Following a White House request, the social gospel "Christian leaders" are making the rounds stumping for government-run health care, saying it is a biblical mandate.
The White House wants reports from Americans of anyone who is criticizing the President's health care proposals. You're supposed to watch for "fishy" E-mails be passed around America. Would the White House consider your thoughts/comments as "fishy?" CLICK HERE to tell the White House
-- From "Faith groups unite for health care: Claim it is a fundamental moral issue" by Jacqueline L. Salmon, The Washington Post 7/26/09
Several large coalitions are mobilizing religious communities nationwide in support of overhauling the nation’s health-care system.
In recent weeks, hundreds of clergy members and lay leaders have descended on the offices of members of Congress, urging lawmakers to enact health-care legislation this year. With face-to-face lobbying, sermons, prayer and advertising on Christian radio stations, the coalitions are pressing the idea that health care for everyone is a fundamental moral issue.
The efforts have been coordinated closely with the Obama administration. A group of faith leaders met with President Obama in April, and administration officials took part last month in a rally at Freedom Plaza with representatives of more than 40 denominations and faith groups in support of comprehensive health coverage.
Showing up at the rally were Joshua DuBois, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and Neera Tanden, senior adviser to the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Your united voice is critical,” Tanden told the gathering. “We are, in the next two months, at the most critical time of trying to get (health-care) legislation passed.”
One coalition of mostly liberal and centrist religious groups was organized by Sojourners, an evangelical group; Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good; Faith in Public Life, a Washington think tank; and PICO National Network, an alliance of 1,000 U.S. congregations. It originally grew out of frustration that conservative Christian groups were dominating the national faith conversation on social issues. The coalition is speaking out on such issues as health-care reform and comprehensive immigration reform.
In August, paid organizers will meet with pastors to help them organize their congregations, develop talking points for meetings with members of Congress and coordinate with other groups and individuals - religious and secular.
Conservative Christian groups say the coalitions are using the common language of faith to disguise unpopular ideas.
“I don’t think they speak for the vast majority of Americans,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who has debated the Rev. Jim Wallis, executive director of Sojourners, several times on the health-care issue. “They are playing on the sympathies and passions of most Christians.”
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