the cause and effect of several people in the hospital at the same time of inherited illnesses.
The part one of this merger is for insurance to join as one, in order to form a net of protection.
Part 2 would be for the insurance companies to unite with the people and build from there and charge the Officials Of Government the safe keep of this health care merger.
The Filed Of Dreams Concept is based on how to put trust between Government Officials and the People. You will see a payment and tax forum, that is open to the people to vote for and it will in fact remove any forced payment concepts that is not within the Constitution. This concept can also be found at this link http://www.federalactsecuritycard.mysite.com
Within the rights given to the people of the United States Of America, F.A.S.C. Concepts now invoke this right to be heard and to openly offer a debate to the Staff in and for The President Of The United States Of America.
Mr. President you was voted into office to be the Commander And Chief Of The Military, to work with the people for Change, to fix a failed system. But not to be the leader of the people, this is not what being a American is all about.
A Health Care Program must be a united effort that says, that in the early days it was created for the better good of mankind, but now it is a way to make money off of the old ,the sick and the dieing.
The issue that has not been focused on is that health care within the hospitals and medical treatment and medication is out of control. And this will continue to climb as this force pay puts companies in harms way to pay more and more to just keep up with the cost. At the same this force pay will put hundreds of people in jail.
Fasc Concepts offers a rollback idea, that is to say the American People will help all who wish to get rich, but not at the cost of the National Security Of The United States. The $1 billion dollars you wish in on year, break it down into a four year to get rich.
Its like this, people helping people is a United Effort and the American People will be more than happy to pay into a Health Care Program that builds for the tomorrow., as long as it is honest and protected from scams.
Ok ,Mr. President are you ready for round 2, because now the people want to read your 1900 pages of Bill before it is passed into law.
Henry Massingale
FASC CONCEPTS
for main page click on this link below
http://www.fascmovement.mysite.com page1 american dream on google.com
FASC
What is important to remember, these insurance companies need to merge as one and take control of this issue of cost that starts from the builders of of medications, and items used in treatment of the sick and injured. If there is a kind of sir. charge that puts the cost of a,lets say a needle from whole sale of a $ 1.00 to a cost of $2.00, this is a double of the price for profit against the health care troubles we face.
Health Care Companies can help build this United Health Care Forum or sit back and let Government Officials build laws to govern them.
What we wish to show the people is that through this United States effort of this Health Care Reform Stimulus Package we offer is a building block to show why this country is in trouble.
1st. The laws against God by United States Laws…
2nd. The Laws against Country through our United States Flag.
3rd. The Boycott of The Arabic Drug Empire.
4th. The Great China Wall.
5th. The Mini warehouse factories, to strategically place jobs through out this country to cut gas over head and free our country from the Arabic oil companies.
6th. To build the most powerful movement in a anti war / crime prevention of forum that will secure people and the national Security Of The United States.
7th. This being built by people and not through new created Laws Of Control. Will force our Government Officials to work for the people and the secret is what we offer through the Federal Act Security Card, as it merges with this Health Care Forum. As this choice of freedom of a tax forum for health care cost and the freedom of choice of a payment forum through a Health Care Insurance Companies. The building block is so power full through this dollar that through this United Health Care Forum, this system that failed within Government Supervision will now be in control by a supervision of people who see issues that I am not allowed to see.
What I wish to share is that all of the issues I do see and is listed on the net and at our website is the building block that will secure or country from our enemies and bring back the Made In The USA. These things I see is what I have seen for over 40 years of my life and as a child I was deeply touched by the first Laws against God and Country, and I say to you this was our first steps as a Country headed for failure.
This little bit of input is apart of a SCHEMATIC part 2, and it is by far a honest approach to our troubling issues of the 21 st. century within America.
To put it simple on one issue, the Laws against God and Country, Officials of Government and the Courts did not have permission to do such a order.
We are at war against a Drug Empire.
Respect Of the Wall Of China to our west, the wisdom is a part of documented history.
The FASC Card gives back a chance to so many people to build for the tomorrow for their children of poor families.
