The Minnesota House of Representatives is currently debating an override of Pawlenty’s veto of General Assistance Medical Care. GAMC is a state-funded health care program that serves people living in extreme poverty–approximately $7,000/year. Pawlenty cut funding for GAMC in an effort to close the budget gap. It’s one of the more dramatic debates I’ve seen on the House floor. The scripture quotations are flying fast and furious. Democrats are citing the Gospel of Matthew (“whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”). A Republican just responded by quoting Jesus (“the poor will always be with you”).
I’m not sure Democrats have the votes to override, but it’s clear they are pushing hard on the moderate suburban Republicans who probably have a significant number of constituents on GAMC. When this session began, everyone knew health care would dominate the discussion. That the Legislature is still debating health care in these final hours is probably fitting.
It’s strange to someone born and living in Europe that the Gospel is being “used” in politics. We are so used to a complete seperation between religion and church on the one hand and politics on the other.
This being said, I’m glad I finally have the exact words in English of this beautiful statement from the Gospel according to Matthew. I have tried to translate this sentence from Dutch on one occasion, but failed to do so as beautifully as it sounds here.
It’s a statement so fluent, so full of meaning and “social” truth, that it’s worth thinking of every single morning at the moment one gets up!
I must add something to my first comment Marc. It occurred to me, while I was thinking about your entry today, that in politics it might be very useful to give religion the place it has: seperate from all the other thinking, which is normally “free”today, free from dogma and restraint.
A rational argument that springs from a politician’s own mind is of course more vulnerable, less protected than a religious thought from the bible. Therefore I consider it more brave to defend your cause without referring to God.
We have to stop labelling and treating these two kinds of ideas differently. An idea from a philosopher or politician should have the same “juridical “right . An idea, because it is spoken by Jesus, should not be spiritually immune and shouldn’t be accepted without any chance to contradict.
But the biblical idea quoted in your blog about doing something for the weakest is so beautiful that I don’t want to contradict it in any way, it is like an “axioma.” Just as an axioma in arithmetic, it is something so clear that fortunately it needn’t be proved.
I hope people learn to overcome their own natural greed and find out there is really more happiness in giving and sharing.