Healthcare reform is an especially complex issue, involving many moral, spiritual, and political views. Judeo Christian social teaching includes justice, subsidiarity, and the common good. The healthcare reform debate questions the fairness of forcing those more fortunate to provide healthcare to the less fortunate.

Judeo Christian social teaching would indicate healthcare decisions be made not only on the basis of what is good for us personally, but what is good for us as a community. Christian views may see sickness as a punishment or as a window on immortality, reminding us not to prize life above all other values. (When AIDS was first emerging many felt it was God’s wrath on the gay community, for example. We all needed to be reminded AIDS is a disease, not a punishment). [Read more...]