Kenneth Gladney, a conservative anti-health care reform activist, got into a fight of sorts at a recent townhall event. He apparently was injured in the tussle and required medical care. The ironic thing is that Kenneth was just recently laid off and has no health insurance. He consequently had to ask his anti-health care reform buddies, who were holding signs that read “Don’t Tread on Kenny,” for donations to pay his medical bills. Interesting, no? Full Story.
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There is a huge difference between voluntary aid and violence-backed aid.
Voluntary aid is beautiful; the way of the Good Samaritan. It’s the person who gives money to another for healthcare needs. It’s the healthcare provider who gives pro bono services. It’s the community that practices mutual aid.
Violence-backed aid is not beautiful. It’s the person who steals money at gunpoint to pay for personal healthcare. It’s the person who demands healthcare services at gunpoint. It’s the community whose members ask others to steal money at gunpoint to pay for their healthcare.
And, yes, those violence-backed actions may have been acts of desperation, and we ought to address that desperation. But I don’t think more threats of violence is the best (or a good) way to solve that desperation.
One of the things that drew me to the Anabaptist movement was the understanding that our means are important, not just our ends. We are agreed to not use the Sword to achieve our goals. It has been deeply saddening to find so many Anabaptists advocating the Sword as a means to address this area of concern.
Hi, gyakusetsu! Thanks for the comment. I have one question: Whose medical bills have you paid today?
First, let me admit that I triggered a bit when I felt like your question was a rhetorical tactic for shaming, but I am hoping that was not your intent. I realize now, that my post may have came across as shaming, too. I did not intend it to be so, and apologize if it was.
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What makes “today” the appropriate time period? If I have not paid for anything today, but I have yesterday, would that then be ok? What about weekly, yearly, etc? And how directly should I have voluntarily paid the bills: through giving free medical services, through direct bill payment/contribution, through a mutual aid fund, through donating to an organization, through paying for medical services that subsidize other medical services for those who can’t pay, through supplying a person’s income through paying for products or services? What would be justified effort on my part? How much of my effort and time should be devoted to medical bills, versus alleviating other forms of suffering or in missions?
My concern is that there is an unspoken assumption in a lot of these discussions that “look, nobody has proved that a peaceful way could work 100%, yet, so let’s use the Sword more and more, unless someone does prove it.” But, of course, in many ways, peace is “unprovable,” yet it is how I believe I am called to interact in a creation that has been redeemed. It is my hope that Christians will cease requests for violent enforcement of our goals and collaborate on peaceful ways of making things better, while still understanding it will be a difficult journeyq and that things will not be perfect immediately.
(As per the question, I have paid at times for others’ medical bills in all of the above methods except for giving free care (since I am not a medical professional; though I did help to support my wife while she was doing so). I have also paid for medical bills through Medicare and Medicaid.)
gyakusetsu, thank you for being here.
I honestly can’t make sense out of most of your comments, save the part about voluntary aid being superior than health-care reform, which I would disagree with because of simple thing called “need” (a few well intentioned givers can not and will not meet the need). For example, I bet you and all of your brethren could not care for the medical need of your own church community much less your city. I won’t say a word about your county, state, and nation. We need a system in place that goes beyond volunteer giving. I one of my children need care, I would rather not deepened on a handful of well intentioned but unreliable people to hand me money to pay for it. No thanks.
I intentionally used “today” because you would have to pay someone’s bill every day to even meet a fraction of the need that would be created by a volunteer paying of people’s medical bills. This isn’t even sensible.
In fact, I’d like to hear who and what you paid for yesterday and who and what you plan on paying tomorrow.
What exactly is this SWORD you keep referencing? Who is using a sword? How is health-care reform violent? I’m not following you at all. Who is trying to shame anyone? You thought I was trying to shame someone? Hardly. I was pointing out the irony in the original story. Shame has nothing to do with it.
Re: the Sword
http://www.lofitribe.com/schleitheim-article-concerning-sword/
Some say “the Sword” as synonym for “violent State enforcement”
Need to jet at the moment, but will attempt a better explanation. Here, or on my own blog if it gets too long.