FASC Concepts is a strategically building block to show the world that we as a people are
{ read-ing } ourself, so that all of which we stood for will once again be and as a people we will live on.
Henry Massingale
FASC CONCEPTS
http://www.fascmovement.mysite.com look for page1 american dream official site on google.com & yahoo
To see the true Health Care Tax forum you must stop thinking in 3-D,This multi tax forum is against a $100 Trillion Dollar system.. …
To force pay into another system of failures within Health Care Insurance Groups.
This economy will not balance with this concept of a tax forum against the Health Care System. The issue of how to force pay into this system of Health Care may have worked but I am still troubled over the progressive tax forum within this Bill. It covers so many items and Countries that it only forces the system to adjust itself. In some areas, increases against the people and the troubled economy, and in other areas, less effects will be felt.
But this is my big problem, Government Officials seek help and they are to proud to ask us, “the true working force of Government.” It is understandable they have failed the People and within the United States Of America all we ask is to see us as who we are and not try to bring us into this world of the intellectual. I guess our Prime Directive is that of Star Trek, so it must be understood that for millions of people we are just as happy as can be making $13.00 per hour and we have no interest in this world of politics, and how to be a Enstine. Government Officials must understand that there is a level of people within different parts of this Country, that seek to be only that they find to make them happy.
As for this economy well, it is said that the U.S.A. Arms Division has created enough arsenal to destroy every last creature in the world 2 times over,built with tax dollars. This would be funny if not for the irony of it. And now as time has passed Government Officials keep failing. Before 9/11 all the way to today.
As it is in a world of a system, when employees continue to fail, one or two things happen, one; you get fired, two; if you see into a person a good, then it is political correct to implement a penalty or roll back in pay. But this implement of penalty is more favored in the course of action in the Federal Employment World. So how to fix the economy and unite it with the Health Care issue. It would be in the Countries best interest to implement a 10% per cent penalty against every State, County and Government Official within this Matrix of failures. Hey what is that old saying, what is good for the Goose is good for the Gander. I am serous about this, it is past due to show that our Government Officials they have failed, their system failure reaches into this world of warnings that they brush aside as if the information is not worthy noting. From Pearl Harbor to 9/11/2001 to 3/07/2010 of our tax system and Health Care Reform. This 10% per cent penalty should go into the Health Care Forum.
The big problem that Government Officials have is that they have no street credit. President Obama still has some but if he does not take his family and step away from these dueling Parties, that fight over this Health Care Dollar, and stand with Us he will lose all credit from the streets to the county.
President Obama, I would say to you, you have one last chance to regain the hopes and dreams of the American People. To reach out in a concept that states, if there is 250 million people in trouble because of these failures, I would give all my money to them and then I would say to all that I gave money to, “I have no money left, would you all please give me $1.00 back and then I would have $250. million dollars to start all over again.”
As for this $100,trillion dollar in site………….
Results 1 – 10 of about 685,000 for net worth of medicine development industry
Just to show how deep this Health Care Tax split petition reaches. The term split petition is used because of the Tax factor plan that is not seen because of the intent not to show a capital Taxing of close to a $100 trillion dollar package, a yearly system income, not profit…..
Some have stated that I clam to have spiritual in site or something of the sort. I assure you this is not true, so when I state that I asked God to help, it is my way of saying hey Bobby show me how to work on theses Chevy engines. But I do thank you for the consideration. Consider me a cross of Jethro Bodine from the Beverly Hill Billies with my 10th. Grade education and Vin Diesel from the move Pitch Black.
So drop on by and see page 100 at our site and follow the blue pill link
Health Care within a moral value, is to ,
{ GIVE LIFE TO HOPE WHERE THERE IS NONE }
Henry Massingale
FASC Concepts in and for Pay It Forward
http://www.fascmovement.mysite.com on google. yahoo, and Aol.com
please take the time and visit all my new friends on the net and if you wish to post with FASC Concepts you will be most welcomed. So join us and share your ideas as one in one voice.