Health Care

 

Forgive two posts in two days.

 

I’ve just returned from a health care “town hall” given by my congressional representative (Rep. Jay Inslee).  The place was packed and had a kind of carnival atmosphere … people brandishing their slogan-drenched posters; other the larger audience emitting screams and loud applause when a poster with slogan they liked passed by. 

 

Representative Inslee acquitted himself well, as he normally does.  Though I did find myself disagreeing with him, ever so gently.  He talked about how health care reform wasn’t being “rushed,” that it had been on the table for more than sixty years.

 

First, he diplomatically left out the fact that health care reform only gets talked about when there’s a Democrat in the White House and Democrats (seemingly) control the Congress.  This inconvenient truth (if I may borrow that phrase), gives lie to those who protest that they are in favor of health care reform, just not this health care reform. 

 

More importantly, the issue isn’t a mere 60 years old.  In a sense it’s biblical.  It heralds back to the story of Cain and Abel.  “Am I my brother’s (and sister’s) keeper?”  (Genesis 4:9) 

 

Yes, it is a question of values.  Once again the question: what do we owe each other?  Are we to be self-oriented, or other-oriented?  That, I believe, is the much too often unspoken values question which underlies our health care debate.

 

Next to me at the town hall was a couple who clearly were opposed to health care reform.  They carried a poster that read “Health care is not a right.” 

 

Isn’t it?  If you don’t want to go back so far as Cain and Abel, listen to the words of Jesus.  Jesus is talking about taking care of the hungry, the sick, those in prison.  Jesus says that those who listened had not taken care of him.  They protested that they had.  He replies: “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to the least of these, you did not do it to me.”(Matthew 25:40)  Yes, Jesus tells us, we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper.

 

And, of course, this is not merely a Jewish or Christian position.  As an Interfaith minister I am confronted daily by examples from Buddhism, Islam, First People’s spirituality, the Baha’i, Humanists … all declaring that we need to care for each other.  All of our spiritual paths teach us that we are our brother’s and sister’s keepers.

 

This ought not to be a partisan issue.  This ought to be where Republicans and Democrats, Independents and the terminally uncommitted can all agree.  Health care is a right.  We ought to look after each other and help each other. 

 

But instead of grappling with how to accomplish this, we are bogged down in lies (what else can you call them?) about death panels.

 

I hope Congress and the President will show spine and leadership.  This needs to get done. 

A Leap of Faith

 

Nothing quite taking a flying leap without a net.  I work at two spiritual houses: the Interfaith Community Church, where I am a minister, and the Evergreen Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, where I am the Director of Music.  I’ve given notice to both.  June of 2010 will mark the end of a ten year tenure at Evergreen and a four year tenure at Interfaith.  So, as of June 2010, I will be without any church connections.

 

What then?  With help, a lot of help, I hope to open the doors of an Interfaith church in Snohomish County, where I live.  I have been meeting individually with folks for the last two months.  Some thought my “flying without a net” an exceedingly unwise thing to do.  Some thought it an exceedingly unnecessary thing to do.  Can’t really argue about how wise it is, but I do feel it is necessary.

 

Until we are “up and running” I’ll blog here as often as I can about our progress.  Some time in the next year I hope to have a church website up and available.  The idea is to chart our progress, our successes and failures, so that people anywhere in the world who might think about starting an Interfaith church won’t feel they have to reinvent the wheel.

 

Why an Interfaith church?  Part of the reason is in the book I’ve just finished writing.  “All” that remains is to find an agent and a publisher!  All!!!  That’s scary enough.  But that’s just the beginning.

 

As I was finishing the book, and writing the last chapter, I wasn’t satisfied with what I’d written.  I was calling on people to start Interfaith churches.  I was calling on OTHER people to start Interfaith churches.  No, I realized.  I can’t ask people to do something I’m not willing to do myself.  I really want to retire.  But I’m not going to.  Instead, I hope to gather some willing people and found a church.

 

For me, a huge key is gathering willing people.  This can’t be my own project.  This can’t be my “thing.”  Church is all about community.  And particularly an Interfaith church must be about community.  Not one person’s idea of what should be done, but a community response.

 

So I have been meeting with people.  And while some haven’t reacted positively, others have.  Some have not only reacted positively but enthusiastically.  My intent is to begin meeting with these enthusiastic people come September.  We’ll meet for a year.  We will, I hope and trust, learn to trust each other, and having taken that step, learn to work together, and having taken that step, fashion an Interfaith church together.

 

I realize it may well not be the Interfaith church I currently envision.  But I’m ok with that.  What is truly exciting is that this will indeed be a dynamic process.  Stay tuned.  It should be pretty awesome stuff!

 

Back to Values

 

I’d like to return to a subject I’ve referenced many times, and one I’m sure I’ll come back to repeatedly over the months and years ahead.  It is a defining question – perhaps the most spiritually relevant question there is: “As human beings, what do we owe each other?”

 

I’m brought back to this question with a vengeance this week, from two very different  angles.  The first angle is vengeance itself.  The only man convicted of the horrific Lockerbie bombing has just been set free.  The Scottish government, noting that he has but a few cancer-ridden months of life left calls it “Scottish values” to let him die at home.  Many disagree vehemently with that decision.  They argue that this man gave no compassion, and that he should be granted none.  I remain disgusted with the Lockerbie bomber (whose name shall not appear here).  I am also disgusted with those in Libya who gave him a hero’s welcome home.  But I am heartened by the Scots.  They are living their values.

