Get E-Mail Updates

God's Politics Blog

How Can You Get Health Insurance if You're American with a Pre-existing Condition? Live Long Enough.

by LaVonne Neff 02-10-2012
Veneto, Italy - Scrovegni Chapel. Deatil of Christ of Raising Lazarus/Getty Imag
Italy, Veneto, Padua, Scrovegni Chapel. Scenes from the Life of Christ of Raising of Lazarus. Via Getty Images.

This Sunday is an important milestone for me. It's the day I no longer risk losing health insurance.

I left my last job-with-benefits when I was 51 years old. I'd been commuting an hour and a half each day, and I was worn out. My husband had excellent health insurance, and publishing jobs were plentiful.

Six weeks after my job ended, however, the dot-com bubble burst and jobs everywhere started to dry up. In 2003, I discovered I had a great big pre-existing condition — a defective heart valve and an aortic aneurysm that would eventually require surgery. I became uninsurable except through my husband's employer (and mine, should I ever find another job).

And then in 2008, the year I turned 60, the whole economy tanked. I realized I was now entirely dependent on my husband's employer for health insurance, since I would probably never again have a job-with-benefit.

+Continue Reading | 8 Comments

Haley Barbour's Unintentional Lesson: Keep Religion and Governance Separate

by Martin Long 02-10-2012
Gov. Haley Barbour. Image via Wylio http://bit.ly/zzEQH5.
Gov. Haley Barbour. Image via Wylio http://bit.ly/zzEQH5.

Suppose there are two inmates convicted of similar crimes. Both appear to be equally contrite and rehabilitated. One is black, the other white. The white one gets pardoned by the governor, the black one does not. Is this fair? 

What if one was rich, the other poor? If one had political donors for friends, but not the other?  And what if most of those pardoned by this same governor were white, rich, politically connected, or they were convicted of quite violent crimes?

Judging by the reactions to former Governor Haley Barbour's granting pardons or clemency to 200 or so felons on his last day as governor of Mississippi in January 2012, this seem to be the point at which many raise their hands, asking, "what is going on here?" 

To my eyes, Gov. Barbour unfairly (and illegally?) predetermined who was eligible to be pardoned based upon their professing the adoption of his religion.

+Continue Reading | 1 Comments

Afternoon News Bytes: Feb. 10, 2012

by God's Politics Editor 02-10-2012

Demonstrations Whisper Of An Arab Spring In Jordan; Perfect Storm Threatens Long-Term Unemployed; Obama: Birth Control Policy Meets Everyone's Needs; Will Inequality Keep Getting Worse?; What Davos, Occupy Have In Common; On Immigration, 'Amnesty' Isn't A Four-Letter Word (OPINION); In Year Of Uprisings, Reporters Brave Crackdowns From Wall St. To Tahrir Square (OPINION).

+Continue Reading | 0 Comments

Don’t Read This Part of the Bible If You’re Under 30 (or a Woman)

by Jana Riess 02-10-2012
Icon of the Prophet Ezekiel via Wiki Commons, http://bit.ly/xLsxE4.
Icon of the Prophet Ezekiel via Wiki Commons, http://bit.ly/xLsxE4.

It's long been known that Ezekiel is — well, let's be honest here — one crazy-arse book of the Bible.

Now that I'm tweeting about it every day and reading it cover to cover for the Twible project, I've come to understand one of the oldest traditions about it: it's not for everyone.

Some of the great rabbis taught that the book of Ezekiel, with its strange visions and explicit sexual language, should not be read by any Torah student under the age of 30.

The symbolism of "30" was likely tied to Ezekiel's own reported age when he began receiving his prophetic visions; perhaps the rabbis felt that if Ezekiel was old enough to see these weird word-pictures, 30-something men were considered mature enough to read about them.

Not so for women.

+Continue Reading | 2 Comments

BREAKING NEWS: Obama Exempts Religious Groups from Contraceptive Mandate

by David Gibson 02-10-2012

Facing growing furor from religious groups, President Obama on Friday unveiled an "accommodation" in which health insurance companies, rather than religious institutions such as Catholic hospitals and universities, will provide employees with contraception coverage.

Houses of worship remain exempt, and the new approach effectively removes all faith-based organizations from involvement in providing contraceptive coverage or even telling employees how to find such coverage. It also maintains Obama's pledge to ensure that almost all women with health insurance will not have to pay for it.

At issue was a mandate, part of Obama's 2009 health-care overhaul, that employers provide free birth-control coverage. The mandate was announced Jan. 20 by Health & Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Religious groups, particularly Catholic, fiercly objected, saying the federal government should not force institutions to violate the tenets of their faith. Womens' advocates argued that employees should have access to birth control regardless of where they work.

+Continue Reading | 8 Comments

Jesus is Not a Fan of Sectarianism

by Aaron Taylor 02-10-2012
Sectarianism in Northern Ireland. Photo via Getty Images.
British soldier guards a church during a Protestant parade through a Catholic neighborhood in Northern Ireland. Via Getty Images

With all the different groups out there claiming to follow Jesus, how do we know which ones Jesus would claim as his own?

Is it possible that Jesus would claim both liturgical Christians and free-wheeling holy roller Christians?

What about liberal Christians and conservative Christians? Is the tent that Jesus pitches big enough to include people like Dorothy Day and Jerry Falwell?

I’m 33 years old, and I’ve been following Jesus — or should I say trying to follow Jesus — for as long as I can remember. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned after all these years, it’s that as soon as I think that my friends and I have a corner on Jesus, Jesus reminds me that He’s bigger than any organization, doctrine, or philosophical system that I can wrap my brain around.

