This will be a brief blog because, as many of you know throughout the year I have ranted regarding the healthcare legislation which has been moving through Congress. All that can be said has been said. I believe that it is an overall takeover of not just one-sixth of our economy, but a taking away from our very freedom itself. I have also posted in some previous blogs my thoughts of what would help regarding our present system. In order to get specifics see my blogs on August 2, 2009 (socialized medicine? good, bad, or indifferent?), November 7, 2009 (The Dems Are Wanting You To Demo On) and December 5, 2009 (WHERE IS SAMUEL ADAMS WHEN YOU NEED HIM). However, as usual no one listens.
Allow me to bring to you the necessity of this discussion from a ministry angle. Here is the danger, most, while not all, of the social needs of our nation are still taken care of by churches, ministries and other non-profit organizations. Most of these small organizations and groups employee one to fifteen people with the rest being volunteers. Having said that remember that the IRS is being put in charge of keeping up with the employers payment regarding health insurance. This means that government will be more intrusive than it has ever been before. With ministries, non-profits and churches being in a special status this will make them even bigger targets of the IRS than before. What this means is that groups and non-profit businesses which run on shoe string budgets will still be required to give employees insurance or will be required to take up government run health insurance. Folks this is called socialism by no other word.
So very quickly what should we do? I don’t think being rebellious toward the law itself will help, however I don’t think we should just stand and take it if it passes. First, continue to call your representative. At the writing of this blog they barely have the votes, even though that may very easily change. Second, vote the bums out. I will continue to keep this issue as a forefront issue until November, 2012. They have done a very bad job at listening to the people! Third, encourage your state’s Attorney General to file a constitutional grievance against this and push the issue to the Supreme Court. Make sure they do a good job at representing the issue or else we will wind up with a law that we cannot back out, even through legislation. Fourth, we do need to force the next group of Representatives and Senators to deal with the health care issue carefully so that this kind of debacle doesn’t happen again. Last, but most significantly, we need to pray. The real issue here is not Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, or Health Care. The issue is not conservative verses liberal or the constitutionalism verses socialism. The real issues are spiritual. There is a need in our nation for revival, a need for people to come to Jesus as Savior.
This healthcare issue is very important for ministries, non-profits and churches for other reasons than what I have listed. Let’s not forget that the abortion issue is still involved in this piece of hogwash, or as Will Rodgers called it, “sausage making.” Also, remember that this impacts the way people give. If healthcare costs go up then giving will go down, which is the source of income for non-profits. Finally remember that personally it will impact every minister, pastor, and owner of non-profits regarding their First Amendment rights. “How?” you may ask. Some of the biggest pushers of this legislation are the homosexual, abortion and pornography groups. While the abortion industry has been the loudest, the other two have been quietly lobbing the issue. AIDS is still a major concern in these two communities. Once this legislation is passed they will view these issues as something that cannot be discriminated against. And the euthanasia issue still has not been covered. Does anyone hear Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler rising from the dead? Believe me, as I have stated before I state again, it may take ten to twenty years to happen, but it will.
Tell me what you think.
Steven
