How petty is this?

[47of74]

At church tonight I happened to glance at the book where people can write their own special intentions in. Someone had written in to pray for health care reform to be defeated and that we did not need health care reform. How petty is that? It's disgusting to me to see Republicans now using our parish book of prayer for partisan gain.

[hedgehog]

1. It's a reminder to us all to keep Lincoln's words from the 2nd Inauguralin mind:

"Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."

[JNelson6563]

2. You could add an intention

Something along the lines of hoping our society becomes more Christ-like in our care for the sick and the poor among us.

Julie

[mdmc]

3. I would sign an intention to pray for those in need of medical treatment

and then write another one asking for prayers for the poor in need of medical service.

I find my church preaches about help the poor and helping the sick. Perhaps the person that wrote that offensive intention thinks that our current system is the best way to do those things.

[CBHagman]

4. I'd call it evil, or at best misguided.

Given that people die, go untreated, become disabled and/or or sicker due to lack of care, and/or go bankrupt due to the problems in our current system, I would say that whoever says we do not need some form of health care reform either does not understand the system or doesn't remember that Jesus spent much of His ministry healing.

Now I can understand ignorance and that someone can be so steeped in rhetoric and hysteria (and perhaps lulled into a sense of security by having no health care horror stories of his/her own) that he/she can justify praying for health care reform to be defeated.

That said, the last couple of days I've had a renewed sense of the sheer spitefulness, selfishness, and cruelty of my fellow Americans. There's a whole lot of talk about how health care reform is a privilege, not a right -- and I'd point out the Catholic Church social teaching holds that health care is a human right -- and of course there are all those people who divide the untreated/uninsured/underinsured into categories of deserving/undeserving.

The things I see posted on the comment sections of news sites and blogs are the worst. There was the response to a woman who was paying for a health insurance plan that supposedly covered labor and delivery -- and found out herself tens of thousands of dollars in debt. One of the posters declared that the woman was irresponsible and immature for being a freelancer and having purchased a health care plan; if she was really mature and responsible, she'd have gone to work for a company with a good health insurance plan. :eyes:

My friends, there are evil people in the world. They act civilized and may even be well-paid and rewarded for their their opinions on TV or the radio, but they are evil.

[hedgehog]

5. Thinking it over, the person who wrote it has been fed

misinformation and probably thinks the health care reform bills encourage euthanasia.


The Bishops have no qualms about discussing pending legislation and candidates at other times, too bad they are so silent now especially since Catholic hospitals are carrying a lot of the burden for the uninsured!

[47of74]

6. And the Bishops wonder why so many Americans have such little use for them anymore