BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:Blog PRODID:-//Sitemason, Inc//Sitemason Calendar//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:http://www.sitemason.com/element/7q5oci3/id/62036 SUMMARY:Spirituality and Healthcare DESCRIPTION:When Nancy E. Petty stood up to preach at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church Aug. 23\, where she stood on the need to be involved in health care reform was not in doubt.\n“As our country debates health care reform people of faith cannot afford to stand safely on the shore on this issue while others brave the raging waters. On the issue of health care and the well being of all God'\;s people\, our faith calls us to act\,” she began a sermon titled “Jesus\, Einstein and Health Care Reform.”http\://www.pullen.org/page/august-23-2009--jesus-einstein-and-health-care-reform\n“On the issue of health care\, Jesus was clear. Of the some 35 miracles ascribed to him\, more than half are healing miracles\,” she reminded the Raleigh\, N.C. congregation she co-pastors with Jack McKinney.\nWhile questions still remain about what a reform would look like\, there is core need to “look at what we believe about how we will treat one another and live in relationship with one another\,” she said.\nJesus’ healing ministry demonstrates his understanding of the very real connection between the physical and spiritual aspects for humans\, she said.\n“The more than 46 million Americans who do not have access to affordable and quality health care know this truth all too well\,” she said.\nThe topic of health care reminds Nancy of a time when she didn’t know where to turn for the medical needs of the Russian daughter she and her partner were adopting.\n“Vickie and I were told from the outset that Nora had a heart defect and would need medical attention once we got her home. … Upon arriving in Russia\, the first thing I was told was that Nora was sick and needed immediate medical attention. …When we finally saw a doctor\, not for care but to complete adoption forms\, I was told that her enlarged liver needed immediate attention." In all of this\, no one offered any medical care to Nora.\n“I felt helpless and scared. How would I—how could I—get her the care they said she needed? At night I would stay awake just to make sure she was breathing. … No prayer\, no words of Scripture could have comforted me in those moments. No\, in those moments I didn'\;t need words of faith\, I needed a doctor. … All I could think about was getting her home—here\, to the United States—where I knew that I had access to quality health care."\n“What I didn'\;t realize at that time was that I had neighbors right here in Raleigh who sat in their homes facing the same dilemma with their children that I faced with my child in Russia. In this country\, where I did have access to quality health care for my child\, my neighbors just one street over\, didn'\;t. No one—young or old—should have to face that dilemma.”\nThe biblical call to “love your neighbor as yourself” should form the basis for any decisions made about how to solve the problem\, Nancy said\, adding a quote from Albert Einstein\: “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”\nAddressing the problem of a broken health system will  “require a new way of thinking that believes that the three percent of the population is just as important as the 97 percent of the population\; that in giving we receive\; that in losing our life we find life\; that in everything we should do to others as we would have them do to us\; and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves\,” she said.\n
"Time and again\, men and women of faith have shown what is possible when we are guided by our hope and not our fear\," she said\, quoting President Obama from a conference call to confront\, and offer an alternative\, to fear-based responses to health care reform. The call was sponsored by faith-based organizations including Sojourners.\nPaula Dempsey represented the Alliance in the call. URL;VALUE=URI: CLASS:PUBLIC SEQUENCE:4 DTSTAMP:20100820T204941 CREATED;TZID=US-Central:20090908T155614 LAST-MODIFIED;TZID=US-Central:20091013T103218 DTSTART;TZID=US-Central:20090907T164400 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR