Forget what you learned about myth from Joseph Campbell—this death panel rumor is the real deal: values masquerading as truth, all in service of one heckuva group fantasy.
The national conversation about health care has been about everything but care, or compassion, for those truly in need. Isn’t it simply wrong for religious leaders to sit this one out?
As the debate over gay marriage is reignited in New Jersey, the local Roman Catholic bishops threw themselves in with a zeal they have yet to display in the fight for universal health care, despite theological requirements that they fight for it. Are they acting like “cafeteria Catholics,” picking and choosing which parts of the Church’s mandates to follow?
The President is reaching out to faith leaders to help reframe the health care debates in moral terms, and religious progressives are heeding the call(s).
As they muster their forces against health care reform, Republican culture warriors and conservative media outlets stir fear of “deadly doctors” and “government-encouraged euthanasia”.
So long as the health care battle is focused on the model of market competition—the very notion that health care is best conceived as a for-profit industry—the whole debate is a non-starter. If a meaningful health care reform is to pass, Democrats and liberals will have to return to their social justice roots.
Euthanasia, end-of-life, death with dignity, assisted suicide: these mean entirely different things depending on whom you consult. The health care debates have enormously high stakes, and yet we don’t even agree on the terms.
