"God of grace and God of glory," prayed the Rev. Cynthia Hale during a national conference call Aug. 19 on health care reform, "... We believe that it is your will that every man, woman, boy and girl receive quality health care in America." On that point, no religious leader would contest Hale, pastor at Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Ga., who offered the prayer at the kickoff of an effort by the faith community to mobilize religious support for the ideals of health care reform favored by President Obama.
From the pulpits and through public statements, religious leaders have been weighing in on various elements of what they say is a crucial moral issue. Catholic bishops in New Jersey, in letters to the state's members of Congress, have lobbied against possible inclusion of abortion coverage in any federal health care plan, a possibility Obama dismissed in his prime-time speech Wednesday. The Episcopal Church USA passed a resolution favoring a single-payer system, while some Catholic bishops in the Midwest have publicly opposed any massive government effort.
Episcopal Bishop Mark Beckwith, of Newark, is planning to press for coverage of everyone, regardless of ability to pay, in Washington this week. And some rabbis are considering the subject for sermons during the Jewish High Holidays, which begin Friday night.
It should surprise no one that clerical attempts to influence health care reform reflect the nation's political divide, said Abigail Rian Evans, a former professor of practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.
"Politics and religion have been mixing since the founding of our country, despite attempts to keep them separate," Evans said. "In some religious groups there have been strong coalitions around health care reform and universal care and a government option for at least 30 years."
'A MORAL ISSUE'
About 15 percent of the American population -- more than 45 million people -- lack health insurance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The president, in his prime-time speech Wednesday, quoted a letter from Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) in which the senator, who died last month, said health care reform "concerns more than material things. ... What we face is above all a moral issue."
Religious leaders typically agree with that assessment. Still, most of them, underneath their rhetoric about universal coverage, have not said exactly what type of new arrangement they favor.
"They're not policy wonks," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, referring specifically to Catholic bishops. "They should articulate the goals and values that should be in health care reform, and then present these and use these to judge how well the proposals achieve these goals and values. But the technicalities of how you do it, I think, that should be left to the politicians, the policy wonks, the experts."
In addition, the complex proposals make it hard for religious leaders to speak out on specifics, said Beckwith.
"However we pay for it, either privately or publicly or some combination thereof, the goal is to provide more coverage to more people, as we say in our worship service, to 'respect the dignity of every human being.' The current system, as we have it now, is not set up to do that."
The nation's Catholic bishops have supported universal coverage for decades, but some have raised concerns that a new plan would allow federal money to fund abortion. Obama's insistence Wednesday that it would not, and that hospitals would not be forced to provide abortions, met with favorable reviews from Catholic officials.
"I'm thrilled that he said them, and I hope that it works out that way," said Newark Archbishop John J. Myers.
Abortion hasn't been the only issue to concern bishops. Two in Missouri, Joseph F. Naumann and Robert W. Finn of Kansas City, publicly warned that a plan could include "excessive centralization" and "government socialization" of medicine.
Still, to a wide range of religious leaders, including Beckwith, some compromises are acceptable if more people can be covered.
"My commitment, as the bills evolve, is to ensure that those who are not insured will be covered," Beckwith said. "Any proposal that moves that forward to give coverage and compassion and care to people who are otherwise out of the loop is a good thing."
The Catholic Church has added reason for involvement in the debate: There are 624 Catholic hospitals in the United States, and 499 Catholic long-term-care nursing facilities.
James Wallace, vice president of government affairs for St. Michael's Medical Center, a Catholic hospital in Newark, said he is closely watching how any new plan would affect hospital reimbursement rates.
At St. Michael's, a 357-bed hospital that runs a deficit, high percentages of patients are either covered by Medicaid or charity care -- for which the hospital is reimbursed just 70 cents or less on the dollar -- or ineligible for those programs and unable to pay the hospital anything, Wallace said.
"As individuals who are currently uninsured become insured, that strengthens the payer mix and therefore increases the money coming to the hospital," he said.
Cautionary tale
On Aug. 19, a group called 40 Days for Health Reform, representing more than 25 denominations, held a telephone call-in and audio webcast on health care reform, with Obama as the featured speaker. During the 140,000-member conference call, the Rev. Heyward Wiggins of Bible Tabernacle Church in Camden relayed the story of one of his parishioners.
Ronald Butler was a self-employed limousine driver who could not afford health care. The driver started suffering from unexplained headaches and stomach problems and learned the blood tests he needed would cost $1,000 apiece.
"Ron had to wait until he had enough money to pay for the tests before a doctor could tell him what was wrong," Wiggins said. "Meanwhile, the headaches and stomach pains got worse."
After being turned away twice from hospital emergency rooms, Butler learned he had cancer in his stomach, liver, brain and lungs. He died four days later, Wiggins said, "because he did not have access to the health care he needed."
Earlier that day, the president spoke to 1,000 rabbis in his effort to line up religious support for health care reform.
Lay groups with religious ties also are in the mix. The National Jewish Democratic Council started a group called Rabbis for Health Insurance Reform that backs Obama's efforts. Sojourners and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, Christian groups that are against abortion but that align with Democrats on many social issues, also are supporting the president's efforts.
"We need to keep our eyes on the prize here and make sure we have universal coverage for everyone," said John Gehring, a spokesman for the Catholics in Alliance. "It (would be) a mistake for us to get sort of buried in the quagmire of abortion when really what we're talking about here is access to health care. ... We don't want to see a historical opportunity lost because of the abortion question."
On the other side, the Family Research Council, a conservative group, has doubted Obama's claim that federal money wouldn't pay for abortions and has criticized liberal Christian groups' goals.
"The religious left, which has blindly put their faith in this administration's attempted takeover of health care, has repeatedly said they do not want to get into the weeds on the policy aspects of health care reform," Tony Perkins, the Family Research Council's president, said in a prepared statement the day of the conference call. "Instead they say their focus is on the moral mandate that all people have health care.
"Ensuring that taxpayers are not forced to fund abortions and that the conscience rights of health care workers are protected," he continued, "is not getting into the weeds, but rather it is ensuring that health care reform is kept on a higher moral plane."
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