OUTRAGEOUS! 2.18.09
by SteveI got a free copy of a magazine in the mail yesterday (worth exactly what it cost). The mag is “WORLD” and says in its mission statement, “To report, interpret, and illustrate the news in a timely, accurate, enjoyable, and arresting fashion from a perspective committed to the Bible as the inerrant Word of God.” The inside cover sported a full page ad from Samaritan Ministries, and the ad started like this:
Do you Support Abortion, Sexual Immorality, Drug and Alcohol Abuse with your health insurance? When you participate in a health insurance plan, the premiums for your policy are used by your insurance company to pay for anything covered in any of its policies….Come experience the blessings, and the savings, that result when members of the body of Jesus Christ help one another directly instead of joining in partnerships that support unbiblical living.
To say that I was outraged when I read this is an understatement. I said to my wife, “How can any follower of Jesus think this is something that would please him!” By all means, let’s not let any of our Christian money go to help AIDs victims, alcoholics, drug addicts, or those with STDs! After all, they made those lifestyle choices themselves and deserve whatever happens to them! Sheesh!
It seems to me that these folks who profess to believe the Bible as the “inerrant Word of God” missed a few key concepts. They seem to have missed the one about our sharing each other’s burdens. Then there’s that troublesome one about loving our enemies, and the one about showing special love and compassion to the outcasts and all those on the fringes of society. And how about the one that recognizes that we are ALL sinners, and therefore in the same boat? And to have the NERVE to call themselves “Samaritan Ministries!” They missed the point of Jesus’ parable altogether!
I started my day riled up about this. I’m confident it would rile Jesus. I hope it riles you, too.
RSS
I’m pretty sure it woudln’t rile up Jesus.
Ministry to sinners is to be done with our own dollars, face to face, and in Jesus’ Name. An insurance company doesn’t minister to people, it pays claims.
Christians ought and should consider where their dollars are going and how they spend them, and then to use their own dollars to do just those things you’re talking about: loving enemies, bearing burdens, showing compassion.
For my family the monthly share at Samaritan is $285, and I know exactly where it goes. For my family to purchase health insurance it would cost over $1000/month AND because I live in IL my insurance company would be forced to help pay for the so-called emergency contraceptive (abortion pill) and so I would be helping to fund that.
So instead I take my savings and invest in God’s kingdom by using those hundreds of dollars a month to do ministries of mercy face to face and in Jesus’ Name.
I’m guessing when your health insurance pays a claim they don’t pray for you or send you blessings in the name of Christ, do they?
We are all sinners saved by grace, and must reach out to the world around us, but by wasting dollars (some of which fund abortions) with health insurance providers we’ll never be able to do as much good as we might if we took a different tact.
I’m blessed to have been a member of this ministry for 13 years and to have been on staff here for the past 10.
James Lansberry
Vice President, Samaritan Ministries International
PS–I’d be happy to talk about your concerns here, you can find our toll free number at the website or email me.
James…I appreciate your thoughtful reply, but I would beg to differ on several points. Every United Methodist preacher I know is appalled at the cost of our health insurance, but I don’t know any who regret that their premiums are being used as you suggest, especially since the UM position on abortion is pro-choice, believing that sometimes there are tragic conflicts between life and life where painful decisions (choices) must be made by a woman in consultation with family, friends, medical, and spiritual advisors.
Further, I don’t believe that health care dollars are wasted anywhere they are being used for healing and wholeness, which, it seems to me, is the work of Jesus.
I don’t believe, either, that Jesus would ever make the distinctions between “us and them” that we are so prone to make. Your ad says that your company has “agreed not to share in medical needs for unbiblical practices.” I wonder if such practices include gluttony, laziness, and other ways so many people neglect their bodies?
I will continue to pay my premiums of over $9000 per year, secure in the knowledge that the money I don’t personally use will often be used for the benefit of the least, the last, and the lost, regardless of how they got that way.
I do appreciate that you use your savings to do face-to- face ministry, but I resist the idea of Christians doing business only with and for other Christians. Regards…Steve
James,
The text referenced says, in as many words, that everyone should ride past that drug addict in the street, and go around the uneducated pregnant teen in the ditch – their money should not be used to help them. Do you suggest people not pay their taxes, as it supports ‘unbiblical’ government? The ad copy implies you should. Your reply is even less Christian, as you effectively demand that those in need come to you, on your terms, for assistance. Christ taught to help the needy, and did not qualify that with requiring a background check. You can read this text – be thankful, there are those who can’t. Put yourself in their place before you call them ‘unbiblical’, and therefore unworthy of help.
We live in a capitalism, and I will always support your right to spend your dollars as you see fit. Perverting Christ’s teachings to convince others how they should spend money is contemptuous, and certainly not Christian. Those of us who are honestly attempting to be ‘like Christ’ – Christian – would appreciate it if you would stop maligning the designation to market your services.
Bj
What is ‘unbiblical’ about sexual immorality?
It abounds…