(Special Post)Health Care and Churches

I am sure I do not understand what the President of the United States meant when he made the following statement last evening:

We’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn’t be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital. They should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive. (Transcript of the 2013 State of the Union Address)

I can tell you what I heard (in my cynical, warped, conservative, theological mind). The time is coming for older Americans (Medicare recipients) when they will not be offered “medical tests,” or the opportunity to spend “days in the hospital.” Rather, Medicare will provide “quality care.” Meaning – you will be supplied with drugs to make you sleep most of the time, and when awake, experience no pain, and present “no problems” for those who are watching you die. A fine, quality, painless, problem-less, relatively quick death.

There is precedent for this kind of action – just in another field. It has been happening in the Church for a number of years. People who desperately need to hear and understand the Truth so that they might come to faith in Christ before it is eternally too late and they are moved from this life to separation from God forever, are instead given the drug of kind and gentle words that tickle the ears and send one from the Church house feeling good about themselves regardless the depth of their sin.

Mankind is sick with sin and depravity – separated from God by evil, and rebellion. They need the great Physician who can change the heart and fill the mind with glory. Instead they get the drugs of personal value – instead of the wretchedness of a sinful life; purposelessness – in place of discovering God call to discipleship; egocentric positivity – as opposed to self-sacrifice on the altar of obedience to Truth; and rather than being filled with the glory of an Infinite God – they are sent back into a lost and dying world thinking that they have gained some value.

The Church is getting good at concealing the message of God behind the politics of keeping the people happy, the buildings big, and the budgets strong.

The Truth is – Medicare is bankrupt. They can’t pay. . . and soon they won’t pay.

The Truth is – The “church” (as opposed to His Church) is quickly becoming more bankrupt than it has ever been, and God may soon reach the end of His near infinite patience.

I fear for those who depend on Medicare (for which they have paid dearly).

I fear more for those who, absent the Truth, will spend eternity separated from God.