Jesus warned us not to pledge our allegiance to worldly things but instead to give that honor to God alone. His most often example of idolatry was money. But today there is literally a myriad of things that we have chosen to put up as idols in God’s place. One of these in my mind is the greed around the concept of universal healthcare.
Jesus clearly told us to be our brother’s keeper. I can’t think of a more poignant area where where are not following his command to be our brother’s keeper than denying healthcare to those of meager financial means. Healthcare should be a right for all citizens of the U.S. as is the case for much of the rest of the world. In order to accomplish this it would be necessary for many of us to contribute some of our resources for those who cannot afford it. This greed of “I don’t want you taking away my money to benefit others” is no different than putting money above Jesus’ commands. Some say the money we would have to contribute is actually less than what we currently spend on pet supplies. While I love my pets I do not put there value above my fellow man!
This ambivalence toward universal healthcare comes primarily from the radical right in our political spectrum and unfortunately evangelical Christians are thought to make up a good segment of that population. Shame on us for, by association, putting a Christian name on this greed filled issue. Let’s show the world that we are Christians by insisting that we join the rest of the world and provide universal healthcare for all our citizens. To do otherwise is to do great damage to Jesus’ name and to his kingdom on this earth.
RedLetterLiving 
This shouldn’t be an issue at all for one of the wealthiest nations on earth. We need to bring our boy’s and girl’s home and put that war money on healthcare in my opinion. That seems over simplified to many, but I think we have overstepped our “peace-keeping” role in the world. Defense of our nation is important in this dangerous world but going into other nations to chase phantom enemies is too expensive monetarily and in human lives. What has happened in Afghanistan? They’re now buddying up with Iran and receiving “bags of money” from them while our kids are dying to try and bring them freedoms they don’t seem to want. We could use that war chest right here in the US to provide compassionate healthcare and stabilizing Social Security and Medicare. Far more important! And far more Christian!
Thanks Peppy for the comments. The U.S. has 4% of the world’s population but spends more on our military machine than the rest of the world combined! No wonder much of the world calls us “war mongers” and we don’t seem to have enough for things like healthcare and social security that the rest of the industrialized nations are to be able to provide. Taxing our citizens up to 30 times more for military than any other industrialized country; I often wonder why so many put up with that? If only we spent even 2% of that budget being peacemakers we could greatly reduce our war machine!!