An emerging right wing talking point?

[markpkessinger]

Twice within the last week I've encountered an argument concerning health care, from different persons in different contexts, that was stated similarly enough to make me wonder if it isn't a new right-wing talking point being encouraged by the right's media machine. Mind you, it a point that is fairly easy to counter, but still, if it's out there, we should be aware of it.

The first instance was in a discussion on Facebook, where a friend of a friend said something like this: "Hey, separation of Church and State. Let the Churches do "God's work" of caring for the sick and leave the rest of us out of it." The second was on (I think) HuffPo, where someone said something like, "Just because churches didn't do their job of caring for the sick," why should the rest of us have to pay?"

Has anyone else noticed this emerging as a talking point recently?

[elleng]

1. Yes, I guess, as Ron Paul said it at the 'debate,'

no one was turned away, 'the churches took care of it.' Applause.

[jwirr]

21. Unless of course you were born on the wrong side of the tracks or

had some other problem the churches did not want to touch. Believe me churches were great at finding reasons not to help. That said there are hospitals run by the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, and many other churches. They do help others - in their catchment areas. They are required to. I think that if you asked honest church leaders if they want to handle all the care of the poor, sick and elderly they would become hysterical. Most churches I know are having a hard time because their members are having a hard time. They would be broke in no time. As the government knows - medical care is expensive. If the government cannot do it the the churches sure as hell cannot do it.

[elleng]

22. Certainly. At some point, 'I am my brother's keeper' must be adopted/re-adopted

by our democracy.

[HereSince1628]

2. Was it JFK or Bobby who said

that here on earth God's work must truly be our own?

[DJ13]

3. That sounds like its based on the Ron Paul statement in the last debate

It was the point where the audience was heard to say "let him die" about the 30 yr old who didnt buy insurance and then got deathly sick.

Paul said something about churches used to pay for the healthcare of the needy.

[markpkessinger]

8. In both cases, it was before the debate n/t

[DJ13]

11. It might havebeen a Ron Paul talking point from his campaign speeches

[markpkessinger]

12. Perhaps that was it . . .

. . . neither of the persons struck me as Bachmann or Perry-type supporters.

[kenny blankenship]

20. Too bad nobody reminded Paul that while the Church was the origin of the hospital in the West

A) The Church, or various churches collectively, have never been adequate to the task of providing health care to all who needed it, in any society, ever; and moreover...

B) Back in the late 4th century AD, when the Christian church started doing this kind of thing, it took funding from the State as well as its own collections from parishioners. A capable Church whether in the West or East of any religion, that is carrying out broad missions of social welfare, such that it could conceivably reach most people, is historically associated with official state recognition and financial support. That's your tax piasters/drachmas/florins/dinars, Citizen! They just helped themselves and took it from you, after you worked so hard to earn it, and gave it without your consent to some undeserving bastard who was just going to lollygag in sickbed for a fortnight and then curl up and die anyway! Of all the insufferable impositions of Big Jesus! Taxation AND official state religion: a double whammy from the Libertarian point of view. But I guess he overlooked that. Somehow.

[rurallib]

4. I am trying to stifle the laughter, but .......

maybe if the right turns their healing over to God they will soon be disabused of that idea of an all-powerful God.
I remember seeing a cartoon many years ago that had a church next to a hospital with a sign for the ambulances - to the church for the right wingers and to the hospital for others.

[markpkessinger]

6. Or we should ask them if some of their "mega churches" . . .

. . . will cover hospital expenses for the uninsured. ;)

[drm604]

5. Never mind.

[markpkessinger]

9. Oooh-kaaay then

[drm604]

10. I posted in error.

[markpkessinger]

13. No problem ;)

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Yup

Echoes to another era as well

Will leave it at that.

[demwing]

14. It is a church/state issue

and the state should stop outsourcing to the church.

EOS.

[TygrBright]

15. OK, so if I send my medical bills to Lakewood Church, Joel Osteen will take care of them?

Somehow I think NOT.

drily,
Bright

[markpkessinger]

16. LOL! n/t

[markpkessinger]

18. Next time I need medical care . . .

. . . I think I'll list "Saddleback Church/Rick Warren" as my insurance company.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

17. Pat Robertson cured AIDS in the 1980s, didn't he?

He asked people to stick their heads near the TV set and pronounced them cured through prayer. Why not let the Elmer Gantry school of medicine take over?

[markpkessinger]

19. Actually, it could be quite useful to Democrats . . .

. . . "Republicans want to make your churches pay for healthcare for the uninsured . . . "

That'd be sure to raise some hackles! ;)

[Solomon]

23. wow you guys must be really

young. The republicans have pushing this meme since Ronald Reagan. It was a big feature of Bush I's policy. He called the "thousand points of light."

[Bake]

24. If the churches are going to be responsible for health care,

they're going to need more than the tithe (10%) ... hospitals aren't cheap.

Bake