Health reform is an act of mercy, not evil

As the health-reform merry-go-round wound down last week, I was struck by an Associated Press photo of a reform protester at an Iowa City rally last Wednesday.

He was a middle-aged man wearing a bright-red winter coat and brandishing a handmade, neon-orange sign with the words “God Forgive Obama. God Bless America.”

I thought, Forgive Obama for what?

Not abortion. As part of the health-reform deal that was finalized on Friday, the president had signed an executive order on Tuesday forbidding federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the mother is in danger, as the religious right had insisted.

So why, I wondered, did this man feel that God needed to forgive Obama? Because the reform legislation will eventually insure 30 million Americans who are not now covered? Because people long denied what should be a basic human right will be afforded the chance at a little better life?

I don’t presume to know the mind of God, but my sense is that God would look upon health reform as an act of human kindness. Most Americans currently without insurance are young, poor and members of minorities. God, I’m guessing, would look favorably on the notion that we, as a nation, would forgo our basest economic concerns and look past our fears of creeping socialism to extend a helping hand to those most in need.

Christians consider Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount among his most sacred teachings. Christ said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Extending health care to 30 million Americans is, to me, a remarkable act of mercy.

It was not surprising to see a protester asking that God forgive Obama when, in the final days of the health care debate, the national Republican leadership couched its language in religious terms, saying passage of reform legislation would mean “Armageddon” for America, a biblical reference to the end times foreseen in the Christian faith, when the world as we know it is obliterated.