A Prayer for the Soul of the Nation

OVER THE PAST several months, Republicans in Congress tried time after time to make good on their seven-year threat to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. Each time a wide variety of groups stepped up to protect the vulnerable and ensure that millions of Americans continue to receive the health care they deserve. At several critical junctures, Christians played an important role.

This summer, for instance, a clear witness against health-care repeal was brought together by the Circle of Protection, a coalition of Christians we help convene who have come together around the biblical mandate to protect poor and vulnerable people. All the families of our faith—the National Association of Evangelicals and the National Council of Churches, the Catholic Church and the Salvation Army, and most of our denominations—came together to say: We may differ on many things, but we are joining to protect the people Christ has called us to protect. The group urged political leaders to pursue “options that do not ask our poorest neighbors to bear most of the weight of budget and health-care cuts.”

Back in July, on the very day a repeal vote was scheduled, about 20 of us showed up outside the Senate chamber door in response to a request from a senator. We were from many different traditions and denominations—Catholic, evangelical, Protestant, black churches, Latino churches—and we started praying outside the door.

Senators walked by on their way to vote. They said, “What are you doing here?” “Well, we’re praying for this vote, and we’re praying for you. Would you like to join our circle, and have us pray for you right now?” And 12 senators, both Democrats and Republicans, came into our circle.

We stood outside the Senate gallery door, with heads bowed, eyes closed, our hands on the shoulders of a senator or each other. And we said, “Lord, we are praying for the sick today, those who you care so much about, those whom you’ve asked us to protect. You said how we treat them is how we treat you, Lord. We pray for them in their fear and vulnerability right now, in what they’re afraid is going to happen to their kids, their disabled relatives, their older moms and dads. They’re afraid of how their families are going to be devastated by such a bill. We pray for the members of this important political place, that they would think beyond partisan politics. And that those who claim to be people of faith would look to you, and ask, ‘What does God want us to do? If Jesus were here, who would he want us to protect?’”

The prayer was for the poor, and for the soul of the nation. There was no reference to Democrats or Republicans—this wasn’t a partisan moment. This was a prayerful moment, with senators from both sides of the aisle.

After we prayed, one of the senators, Sherrod Brown from Ohio, said, “Could I share a scripture? I’ve been reading in Matthew 25 where Jesus said, ‘How you treat the sick is how you treat me.’ This isn’t about politics; this is about how we treat Christ himself. Isn’t that what the text is saying?”

Indeed, Matthew 25 tells us that the way we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the stranger, and the prisoner is how we treat Christ himself. There is no more fundamental Christian teaching. The reason so many Christians with diverse theological views could stand united against efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act is that the repeal bills would be harmful to the poor and sick.

As we look ahead, it’s likely that we may have to defend health care for vulnerable people yet again. But the political battles of 2017 also give us perspective on why health care is such a fundamental and potent issue in our society and politics, as well as offering a vision of what health care could and should look like in the future. Our obligation to defend the “least of these,” as laid out in Matthew 25, resonates so deeply regarding the sick because we all get sick sooner or later. And so we fight for a health-care system in which hundreds of millions of our fellow Americans are there to pick us up when we fall down—because, at some point, we all fall down.

JESUS’ SECOND commandment (Matthew 22:39) is also our guide here: We want affordable, quality health care for everyone in our society because we believe in loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. And just as we believe in racial justice and environmental justice, so too we believe in health-care justice, because all human beings are made in the image of God and loved by God. There are different ways for a nation to organize and manage its health-care system. But there should be no confusion for Christians about the goal we seek: a system that is just, where health care is a right and not a privilege, and where every single person can access and afford quality care. As we continue to defend the most vulnerable from attempts to pull our society in the opposite direction, we should always keep our eye on this prize.