The idea I think is that Paul talks about the king wielding the Sword, probably a reference to state power and coercion. Government mandated health care like the Dems are talking about is coercion, plainly put – and many dislike that and still feel that less government is better government, along Enlightenment (Locke or Commonwealth theory) lines.
@Shawn: Is Gya’s personal contribution really that much of an issue? Person X being unwilling to “share” gives no right to others to “take” (or “steal” as they may call it). Gya seems unwilling to support a coercive system, which is hardly irrational. His statements above actually made a lot of sense to me, though maybe I am used to that kind of approach. Kind of an Ayn Rand, Objectivist thing, though probably with religious influence over atheistic.
@anyone who is getting ready to crucify me for being conservative: I actually support a single payor health care system on the lines of the Canadian or British system – I just understand what others are saying and why they might be upset by this kind of thing.
Hi, Dave.
I know what Gya meant by his/her use of “Sword.” I just wanted to hear him/her say it. It’s use in this context is odd and more than a bit of a disservice to the Anabaptist ideal upon which he/she founded it upon. I don’t think such use does Anabaptists any favors. In fact, I think such use smacks of a hyper-sort of Anabaptism that characterizes government as totally evil. It’s almost an Amish-like expression. It would be similar to someone saying something like, “Damn that sword and their social security system and education funding!” It doesn’t make much sense to me personally. That’s another discussion …
Regarding person X’s personal contribution. Does it matter? Yes! Especially if person X is trying to persuade me of “the superior beauty” of a voluntary system. If they aren’t doing it, and they don’t realize the sheer limitations of such a system, then yes, it matters.
PS: Millions of Americans without health insurance get their health-care needs fulfilled at the Emergency Room. We are all already paying for it. My family health insurance premiums are ridiculous and we end up paying for most of our care anyway. We need reform. And you admit as much int he last paragraph of your comment. Yet, you spend the first two paragraphs arguing otherwise. It seems that way, at least.
No one’s going to mistakenly crucify you for being a conservative. They might, however, throw a rock or two at you for being such a pigeonholed contrarian who needs to visit other isles of the local Barnes and Noble (the western philosophy section will only take one so far).
PS: I didn’t post your last comment on the other topic because it offered nothing new to the conversation we were having. I have neither the time, not the desire to keep going ’round and ’round. When you have something substantial to add to my main points, then it will get sent through. I think you should realize that I gave up the sort of debating you seem to be into when I was a sophomore in undergraduate school. My desire now is to head in a direction that will ultimately produce something edifying. I gave up the desire to be the debate winner a long time ago. With that, I gave up the desire to prove to any and everyone that I was right … and superior. That sort of conversation sucks and it has a really short shelf-life because people have better things to do. My conversation are more important than any of that, and I won’t let them be derailed by a contrarian. I say this with much respect for you, Dave.
So, when you want to discuss the main points, have at it. It’ll get sent through when you do.
Peace.
It’s all good, Shawn – your blog, your moderation. I am all too familiar with the personal expense of health care these days, since for years I was uninsured and had to drop my bills out of pocket. As stated, I support health care reform in the US, to the point of wanting a universal health care system akin to that of Britain or Canada.
As for asking about “how much, when, etc.”, it just comes off as a little combative. I think a more constructive approach to this would be to show that the kind of coercion that Gya is taking to task is acceptable, or better yet, a clearly positive good that the government and people have the right to do. According to Gya, he/she gives to the level that he/she is able to – this is good, no? We can’t ask these kind of people to enumerate every act of charity they participate in, that wouldn’t really be productive. I would ask this, rather pointed I suppose, question – at what point does someone have the moral right to “take” (or otherwise coerce someone into an otherwise unwilled action) what someone else possesses? Until we can answer that question, we are going to have a major struggle dealing with the neo-con elements that would answer that question as “never”.
As for philosophy… it is hard not to bring up Western Philosophy when we are talking about American government and politics, since it is based on Enlightenment philosophy. It would make little sense to cite the Vedas in such a context, after all. Forgive my limited reading, if you will – could you recommend something that I should be reading, perhaps?