Church leaders weigh in on health reform

"God of grace and God of glory," prayed the Rev. Cynthia Hale during a national conference call Aug. 19 on health care reform, "We believe that it is your will that every man, woman, boy and girl receive quality health care in America."On that point, no religious leader would contest Hale, pastor at Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Ga., who prayed at the kickoff of an effort by the faith community to mobilize religious support for President Obama's health care reform plan. When it comes to specifics, however, there is little broad-based agreement.

From the pulpits and through public statements, religious leaders have been weighing in on various elements of what they say is a crucial moral issue. Catholic bishops have lobbied against possible inclusion of abortion coverage in any federal health care plan, a possibility President Obama dismissed in his prime-time speech earlier this month.

Episcopalians passed a resolution in July favoring a single-payer system, while some Catholic bishops in the Midwest have publicly opposed any massive government effort. Some rabbis are considering the subject for sermons during the Jewish High Holy Days, which began last week.

It should surprise no one that clerical attempts to influence health care reform reflect the nation's political divide, said Abigail Rian Evans, a former professor of practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

"Politics and religion have been mixing since the founding of our country, despite attempts to keep them separate," Evans said.

About 15 percent of the American population-more than 45 million people-lack health insurance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Obama, in his primetime address to Congress, quoted a letter from the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) in which the senator said health care reform "concerns more than material things. What we face is above all a moral issue."

Religious leaders typically agree with that assessment. Still, most of them, underneath their rhetoric about universal coverage, have not said exactly what type of new arrangement they favor.

"[Catholic Bishops] should articulate the goals and values that should be in health care reform, and then present these and use these to judge how well the proposals achieve these goals and values," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, referring specifically to Catholic bishops. "But the technicalities of how you do it, I think, that should be left to the politicians, the policy wonks, the experts."

In addition, the complex proposals make it hard for religious leaders to speak out on specifics, said Episcopal Bishop Mark Beckwith of Newark, N.J., who plans to lobby Congress for a government-run option.

"However we pay for it, either privately or publicly or some combination thereof, the goal is to provide more coverage to more people, as we say in our worship service, to `respect the dignity of every human being,'" said Beckwith. "The current system, as we have it now, is not set up to do that."

U.S. Catholic bishops have supported universal coverage for decades, but some have raised concerns that a new plan would allow federal money to fund abortion. Obama's insistence that it would not, and that hospitals would not be forced to provide abortions, met with favorable reviews from Catholic officials.

A separate area of contention is bishops' claims of "excessive centralization" and "government socialization" of medicine.

The Catholic Church has added reason for involvement in the debate: There are 624 Catholic hospitals in the United States, and 499 Catholic long-term-care nursing facilities.

Two groups that oppose abortion but align with Democrats on many social issues, Sojourners and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, also are supporting the president's efforts.

"We need to keep our eyes on the prize here and make sure we have universal coverage for everyone," said John Gehring, a spokesman for Catholics in Alliance. "It (would be) a mistake for us to get sort of buried in the quagmire of abortion when really what we're talking about here is access to health care.