[Vision2020] my final response to Jay

[Jay Borden]

Well said.  

 

I'll even offer to help dig your car out of a snow bank tomorrow.

 

<for free>.

 

Jay

 

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of keely emerinemix
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 10:29 PM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] my final response to Jay

 

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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