FORUM
Who Would Jesus Vote For?
John
Whitehead
Guest
Columnist
I've never been a fan of pol
itics. By its very nature, politics
is inclined toward corruption,
deception and the accumulation
of power. So I am always leery
of religious individuals.
Christians in particular, who
turn presidential elections into a
test of one's religiosity.
?. Until recently, it has general
ly been assumed that God-fear
ing Christians vote Republican
(Christians counted for more
than 20 percent of voters in
2004). Yet to the consternation
of those on the Right, that
assumption is now being chal
lenged by the emergence of a
so-called Christian Left, led by
activists such as. Jim Wallis, edi
tor of the progressive evangeli
cal journal Sojourners, and by
Barack Obama's increasing
popularity among younger
Christian voters.
As Newsweek recently
reported, young evangelicals
"say they don't want to be
Republican just because that's
what's expected. Only 40 per
cent of evangelicals 18 to 29
identify as Republican, down
from 55 percent in 2001,
according to the Pew Research
Center. This slide correlates to
the recent broadening of the
evangelical agenda to encom
pass social-justice and global
poverty issues, as well as to
Bush's low popularity ratings."
Thus, determined to main
tain their tenuous ties to power,
a number of Christian Right
leaders have done what they
insisted they would never do:
they have thrown in their lot
with John McCain. Just recently,
W of the movement's leading
activists met in Denver to confer
their support on the Republican
presidential candidate and urge
him to choose former preacher
and conservative Mike
Huckabee as his running mate.
The tenor of the meeting may be
best expressed by Phil Burress,
president of an Ohio organiza
tion affiliated with Focus on the
Family: "The only evangelicals
that will support Obama are the
ones who haven't read their
Bible."
Now both sides are heatedly
vying for the Christian vote,
with news reports of McCain
cozying up to Christian leaders
and Obama trotting out the
Jesus-talk at every opportunity.
Yet in their eagerness to sell vot
ers on their Christianity, the
politicians have forgotten one
critical fact: you cannot truly
practice what Jesus taught and
be successful in politics.
After all, it was the politi
cians of his day who killed
Jesus. a
Jesus was a politician's
nightmare. He never ran for
political office, but he had quite
a platform, and these were his
campaign slogans: Love your
foes. Help those who hate you.
Praise those who curse you.
Pray for those who abuse you. If
someone punches your cheek,
offer the other cheek. If some
one steals your coat, offer him
your shirt as well. If someone
asks you for something, give it
to him. Treat others exactly as
you would wish to be treated.
Love your enemies and treat
them well. If you lend money,
do it without any expectation of
profit. Show favor to ingrates
and scoundrels. Do not sit in
judgment of your fellow human
being. Always forgive.
What politician today could
be elected on such a platform?
Not even Jesus.
Indeed, the Jesus of the New
Testament was about as far from
being a politician as one could
get. He refused to play power
politics. Instead, he challenged
the political and religious belief
systems of his day. He refused to
compromise on his principles,
and he preached a message of
unity and love, as opposed to the
divisiveness that politics relies
on.
Jesus was anti-political. He
stood against such things as
empires, controlling people,
state violence and power poli
tics. He saw politics and human
governments as inevitably cor
rupt and set the standard for
confronting governmental pow
ers. He taught a new way to gov
ern?one that was spiritually
healthy, creative, concerned
about the oppressed and the
poor and promoted a sense of
community. His teachings
undermined the establishment
and the political status quo. not
only of his own time but ours as
well. *
Jesus advocated love, peace,
nonviolence and helping the
poor. And he spoke truth to
power, uncaring of who he
offended, even when ail the
odds were against it. He con
stantly inveighed against the
rich, the powerful and the
exploiters. And his egalitarian
treatment of women was so
shocking in the patriarchal soci
ety of his time that his own male
followers could not understand
it.
In short. Jesus was a radical.
As author Garry Wills writes in
What Jesus Meant, anyone
claiming to practice a "Christian
politics" other than the kind
practiced by Jesus is a usurper.
You can't speak truth to power,
as Jesus did. and be the power,
because as Jesus showed us,
hqw you change the world is not
through government or politics
but by raising up communities,
bringing people to peace,
eschewing power, speaking out
against injustice, helping those
in need, arid loving those around
you, even your enemies.
