Bonnie Alba
Obama and God are health care partners?
By Bonnie Alba
On August 20th, Pres. Obama held a conference call with about 1000 Jewish leaders and a Webcast with an estimated 140,000 religious leaders and people of faith across the nation appealing for support of his health care plan.
Obama preached his health care plan using God. He also replaced his usual "I" with "we" in his speech with the conferees.
Some of his words:
On health care as both a political issue and a moral imperative:
"I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper. And in the wealthiest nation on Earth right now, we are neglecting to live up to that call."
On citizens' criticism of Obama's health care plan at town halls:
"I know there's been a lot of misinformation in this debate and there are some folks out there who are, frankly, bearing false witness ...I need you to spread the facts and speak the truth."
"These are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation."
Obama made a frank appeal to Jewish religious leaders and actually stated the following claim: "We are God's partners in matters of life and death."
Think about this last claim.
Do you remember Pastor Rick Warren's interview with Obama during last year's election campaign? Warren asked him, "At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?"
Obama: "...answering that question is above my pay grade."
It appears that Obama has moved up in pay grade and now wants to "partner with God in matters of life and death." May It Never Be!
Isn't it possible that God would take issue with Obama's claim?
At some time or another we have all tried to place God in a box of our own imaginings, desires, and self-serving attitudes or, as man is prone to do, put himself right up there on the Throne of God. In this case, he is claiming a partnership totally out of sync with what we know about God through His Word.
If God is Sovereign, it is impossible for man to 'partner' with Him in matters of life and death. Life and death belong solely to God. He is the God who opens and closes the wombs of women; He is the God who gives breath and decides the span of years man will live and when man will die.
Just as men and women have taken upon themselves to kill in their wombs what God has graciously given, so too is the "end of life" issue. Anyone who has attended the last days of parents and loved ones knows how difficult it is to watch as they cling to life. We also know the wrenching despair we feel watching them suffer.
Personal Example — which millions of families have gone through:
My Dad, who had developed dementia and continued to have mini-brain strokes, fell one morning and broke his hip. The surgeon wanted to operate — we said yes. But before the scheduled surgery, he developed kidney failure. Our family gathered and waited for the doctor's prognosis. The Doctor (urologist) gave us the choices — explaining that in older bodies, the systems start to shut down so it was up to us whether we wanted to go ahead with dialysis and, once his kidneys started functioning, do the hip surgery. Since I had the Conservatorship of my Dad, it was up to me but I sought the advice of family too.
We opted to keep trying .... Dad's kidneys started working after 6 days, then he was scheduled for surgery. When the nurses removed the dialysis shunt from his neck, he died. They thought it was possibly a blood clot. He was 79 years old. From the time he fell to the time he died, he lived for eleven days. Did we make the wrong decision? Should we have just let him go? Did he suffer for nothing in prolonging his dying?
From time immemorial, families and their doctors have struggled to make difficult decisions about medical care and prolonging the death of an elder. It's part of life.
Despite the family burden of decisions, grief and sorrow — the government and a panel of men should never judge who lives and who dies when a decision is required, much less which medical treatment should be given or withheld.
Are you willing to have family life and death decisions placed in the hands of strangers?
Never in America!
© Bonnie Alba
September 3, 2009
On August 20th, Pres. Obama held a conference call with about 1000 Jewish leaders and a Webcast with an estimated 140,000 religious leaders and people of faith across the nation appealing for support of his health care plan.
Obama preached his health care plan using God. He also replaced his usual "I" with "we" in his speech with the conferees.
Some of his words:
On health care as both a political issue and a moral imperative:
"I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper. And in the wealthiest nation on Earth right now, we are neglecting to live up to that call."
On citizens' criticism of Obama's health care plan at town halls:
"I know there's been a lot of misinformation in this debate and there are some folks out there who are, frankly, bearing false witness ...I need you to spread the facts and speak the truth."
"These are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation."
Obama made a frank appeal to Jewish religious leaders and actually stated the following claim: "We are God's partners in matters of life and death."
Think about this last claim.
Do you remember Pastor Rick Warren's interview with Obama during last year's election campaign? Warren asked him, "At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?"
Obama: "...answering that question is above my pay grade."
It appears that Obama has moved up in pay grade and now wants to "partner with God in matters of life and death." May It Never Be!
Isn't it possible that God would take issue with Obama's claim?
At some time or another we have all tried to place God in a box of our own imaginings, desires, and self-serving attitudes or, as man is prone to do, put himself right up there on the Throne of God. In this case, he is claiming a partnership totally out of sync with what we know about God through His Word.
If God is Sovereign, it is impossible for man to 'partner' with Him in matters of life and death. Life and death belong solely to God. He is the God who opens and closes the wombs of women; He is the God who gives breath and decides the span of years man will live and when man will die.
Just as men and women have taken upon themselves to kill in their wombs what God has graciously given, so too is the "end of life" issue. Anyone who has attended the last days of parents and loved ones knows how difficult it is to watch as they cling to life. We also know the wrenching despair we feel watching them suffer.
Personal Example — which millions of families have gone through:
My Dad, who had developed dementia and continued to have mini-brain strokes, fell one morning and broke his hip. The surgeon wanted to operate — we said yes. But before the scheduled surgery, he developed kidney failure. Our family gathered and waited for the doctor's prognosis. The Doctor (urologist) gave us the choices — explaining that in older bodies, the systems start to shut down so it was up to us whether we wanted to go ahead with dialysis and, once his kidneys started functioning, do the hip surgery. Since I had the Conservatorship of my Dad, it was up to me but I sought the advice of family too.
We opted to keep trying .... Dad's kidneys started working after 6 days, then he was scheduled for surgery. When the nurses removed the dialysis shunt from his neck, he died. They thought it was possibly a blood clot. He was 79 years old. From the time he fell to the time he died, he lived for eleven days. Did we make the wrong decision? Should we have just let him go? Did he suffer for nothing in prolonging his dying?
From time immemorial, families and their doctors have struggled to make difficult decisions about medical care and prolonging the death of an elder. It's part of life.
Despite the family burden of decisions, grief and sorrow — the government and a panel of men should never judge who lives and who dies when a decision is required, much less which medical treatment should be given or withheld.
Are you willing to have family life and death decisions placed in the hands of strangers?
Never in America!
© Bonnie Alba
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