Holy Redeemer Lutheran Church
1948 The Alameda
San Jose, CA 95126
San Jose, CA 95126
I have a shelf above where my computer sits in the office, that contains the books that I hope to read this year. They are all divided by category – those for the book study with Vern Holmes, personal theology reading, politics, books that concern ministry at HRLC, education classes for the year, etc.
At the beginning of the year there was an entire shelf full. But, now I have read some. So, there is a shelf full and a half. It seems that the more I read the more I want to read. The more I discover the more I discover there is to discover. One author leads to 3 others that have something to say about what interests me.
I think that is the way of God. We find a little piece of ministry that interests us, and before we know it we have a movement on our hands. That’s nice. One can move from one area to another – always discovering something new and vibrant, but still be in an area of major interest.
The sad thing is when someone can’t even find an area of interest with which to begin. How about you? Have you picked an area of ministry to make your own. If not, it is not too late. Just reach out and touch one. It will touch you back … and then some.
[This year I am reading “The Violence of Love” as a meditation resource. These words of Archbishop Oscar Romero were compiled and translated by James R. Brockman, S.J.
Three short years transformed Archbishop Oscar Romero from a conservative defender of the status quo into one of the church’s most outspoken voices on behalf of the oppressed. Though silenced by an assassin’s bullet, his spirit – and the vital challenge of his life – lives on.
I offer his words to you for your meditation, as well.]
Faith is what a child has
when its father puts out his hands
and says, “Jump!”
and the child leaps into space
with the assurance that its father’s hands
won’t let it fall.
This is faith.
It’s what Christ says,
“Those who believe in me
will not be condemned.”
Those who surrender,
those who don’t distrust,
who even in the hardest times believe and hope,
will not be condemned.
But those who don’t believe,
those who won’t leap into Christ’s arms
because they are more anchored to their earthly things
those who don’t believe,
those who don’t trust in God,
those who don’t believe God goes with our history
and is going to save us
are already condemned.
There life is already a hell.
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Sicko is a documentary film by Michael Moore, scheduled for release on June 29, 2007. It investigates the American health care system with a focus on the behavior of large health insurance companies and contrasts the U.S. system with those of other countries with universal health care coverage.
On April 19, 2007, Moore announced on his website that Sicko had been selected for the 2007 Cannes Film Festival where it had its world premiere on May 19, 2007. Moore also announced a June 29, 2007 release date for the U.S. and Canada. Moore's film had an early premiere the week before in Washington D.C., however, this was canceled in fear that his film would be confiscated before the scheduled premiere date.
Sicko deals with the problems of the American for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Its main message is that government-run health care is a better model than the present US health-care system because the present system is designed to maximize profit by minimizing the care delivered to patients.
At one point in the film Moore says: "And the United States slipped to 37 in health care around the world, just slightly ahead of Slovenia."
The movie starts retelling the stories of people who were denied health care, either because they did not have health insurance or because the insurance companies found a way not to pay them. (On February 3, 2006, Moore requested, via his blog, that people send "Health Care Horror Stories" in an effort to share his view on the health care industry.)
One scene shows a clip of Congressional testimony given in 1996. Dr. Linda Peeno, a former medical reviewer for the health insurer Humana, said her job was to save money for the company. "I denied a man a necessary operation", she testified, referring to a decision she made in 1987. (Her testimony "has been widely recounted over the years," according to a news article in The New York Times. A spokesman for Humana said the case Peeno referred to had involved whether a man had coverage that would pay for a heart transplant, and Peeno correctly found the insurance didn't cover the procedure.)
The film also interviews Lee Einer, whose job at a major insurance carrier (not identified in the film) was to examine insurance applications retroactively. Einer was to peruse large claims in order to find evidence that the applicants had hidden previous conditions. Einer says it was irrelevant whether or not the applicant intended to mislead, the companies just wanted excuses to avoid paying the claims.
The movie also describes the connection between lobby groups such as PhRMA, the largest and most powerful lobbyist block in Washington D.C., and political groups. Moore says that Hillary Clinton, who once championed the Clinton health care plan, is the Senate's second-highest recipient of campaign donations from the health care industry. Moore said that Clinton friend Harvey Weinstein, whose company provided financing for the film, asked him to remove the scene but Moore refused. Moore said that he had donated to Clinton's first Senate campaign but has since become disillusioned with her.
The American system is then compared to those of Canada, the United Kingdom and France, which have universal health care for their citizens, including interviews with Tony Benn, members of the local middle class and Americans residing in those countries. Moore tries to locate a place where British have to pay something in a hospital (finding a counter labeled "Cashier", only to find that patients actually get money there to reimburse their trip to the hospital).
Moore also rides along in a 24-hour French house-call service in which a doctor with a company called "SOS Médecins" visits patients at their homes. The doctor rides around Paris at night, taking dispatch calls like a taxi driver.
Moore finds out that French government helpers literally "do the laundry" for new mothers to support them.
Some volunteers who lent their help during the World Trade Center attacks of 2001, and who subsequently developed a series of medical conditions (some physical and some psychological), are then interviewed. Since they are not firefighters, they are not government employees and the government will not pay for care for their ailments. Since the US government provides full medical coverage for the alleged enemy combatants detained at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, Moore takes three ships and sails from Miami for Cuba. The group arrives at the entrance channel to Gitmo, on a different boat (clearly waving the flag of Cuba), Moore asks for access with a megaphone, but no response is given and they finally give up when a siren is blown from the base.
The group then moves on to Havana, where they can receive free medical treatment they would otherwise not be able to afford. The volunteers are hospitalized there and receive treatment, having only to provide their names and birth date. Moore declares he asked the doctors to provide them only the same level of care they would give to Cuban citizens. He also interviews the daughter of Che Guevara, who has become a pediatrician (Ernesto Guevara was a physician himself).
Although trip participants signed confidentiality agreements prohibiting them from talking about the trip, some thought the trip a success, with The New York Post quoting John Feal, head of the Fealgood Foundation which raises money for 9/11 first responders, that “From what I hear through the grapevine those people who went [to Cuba with Moore] are utterly happy." The film's finale is what Moore provides as an example of "taking care of each other, no matter the differences".
A fascinating book. Get a copy. Sit down for a long evening with a glass of your favorite beverage – or water – and drink it in. Thanks for Kymberly for the Christmas present!
One suspects … that it would be better if, instead of following the familiar description of this people as “witnesses to the light,” we said that an indigenous theology of the cross would call forth a people who could bear witness to the darkness.