This isn't to say that reli
gious people should abstain
from voting or vote a particular
ticket. But if you're a Christian,
you should be doing more than
voting for a candidate who
promises to be a political savior.
As history makes clear, there is
no such thing.
Constitutional attorney and
author John W. Whitehead is
founder and president of The
Rutherford Institute, a civil lib
erties organization that provides
free legal ser\ices to people who
feel that their constitutional or
human rights have been violat
ed. Reach him at
www.rutherford.org .
Social action for health care
\
Marian
Wright
Edelman
Guest
Columnist
There are 9.4 million unin
sured children in America
today ? one child in eight ?
and millions more are underin
sured. but not enough adults are
stepping up to change this dis
graceful reality. So to raise
awareness about the problem,
on July 11, thousands of chil
dren participating in the
Children's Defense Fund
Freedom Schools? program
across the country took part in a
National Day of Social Action.
In colorful t-shirts, children
marched holding signs calling
for "Health Coverage for
Every Child" and "Children
Can't Wait."
Others sent letters and made
phone calls to Members of
Congress demanding that every
child in America have compre
hensive health and mental
health coverage now. They also
sought endorsements from their
Congressional delegations of
the All Healthy Children Act
(S. 1564/H.R. 1688) to expand
health coverage to all children
and pregnant women.
This summer, CDF
Freedom Schools programs are
serving nearly 9,000 children at
132 sites in 61 cities and 24
states. Hundreds of children
from the 10 CDF Freedom
Schools program sites in the
Washington, D.C., area
marched from Union Station to
the West Lawn of the U.S.
Capitol. This was not an expen
sive K Street lobbying effort?
you didn't see many blue suits
in the crowd. But the cause for
which these children were
marching must be a top nation
al priority.
The reason millions of chil
dren are without health cover
age is not for lack of parental
love. Many working families
simply find paying for private
health insurance for their chil
dren financially out of reach.
Increases in private health
insurance costs are dramatical
ly outpacing increases in
wages. Since 2001, the cost of
health insurance premiums has
increased four times as fast as
workers' earnings. Even if an
employer offers health insur
ance and a worker is eligible,
the family may not be able to
afford its share of the annual
premium.
And the federal programs
? Medicaid and the State
Children's Health Insurance
Program (SCHIP) ? which
provide a safety net for families
that can't afford to insure their
children don't go far enough.
Health coverage programs for
low-income children vary
widely from state to state, with
different standards for eligibili
ty, cost sharing, and benefits in
each of the 50 states and the
District of Columbia.
This lottery of geography
affects whether a child has cov
erage, what benefits are cov
ered, and what treatment chil
dren can access and afford. As a
result, these variations often
have serious consequences for
the health and well-being of our
most vulnerable children.
In addition, many of
America's overlooked and
uninsured children are eligible
but not enrolled in federally
supported health insurance pro
grams primarily because of
daunting bureaucratic barriers
? often an arduous application
process with complicated
forms. It's not uncommon for
parents with chronically sick
children to spend months trying
to navigate the system. Some
give up without success.
Under the All Healthy
Children Act, the income eligi
bility level would be increased
so that more children could get
the coverage they need.
Bureaucratic barriers to cover
age would be eliminated.
Children currently enrolled in
Medicaid, SCHIP, and other
means-tested federal programs
like school lunch and food
stamps would be enrolled auto
matically.
Reimbursement rates to
health care provider^, would be
increased so that more doctors
would be available to children
needing services. This would
bring thousands of doctors and
dentists into the pool of care
givers who currently won't take
patients covered by Medicaid
and SCHIP.
Ensuring that children have
affordable access to timely
health care- is smart policy.
EVery dollar spent vaccinating
children against measles,
mumps, and rubella saves $16
in future costs. A child's health
status affects his or her aca
demic performance too. The
reading scores and school
attendance of uninsured chil
dren improve dramatically after
they become insured and are
able to access health care. Good
health status in childhood is
also associated with increased
future earning potential.
Learn more about the CDF
Freedom Schools program at:
www.childrensdefense.org/free
domschools
Marian Wright Edelman is
President of the Children's
Defense Fund and its Action
Council. Reach her at
www.ChildrensDefense .org .
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