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2007-10-02 issue:

ACHE affirms health-care plan for church workers

by Rick Stiffney, chair, representing Mennonite Health Services Alliance; Steve Garboden, MMA; Anne Hershberger, member at large; Clair Hochstetler, Mennonite Chaplains Association; Ted Koontz, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary; Willard Krabill, member

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We, the members of the Anabaptist Center for Healthcare Ethics (ACHE) Board of Directors, want our brothers and sisters who relate to Mennonite Church USA to know our views about an issue given strong affirmation by delegates to MC USA in San José, Calif., in July: health-care access for our pastors and church workers.

We already have given much thought and energy to this issue through the work of our representatives, Glen Miller and Joseph Kotva Jr., and through our production of Healing Healthcare: A Study and Action Guide on Healthcare Access in the United States (2005), which we hope all congregations take the opportunity to study in depth.
As was clearly explained by MC USA executive director James Schrag in San José: “Today’s choices determine tomorrow’s possibilities. We now have the choice to insure access to basic health services for all church workers, including pastors. … This choice will test our identity as deeply as other challenges have in our long history.” This choice was made by MC USA delegates, but it now must be made by conferences, church institutions and congregations if a basic churchwide health-care plan is to become a reality for church workers. We urge all concerned to make this choice.

For this plan to be successful, some of us will need to sacrifice so that the needs of all may be met. Institutions and individuals will have to follow the example of the “great physician” who provided health care to the needy—whether they were financially rich or poor, Jewish or Gentile. Surely we can at least provide for our own church servants and thereby demonstrate a workable model that can be applied on a larger scale.

Let us demonstrate our love for one another, as did the early church: “There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold” (Acts 4:34). Let us start with church workers, not denying basic support and care for those who do the work of the church (1 Timothy 5:18).
We know that this plan, as important as it is in providing health-care coverage to employees of the church, is only a small step toward a larger goal. We believe a wealthy society (and church) has a moral imperative to make affordable health care available to all. When this plan is successful, it can become a stepping stone to providing improved health-care access to all members of the church and, ultimately, to everyone. We recognize that addressing government on behalf of “the least of these” will be part of the church’s task in reaching the goal of accessible health care for all.
Access to adequate health care is a matter of justice and compassion. Old Testament prophets consistently judged the people of Israel on the basis of their care for the poor and needy, the orphans and widows. Jesus in his inaugural sermon announced the coming of God’s reign, proclaiming good news to the poor, captive, blind and oppressed. As his hands, feet and voice in our world, let our compassion for those who suffer motivate us to work and speak for justice that provides access to health care for all in our church and society.

Associated Issue: Called by the spirit as broken vessels - July 24 2007

Associated Article: San José 2007 delegates call for health insurance for pastors