[Vision2020] my final response to Jay

[keely emerinemix]

Clearly, Jay and I have differing views on the appropriateness of using a business model as the means by which the country delivers healthcare to its citizens.  I believe in a single-payer system, he doesn't.  Further, he believes that while he's likely to want to help out someone in need -- and I absolutely believe he would; he seems like a decent guy -- he believes that being compelled to do so via taxation for health benefits for those in need is wrong, and that "freedom" is its opposite.  He comes solidly down on the side of freedom.

But I don't.  

What "works for me," what enhances my life, what ensures my security, what fattens the cows in my stable while others are watching theirs starve, can never be my goal in any area of my life.  This is because I'm a Christian.  It's supposed to be NOT about me, and if it is,  it's about me only insofar as I seek and spend for the welfare of my neighbor.  Taxes are the most reasonable, efficient, God-ordained manner through which the needs of society on a large scale can be addressed with relative fairness -- not perfect fairness -- and I gladly pay mine, at a rate higher perhaps than Jay might think, if in doing so I'm helping to lift out of poverty, illness, despair and tragedy those around me.  This is why I so resent paying taxes that support immoral war efforts; my money should reflect the values of my heart, not the bloodthirsty hegemony of the warmongers.  

Anyone who knows me knows that this sort of thinking on my part doesn't come from me; I'm not by nature that great a person.  But my understanding of the Gospel results in an acceptance that I have a part to play, government has a part to play, and the government of which I'm a part is a reasonable, Biblical mechanism for addressing human needs.  I'm not suggesting that non-Christians couldn't possibly feel as I do; rather, I'm lamenting that so many Christians act as though their well-being and their unfailing receipt of favor from the world around them is their due.  

Those of us who are Christians are supposed to seek the betterment of the "other" around us; if we believe that our God will care for and provide for us, we can support government involvement in uplifting human beings with our tax dollars knowing that some of the good God intends is facilitated by the state.  I don't feel "robbed" when my taxes go toward social services.  What I feel is gratitude that I can be a part of building a stronger society -- and benefit from that strong society's social safety net if and when I should ever be in need.

That's me, that's why I believe as I do, and I guess that's where Jay and I differ.  

Keely
www.keely-prevailingwinds.com
 		 	   		  
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