+Continue Reading | 3 Comments

The Top 10 Stories of February 10, 2012

by Duane Shank 02-10-2012

Quote of the day.
"It seems that the authorities are increasingly getting the upper hand online. Basically they are already shutting off access to all interesting Web sites. We will resemble an isolated island in a changing world if this happens." - Maysam, a prominent Iranian blogger, on Iran’s cyber police trying to get control over what is uploaded, posted, and discussed on the Internet.
(Washington Post)

+Continue Reading | 0 Comments

Today in God: Feb. 10, 2012

by God's Politics Editor 02-10-2012
Photo by Getty Images.
Photo by Getty Images.

Nuns vs. strippers. Oprah and Hasidim. A Christian TMZ.com? Muslim tweeter is in trouble. Female backlash against the GOP. Catholic television network EWTN files a lawsuit against the contraception mandate. Santorum says the contraception fight has "nothing to do with women's rights." Did Cardinal Bevilacqua die of foul play? A plot to kill the pope. Drive-thru funerals and more...inside the blog.

+Continue Reading | 0 Comments

Femsculine Christianity

by Michael Hidalgo 02-10-2012
"God Dancing." Pastel drawing by Lisa Daughtry-Weiss for Sojourners.
"God Dancing." Pastel drawing by Lisa Daughtry-Weiss for Sojourners.

There are many differences that exist between women and men. Just start with basic biology and it’s apparent. However, if we start at the beginning we discover something foundational that speaks to who we are at our deepest level of identity.

In the creation narrative the writer tell us that God created humankind “in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1.27). Men and women are first identified as image bearers. While we have differences we also have sameness, and both are rooted in God.

We must keep this in mind in any conversation about the differences between men and women. For whenever we speak about our differences we must do so with caution. As Ken Wilber rightly points out, “… as soon as any sort of differences between people are announced, the privileged will use those differences to further their advantage.”

In the history of our world men have typically occupied places of privilege. As a result, men have used the differences between themselves and women to gain advantage and establish dominance over women. This is still prevalent in our world today — even in the Church.

+Continue Reading | 2 Comments

Fact Check Fail: That Obama Prayer Meme

by Caryn Shinske 02-10-2012
Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images
President Obama prays during a Medal of Honor ceremony, 9/15/11. Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The people behind a popular chain e-mail about President Obama and the National Day of Prayer might want to think about the sin of omission.

That's omission, as in omitting facts.

The widely circulated e-mail claims that Obama canceled a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House in 2009, but later that year, a National Day of Prayer for Muslims was permitted on Capitol Hill, beside the White House.

+Continue Reading | 1 Comments

Sojourners' Statement on Obama Administration's Contraception Policy Change

by God's Politics Editor 02-10-2012

The Obama Administration announced earlier today a change to its policy regarding conscience exemptions and contraception coverage for faith based organizations.

Sojourners released the following statement:

We applaud the Obama Administration’s decision to respond to the concerns of many in the faith community around respecting religious liberty. This compromise respects the conscience concerns of those persons and institutions opposed to the use of contraception while still allowing greater access to those services for women who seek it. Expanded access to contraception is important for women’s health and is a key part of our country’s efforts to prevent unintended pregnancies and thereby reduce abortions.

+Continue Reading | 6 Comments

Anglican Breakaway Groups Confront New Power Struggle

by Bob Smietana 02-09-2012

The saga of the Anglican Mission in the Americas sounds like the words to an old country song: "Why have you left the one you left me for?"

Founded by breakaway Episcopal priests who left their former denomination because they felt it was too liberal, the Anglican Mission is now in the middle of another ugly church feud.

Last time the fight was over sex and salvation. Now the fight is over money and power, between the Anglican Mission's U.S. leaders and the overseas Anglican group that adopted them.

"It's like my mom and dad just told me they are getting a divorce," said the Rev. Brian Hardin, pastor of the Four Winds Mission in Spring Hill, Tenn., which is a member of the Anglican Mission.

+Continue Reading | 0 Comments

America Deserves the Truth

by Duane Shank 02-09-2012

U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis, during his second tour in Afghanistan last year, traveled throughout the country, meeting with and interviewing American troops. He came away convinced that military leaders had not told the truth, and the war was a disaster.

+Continue Reading | 0 Comments

Grab Your Birkenstocks, Ukeleles and Pup Tents: The (Wild) Goose is Loose!

by God's Politics Editor 02-09-2012

The Goose is on the loose, ya'll.

Today organizers of the 2012 Wild Goose Festival (June 21-24 in Shakori Falls, N.C.) released a groovtastic video (with special guest apperances by Sojo homies Gabriel Salguero, Lynne Hybels, David Wilcox, Father Richard Rohr, Brian McClaren, Phyllis Tickle, Richard Twiss, Jim Wallis and more!) to whet your appetite for four days of music, art, literature and curl-your-toes GRACE.

Watch the Wild Goose video and find out how to get your tickets, etc., inside the blog....

+Continue Reading | 0 Comments

Afternoon Links of Awesomeness: Feb. 9, 2012

by Joshua Witchger 02-09-2012

President Obama helps an eighth-grader shoot a "Marshmallow Air Cannon" at the White House Science Fair. Watch art come to life with a little fire. Banksy art spotted on the streets of New Orleans. Jack White releases first cut from debut solo record. The Moth explores religion in American life. The World's Largest Doge Ball Game. And more!

+Continue Reading | 0 Comments