hristians ought to be on very warm terms with the idea that the visible features
of any culture (law, business, entertainment, education, etc.) are simply the
outward expression of that people's religious attitudes. Society is "religion
externalized." [1] We ought to be able to discern the religious links between
any culture and the religion reigning in the hearts of its people. After all,
"out of the heart spring the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23).
Yet, when we consider issues such as health care, we so often ignore or dismiss its very religious roots. We get caught up in health statistics and pragmatic concerns ("Alliances won't work!") and miss the high-handed religious rebellion behind us.
Perhaps we can grasp the depth of the religious nature of our current health care debate by comparing it to an obviously religious historical situation. One such health care plan included many of the features of current proposals from the left and right. This health care plan involved a highly refined, multi-tiered system of government medical bureaucracy. It involved price controls for doctors' fees and harsh penalties for malpractice. It progressively adjusted health care prices for the poor and financed itself through a complex system of income taxation. Its physicians and other bureaucrats studied at the best government schools and maintained an exclusive legal monopoly on medical knowledge and practice. The system actively encouraged homosexual and heterosexual promiscuity, along with abortion, and actively discouraged the suggestion that patients had any personal responsibility for their illnesses. Defenders of this system assumed that without bureaucratic oversight the society would plunge i nto chaos. Though this system was very close to many Republican and Democratic proposals, I am, of course, describing the health care system of ancient Babylon. [2]
In the Babylonian case, we can readily see the religious motivations for such a system. They viewed the State as the supreme meeting point of heaven and earth. It alone could determine justice and control life. It alone could assume ownership over its citizens and resources. Denying sin and responsibility, they blamed evil on fate, their erratic gods, and outside forces. We should be surprised if such an idolatrous culture could produce anything other than a State-controlled bureaucratic system of health care. Their religious assumptions demanded it. Their culture was an outward expression of their religious outlook. And so is ours. Whether in its ancient or contemporary form, hatred of the true God keeps the same shape.
Hatred of God? Isn't that a rather extreme indictment? Sure it is, if we mold our understanding of such things in accord with contemporary standards. But on contemporary standards, ancient Babylon was rather middle-of-the road, mainstream. After all, Babylonian politics didn't go so far as demanding universal health coverage and employer mandates. And even the power wielded by our most "conservative" administrations would make Babylonian bureaucrats blush.
And yet to grasp a biblical view of such a mild and "centrist" Babylonian system, we need only look to the Old Testament prophets. Did Isaiah suggest that Babylonian culture followed a progressive, compassionate, centrist, tolerant path? No. Isaiah prophesied that Babylon "the oppressor" would cease (Is. 14:4) and that though Babylon sought to "ascend into heaven" and "be like the Most High" (Is. 14:13,14), God would condemn it to the lowest depths of the pit.
Through Jeremiah, God declared that He was "against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her princes and her wise men" for they were "insane with their idols" (Jer. 50:35,38). For their arrogance against Him, He would kindle a fire in their cities (Jer.50:24,29ff.) and overthrow them like Sodom and Gomorrah (Jer. 50:40).
Right in the face of the king of Babylon, Daniel condemned the king's arrogance and declared Babylon's imminent death sentence (Dan. 5:22ff.).
What intolerant, hate-mongers these strident Hebrew prophets were! Where was their compassion? Why couldn't they appreciate the progressive nature of Babylon? But idolatry and all its outward expressions are never pretty. They are a stench before God's throne. How clearly in such cases does he who "wants to be a friend of the world make himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4).
Rebellious Roots
So often in the current health care debate, advocates of extended-Babylonian health care seek to shame us by pointing to the Babylonian plans already in place in every other progressive nation. They want us to feel guilty for not imitating these other systems. Yet this sort of appeal should make our skin crawl. How infamously did ancient Israel lust after its pagan neighbors in exactly this language (Ezek. 16). Now the U.S. need not be any special or Christian nation to lust after its neighbors, since any nation can share in the unrighteousness of ancient Israel. But the popular exhortation to imitate other nations' unrighteousness does point us back to the fundamental rebellion against God involved in such political solutions.
Rejecting God: In I Samuel 8, the people of Israel grew tired of their decentralized system of predominately personal and family rule under God and demanded that the elderly Samuel "make for us a king to judge us like all the nations" (I Sam. 8:4). What could be so wrong with such a simple and pragmatic request? Surely such a system was in some sense more efficient and in line with progressive international trends. Yet the Lord did not see it this way. He shows us that such a request to abandon decentralized family rule under God in favor of a more centralized authority was idolatry pure and simple. They were seeking to replace God with a government imitation of God. Instead of trusting in the Lord's provision and care, they wanted the idolatrous security of the centralized State. And again, the centralized and bureaucratic nations surrounding Israel at that time paled in comparison to the gross Messianic and providential bureaucracies maintained by our contemporary Republican and Democratic regimes. Remember, too, that the centralized State aids our Adamic nature's drive to avoid any sort of personal responsibility. If the god of State educates our children, cares for our parents, heals our diseases, and gives us housing, then we can avoid such tiresome obligations.
