Oh sure, it is much easier to blame Obama or Pelosi, and no doubt, it is easier to show their fingerprints all over the bill which passed last night. But allow me to step back further to find the real cause for the increase in government involvement in health care in America.  For it seems to me that government is simply filling a hole first created by the Church. It is a well know fact that much of the infrastructure of our current health care system was built by the church. All you have to do is go back and check the names on the signs that used to grace most cities’ top hospitals before private companies replaced those signs with trendier focus group driven signs with cool graphics and appealing catch phrases.
I do not know when the church left health care and quite frankly, that answer is surely different in every place it happened.  (And there are surely mission fields where it remains the chief source of health care) But whenever it happened in your city, the hole left by the church was first filled by private companies. And no doubt that seemed fine to most capitalism loving patriots. Private companies are good at managing the mess that is modern medicine. But what makes capitalism work is also what broke health care. Health care became primarily if not solely about profit. And that created another hole, a hole we might called charity.  While private enterprises might still have some sort of mechanism to allow subsidized or free health care, they do not have it for the sake of charity. They have it for the sake of profit. It is a public relations move to bring in paying customers, not a charity move meant to bring in the truly needy. That is what businesses must do. They are businesses. They live or die on profit.
The Church is not under such constraints. With the Church connected to its head Christ, charity can be just that, charity. In fact not only can it be, but it quite naturally is. For charity is as essential to the Church of Jesus as profit is to business.
But for some time now, business and not the church has been running health care. And with the hole called charity left by private companies, it was only a matter of time until the only other entity outside of the Church which can give the appearance of providing something for nothing stepped in. But here is the problem, government can not do charity either. They provide free things ultimately to garner power for themselves. It is natural for those who seek power to gather it unto themselves.
Only the church can do charity right. Private businesses cannot. They want profit. The government cannot. They want power.
A hole was left by the church when it left its place as the central figure in health care. That hole was filled by private businesses, but we see now that that has only created another hole. Government as of yesterday is now trying to fill that hole. It will not work either. A new hole is being dug as we speak. Hopefully the church will see the opportunity ans seize it. For only the church can truly fill this hole.
You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I realize that there is a big hole right now, and that the church is unfortunately living pretty small these days. But I will rely on the largeness of God. If we have the faith the size on a mustard seed, this hole can be filled, and when it is, God will receive the glory. No longer will people glorify businesses for their ingenuity or place their trust in government as the entitlements roll in, but will be left to fear, love, and trust in God alone, the true provider of health care.
