THOUGHTFULLY DRIVING THE PORCELAIN BUS

A Column by John S Schroeder

May 11, 2002

This week I was introduced to something that made me a little bit leery. It's called "Medi-Share" -- a Christian health care ministry. Here's the deal. A bunch of Christians with "verifiable testimonies" join together in this organization to share medical costs. From an economic standpoint it is a great deal. Because it is not "insurance" they are allowed to choose who they accept, and because in general Christians make better lifestyle choices than the general population, they are able to provide much more "coverage" for much less money. I checked it out, and for about the same premiums I am paying now for a $5000 annual deductible, I could get $200 annual deductible coverage with a bunch of other benefits as well.

So why did this thing, to borrow a charismatic phrase," put a check in my spirit?" Actually, that's putting it kindly, it sort of repulsed me. I can think of several reasons.

The first reason is that it strikes me as somehow wrong to profit financially from my faith. I know Pat Robertson would disagree with me, but I don’t care what he thinks. There is nothing wrong with being a rich Christian, but there is something horrifying about getting wealth because you are a Christian. The opportunity for misplaced motivation and idolatry is just too great. This is a trend I am noticing in all of Christianity. One of the things that greatly bothers me about the contemporary worship movement is that the praise songs are all carefully copyrighted and if you choose to use them in your services, you are supposed to pay royalties -- every time you sing them. Ever wonder why they have never been gathered into a book like hymns -- here's your hint. Truly makes you wonder about all that discussion about projecting the words up front so people's eyes are on God instead down in a book, doesn’t it? Sure does set off my BS meter.

Secondly, after money, the biggest false god in our culture today is health. People chase long life and total health care with a fervor that one can only wish was used for the pursuit of faith. Remember the last column where I mentioned about "not going there?" Well, we "go there" a lot when it comes to medical science. Somehow, the perspective is just all wrong. Death is the result of sin, and therefore something to be abhorred -- but because of the salvation available in Christ it is not something to be feared. Yet our culture seems to run from it in fear, when we should stand up to it as the enemy. A Christian health care ministry strikes me as too much of the former and not enough of the later.

Thirdly, to saw on a note that I have hit a lot in this space, the last thing I think a Christian needs is to be further programitized. When you check out this thing, it might as well be an insurance policy -- it has all the forms and bureaucracy. It is downright dehumanizing. Again and again, I just know that Jesus came to affirm my individuality and humanity. Yet, in Christian circles today we so often treat people like cattle to be herded through the chute and into the next pen. If that is what I want, I will just go somewhere on an airline thank you very much.

Finally, they make a big deal about prayer partners in this thing. When you join the program you are assigned someone that you are to contact and for whom you are to pray consistently. This smacks to me so much of asking God for a bicycle when you are a kid that I can hardly stand it. God is not the cosmic Santa. We do not sit on His knee, tell him what we want and wait for it under the tree. Prayer is the most important thing in a Christian's life, and therefore to be encouraged. But we need to encourage people to communicate genuinely and openly with the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, not present a wish list to a health vending machine.

I am truly scared about Christianity today. We are very broken somehow. Our organizations and institutions have somehow lost sight of the Lord and seem to exist for their own edification. We should be bound together by our focus on something much bigger than ourselves; instead, things like this bind us to save a buck. Medi-Share makes us look at each other and ourselves when we should be looking at God and His glory.

When I was a kid it seemed like things like this just happened. If your family experienced financial strain because of medical bills or any other reason, people in the church community just helped. Meals showed up at the house -- which saved you a few bucks. When you took the lawn mower in to be repaired to that guy you knew at church, he just looked at you and said, "It's on the house." It wasn't long before the little things like that added up and there was enough money there to meet the need. It didn’t require an organization, it didn’t require accounting; it just required people caring about people.

People tell me the world has gotten so complex, that the church has to do all this organizational stuff to compensate. I will agree the world has gotten complex. But I really think the root source of that complexity is that people simply are not as reliable as they used to be, so we have to institutionalize things that we used to be able to simply rely upon people to accomplish. It seems to me; therefore, that for the church to institutionalize in response to the circumstances is to reinforce that lack of reliability. Is that something we really want to be about?

The church is the only thing in human creation that can change people. That is what it was designed to do. Shall it abandon that effort for the sake of it's own survival? I, for one, say nay. If the church is supposed to be changing people and failing in that effort then it needs to figure out how to get back to succeeding at it, or it needs to fade from view. There is no point in having such an institution for it's on sake.

God has this all figured out somehow. He has a purpose and a plan. He knows what He is doing. I sure do wish he would let me in on it.