 

Contrast that to the health care “debate” going on in the United States.  When you move, if you can, beyond the outright lies which in point of fact dominate the “debate”, you find a sentiment in sharp contrast to our values: be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Humanist, Buddhist, Baha’i, or any other.  All of our spiritual paths preach compassion.  All of our spiritual paths preach that we are indeed our brother’s and sister’s keeper.  Real health care reform, not token reform, ought, therefore, to be a bi-partisan slam dunk.  But it isn’t.  It isn’t because insurance companies (and others) would lose too much gravy from their plates if there is reform, and because one political party sees political gain in frightening people into opposing reform.  And so the uninsured stand a good chance of remaining uninsured.  People who become ill stand a good chance of remaining at the “mercy” of their insurance companies.  Our health care stands an excellent chance of increasing in price even as it decreases in quality and coverage.

 

And this is just a call to values.  If you like we could easily talk about the number of jobs real health care reform will save, because at long last U.S. businesses will be in a position  to compete with non U.S. companies.  

 

But I’m an Interfaith minister.  And I’d frankly rather talk about values.  Scotland lives its values, even when they’d much rather not, even, as in this case, when they find themselves disgusted with someone they find they must set free.  The United States consistently denies its values whenever the values become inconvenient, and particularly if someone with power might lose a buck.  The irony of U.S. politics tends to be that the politicians who scream “Values” the loudest tend to adhere to them the least. 

 

What do we owe each other?  Is our life about ourselves alone, or should we love our neighbor as ourselves?

 

It is truly a question we answer every day of our lives.  And we answer it not by what we say, but by what we do.

 

 

A Busy Week

 

Went to an “Interfaith Summit” early in the week.  Humbling and a bit scary at the same time!  All these incredibly gifted people doing truly super-human work, working on peace issues, working on hunger issues, working on poverty issues.  The contributions these wonderful and generous people are making are incalculable.  And here I am, saying, “Oh, by the way, let’s build a church and pray together.” 

 

I am committed to starting an Interfaith Church in my county, Snohomish county, in Washington.  And I did find three highly energized people at the summit who have committed to helping.  It will take help.  A lot of it.  For a church to succeed, it must be a community dream, not the dream of an individual.  Over the past month or so I’ve begun talking to people, one on one, trying to find eight to ten potential “we’s” who would be interested in coming together and contemplate what our new Interfaith church might look like.

 

I also found at the summit people who are deeply committed to coming together to work on interfaith projects, but who find the idea of Interfaith uninteresting, and a few who seemed to find it threatening. 

 

It gives me much to ponder.  And more about that shortly.

 

For me, as much fun as the Interfaith Summit was, the highlight of the week was a few hours that I spent as a guest panelist at a youth “Peace Camp.”  There were four of us on the panel.  One Roman Catholic, one Jewish, one Muslim, and one Interfaith.  Most of the kids (I think ages 11-15ish) had never before heard of Interfaith as a spiritual path.  Like adults, some got it, and some didn’t.  Some were excited about the concept, some were confused, others at best uninterested.  But I was energized by the questions these youth asked.  And, in truth, I came away more committed than ever to Interfaith as a spiritual path, as well as interfaith as a committed group from multiple religions who come together to work on a specific problem.

 

Then came a question through this website.  I have no idea the background of the person asking.  Perhaps she was one of the counselors at the “Peace Camp.”  Perhaps she was one of the older students.  Or perhaps the question came from someone wholly unrelated to the Peace Camp.  The question was, “What effect do you think religious pluralism and the interfaith movement will have on the future of organized religion?"

 

That’s a huge question.  So huge it requires either a book to answer it, or a couple of general statements.  Please forgive me if I choose the latter.

 

My hope would be that Interfaith, as a faith, will have a healing influence on organized religion.  My hope would be that Interfaith, as a faith, will help show us that Islam need not fear Hinduism, that Christian need not fear Jew, nor Baha’i fear Buddhist, and so forth.  Not that every religious (and non-religious) movement doesn’t have its “crazies,” but that the religious paths themselves are each in their own way righteous and to be respected.

 

My hope would be that Interfaith, as a faith, might help to nudge us away from worrying so much about whose doctrine or dogma is “right,” and bring us closer to acting with intention upon the call of all of our religions to act “righteously.”

 

And if that is too brief an answer, know that I’ve just finished writing (and rewriting) a book on Interfaith.  Assuming I’m satisfied with my most recent “tweaks,” I hope to start looking for an agent and/or publisher by early September.

 

 

In Praise of Vacations

 

I have just returned from two and a half weeks of joy.  During the first part of the vacation, in the San Louis Obispo area of California, I got to spend a few days each with my favorite cousin, and two wonderful people I had met back in 1978 when I directed the choir at the First United Methodist Church in Monterey Park.  I had the pleasure of taking them out for a 50th wedding anniversary lunch!  And still had a day left over to commune with the ever amazing and awe-inspiring Morro Rock.

 

Then took a bus up to San Jose to reconnect with a long time friend from my college days.  Then caught the train to Davis to visit more friends.  Then it was off to Susanville to visit more friends.

 

I also (ok, I know this is WAY late) got introduced to Harry Potter, some incredible chocolate truffles, and “Much Ado About Nothing” at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare festival.   

 

Now, of course, it’s back to work!  Awaiting me is how to get my book on Interfaith published, as well as starting an Interfaith Church!

 

But vacation can be wonderfully grounding things.  I have really never been attached to objects.  Some are pretty, others aren’t so pretty.  Some are valuable, and others no so valuable.  But things always remain things.  But people!  No two are alike.  No two encounters are alike.  And friends, friends are the most valuable commodity in the world. 

 

I am so very fortunate and so very grateful to have the friends I do.  And sometimes I kick myself for getting so busy that I forget that they are there.  

 

This was a very good time.

 

And now that I’ve answered my e-mail and at least sorted my snail mail, it is time to get back to Interfaith.

 

But I am renewed.  And grateful for the renewal.