As President Obama prepares to deliver his first State of the Union address and the future of health care reform hangs in the balance, nationally prominent religious leaders, including eight members of the White House Council for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, are encouraging him to exercise the full influence of his office to urge Congress to pass comprehensive health reform legislation.
Despite the last week’s political twists and turns on Capitol Hill, the reality for families suffering needlessly due to lack of access to affordable health care has not changed — and the faith community’s commitment to making quality health care affordable for all remains steadfast.
Well, looks like some of “the usual suspects” to me, representing the political left. Among the signatories were prominent evangelical leaders Tony Campolo, Ron Sider, and Jim Wallis. Plus “Emerging Church” leader Brian McLaren. Not to mention the DC lobbyists for the ELCA and the UMC, etc.
Mercifully, I didn’t see any names of Episcopal leaders listed.
The “Faith in Public Life” group naturally represents only one side of the picture. Personally, I’d much prefer a far more conservative lobbying group, e.g., like the great new ad producer, CatholicVate.com.
More to the point, contrast the much longer list of signatories to the Manhattan Declaration, which has collected hundreds of thousands of signatures in just a few weeks.
David Handy+