And so, a national health care system, whichever one we get, is just another symptomatic expression of our prevailing idolatry, our national hatred of family, church, and personal responsibility under God.
Injustice Against the Poor: Centralized State health care is not only an expression of a deep-seated rejection of God, it also often involves legal privileges against the poor. Long before our current debate, the U.S. health care situation was far from a decentralized and free market system (see Chris Schlect's historical survey on p. 22). Doctors in Babylon and in the U.S., like many other professionals, have long sought special legal privileges to limit others from entering their profession and reducing prices. If Rolls Royces were as plentiful as sand, they would be very cheap; the same goes for medical services. So to keep prices high, the medical profession, over this century, has garnered a host of monopoly government privileges in the form of licensing requirements, opposition to advertising, medical schools closures, etc., in order to restrict the number of doctors and keep fees high. Of course, for millennia "professionals" have attempted to justify such State privileges by appealing to safety and quality concerns, but a th oroughly decentralized system has and would do a superior job even at this.
Nevertheless, a century of presidential administrations has preserved and extended such monopolies whose resulting high prices have primarily harmed the poorer among us. Yet, Scripture repeatedly condemns those who would defraud the poor, especially instances of powerful legal mischief ( Is. 10: 1-4; Amos 2:6; 4:1-3; 5:11-13 ).
Universal Thievery Provisions: After impoverishing a people through numerous governmental means, other administrations have attempted to reverse that injustice by another injustice: confiscation of earnings. Through Medicare and Medicaid and now Clinton's proposed universal coverage, we will continue the well-entrenched practice of government theft. But the eighth commandment doesn't apply just to private citizens. Kings and administrations can equally despise God's prohibitions on theft ( Ezek. 46:18; I Kgs. 21; I Sam. 8:14 ). How many times have we heard that part of God's judgment on Israel after their request for a king was a mere ten percent tax! What greater judgment are we presently enduring for our cultural idolatry? And yet we still beg for more slavery.
Notice also how violating these last two ethical standards increases our turmoil. Some will tell us that the price inaccessibility stems from malpractice suits. But that is a very small percentage, though we should seek to be biblically obedient in this area as well. Others will tell us that medical prices are high due to new expensive technologies. But the price of technologies in a free system will always plummet. Consider something like the computer industry. Imagine a medical profession that is as decentralized and service-oriented as the computer industries. Now that would be service! No, the reason for our skyrocketing health care prices stems primarily from thumbing our nose at biblical prohibitions against theft and legal privileges against the poor. On the one hand, we have radically limited the number of doctors and medical services by granting them self-serving, constraining monopolies. A restricted supply alone would raise prices. But in addition, we have at the same time increased th e demand for medical services by giving them away "free" through programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Imagine what would happen if we did this to any other service or product. Suppose we radically curtailed the milk supply and at the same time offered "free" milk insurance to millions of people. Milk prices would go through the roof. Medical prices have done the same. The solution, therefore, is fundamentally ethical.
A More Biblical Direction
Though we may not see biblical solutions in our lifetime, we ought to know where we are headed. The problems go beyond the meager discussion here, but we can make a start by prayerfully aiming to reverse the three items discussed above.
Instead of lusting after centralized systems, we should long for God and His righteousness. Through prayer for revival and maturity, spreading the gospel, and nurturing our children in the Scriptures, we could make, by God's grace, tremendous strides in undermining the idolatry expressed in any Babylonian health care plan. With the death of such idolatries, we should expect to see and work for a separation of health care and state .
Our families and churches should begin to stand on the front line in aiding the poor and diseased. Our diaconal programs should strive to return to being effective health and poverty relief services in the name of Christ. Families and churches should work to remove the responsible poor from soul-destroying government agencies. Individual doctors are obviously not sinning by working in the system, and they cannot solve a system-wide problem alone. All citizens should responsibly aim to end government thefts and dismantle impoverishing legal privileges.
In all, we should heed the divine instructions given through Jeremiah: "Flee from the midst of Babylon, And everyone save his life! Do not be cut off in her iniquity. . . . Perhaps she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up in the skies. The Lord has revealed our righteousness. Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God."
