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| Current Issues |
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Immigration Reform
| The Interfaith Platform on Immigration Reform was drafted in 2002 by the members of the Washington-based Interfaith Immigration Coalition. It was updated in 2008. National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA is one of the signatories to the Platform along with hundreds of other national and local faith-based and secular organizations as well as prominent leaders in the faith community. Among other goals, it calls for humane and effective immigration reform. Use this document in your congregation and community as a resource for discussion and action on these concerns. |
Health Care Reform
| UPDATE (7/23/2008): A statement titled, "American Baptists For Health Care Reform," was presented to and affirmed by the ABCUSA General Board in late June of this year. It urges action by organizations, churches and individuals noting that the current major commitment to health care reform expressed by both major political parities "...presents American Baptists an unprecedented—and probably one-time—opportunity to work effectively for the enactment of a public policy consistent with our longstanding biblical, theological, and ministerial mission and principles." Read the complete statement.
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"Health care is an issue that touches every family. Its importance to American Baptists is evidenced by the fact that our General Board has repeatedly spoken to the issue through such formal policy statements and resolutions as the American Baptist Policy Statement on Health Care, the American Baptist Policy Statement on Health, Healing and Wholeness, the American Baptist Resolution on Health Care for All, and the American Baptist Resolution on Mental Illness. Although the health care issue is dynamic—constantly changing and requiring redefinition—at heart it remains the same: how might we bring healing and wholeness to everyone? And while most agree that everyone should have needed health care, we cannot reach consensus on how to make that happen. When asked to choose the single best option for guaranteeing health insurance for more Americans, no more than 24 percent favored a particular approach. Assuming this lack of consensus is reflected in the church, how might we respond in the face of potential conflict and division?
"Perhaps we would do well to recall, with Paul Ramsey, that the church "should seek to clarify and keep wide open the legitimate options for choice, and thus nurture the moral and political ethos of the nation." The role of nurturing moral and political life requires resisting two common temptations: quickly narrowing choices for how to proceed, and believing that once we have spoken to an issue we have accomplished change. While there is broad agreement that all should have access to needed services, there is little consensus as to how to make that a reality. Our role, then, is not so much in directing the conversation as in encouraging the conversation to continue so that a way forward might be discerned."
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The 2005 issue of The Christian Citizen is still a valuable resource in the current debate over health care reform. |
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With that we introduced the 2005 issue of The Christian Citizen on the "Church and the Challenge of Health Care," a resource that is still relevant to the current political debate over how to reform health care in this country. This issue of The Christian Citizen presented broad principles and goals for seeking health care reform, such as transcending political and ideological differences to focus, not on particular models, but on the objective of access to health care services. It also pointed the way toward a variety of specific actions, such as observing a health care sabbath, that allow for the diversity of opinion and conviction within the church, while honoring the church's peculiar orientation toward and crucial role in public life.
The "Church and the Challenge of Health Care" is again available as a downloadable resource. Articles include "A Primer—Key Facts About Americans without Health Insurance" and "Health Care for All: What Does Faith Require of Us." Also included are a children's sermon and a litany based on Psalm 30.
In addition to this issue of The Christian Citizen, American Baptists may be interested in reviewing General Board policy statements and resolutions that speak to the issues of health care access and health care reform. See especially:
For those who want to become further engaged in the health care debate, a variety of study and advocacy resources and opportunities are available through Faithful Reform in Health Care, the PICO Network, and the Children's Defense Fund
Faithful Reform in Health Care has developed a variety of resources and opportunities for advocacy including a guide for health care advocates and "Vision and Voice," an adult education series to engage people of faith in dialogue about health care reform.
PICO is inviting clergy to sign a letter to congressional leaders on health care reform and is making available resources for congregations to host a health care Sabbath.
The Children's Defense Fund is supporting the All Health Children Act to provide every child comprehensive health and mental health coverage. |
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