Issue 510 The Church Should Provide Health Care January 21, 2015

Ok, I am going to criticize the Church.  The Catholic Church, my own faith. I am annoyed that they keep saying that government should provide health care.  You are probably wondering why I am against such an advocating.  Well I'll tell you why.

The Church Should Just do it:  So the Christian ethos is all about helping thy neighbor.  So basically be kind, be helpful, and do the right thing.  This includes voluntary charity.  That voluntary charity also may include health care.  As such, the Church wants the governments of the world to provide health care (a form of charity) for everyone.  Ummm, one question though.  Where does the Church get off pushing its Catholic beliefs (mine) onto other peoples?  And on top of this, the charity is supposed to be "VOLUNTARY", but the way the Church wants it, is so that governments around the world will provide it for the poor, tired, and huddled masses.  Yea, this does not fly with me.  The Church to me in this case comes off (from my perspective) as shirking its responsibilities.  The Church is supposed to be Gods implement to show the light of God through various methods including charity.  So why does the Church shrug off this responsibility to someone else.  Sure, yea, there are Catholic Hospitals, but that is not the kind of healthcare I am talking about.  The one I'm talking about is free clinics and providing universal health care itself.  I mean, the order of the Knights Templar during the Crusades became the world’s bank for a while (this caused them to gain power and thus why they were destroyed), so why cannot the Church accumulate this amount of power and use it toward a positive end like health care.  Every Priest and Nun can be trained in the basics of health, hygiene and physical exercise.  They can be nutritionists, herbalists, farmers, and instructors in yoga, tai chi, and more.  Heck the Buddhists first adopted martial arts to stay healthy, so why cannot priests become the peaceful monks to the Asian warrior monks.  The Church can raise masses amounts of money to educate young priests to become Nurse Practitioners or other lesser equivalents to doctors and even pharmacists.  There is so much potential for the shepherd to educate their flock in more than just the word of God, but on nature's laws created by God, and in doing so help prevent disease and if the time should arrive treat a disease.  As far as I know, the Catholic Church dominates almost all of South America, North America and Europe.  And it has outposts throughout the rest of the developed and developing parts of our world.  And when even this is not enough, we have Christian brothers and sisters in the greater Christian philosophy that would be more than happy to join in.  I definitely see the scion of Christianity, the Mormons, joining in along with the Orthodox Church, and many Protestant sects looking to do some greater good.  I also have no doubt that our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters would be more than willing to fill the gaps left behind.  Yea, we can do it if we try.

Conclusion:  Yea I am a little annoyed.  I mean why the hell would you tell someone to do your own job when you are more than capable of doing it yourself.  There are numerous methods to making this work cheaply and successfully, but instead the Church just brushes it off.  So I say quit telling someone else to do your own damn job, and then maybe I will actually donate more than $5 to my Church every Sunday cause at least then I know it will be helping to do more than just keep the Priests fed.