Christian Witnessing

I'm a Christian but not a church goer. I don't attend church primarily because of my health problems that make it difficult to sit for long periods. But.. that doesn't mean I am a heathen, atheist, agnostic, Muslim, Jew, Rosicrucian or any other religious or non-religious permutation. Unless, of course, you count being a Democrat and a liberal as religious affiliations.

That being said, I recently had a rather creepy encounter of the Christian persuasion. I've had problems swallowing recently and my primary care doctor sent me to a heart specialist “just in case”. I went through several tests (they actually found a heart although my kids claimed I didn't have one). Then the cardiologist wanted to continue searching by putting me in the hospital and doing an angioplasty. Since I never thought my problem was heart related I declined. On the day of my follow up with my primary care doctor, one of her children was sick so they scheduled me with the PA (physicians assistant). I explained to the PA that I didn't want an angioplasty and, having gone through that with my husband, I'd rather have any heart problem take it's course. The PA said “Oh, you want to go be with Lord Jesus” as if I was already dying and just waiting for the final blow. The appointment went downhill from there. I have no objections to being identified as a Christian but this is a Senior Clinic supposedly treating anyone who comes through the door and at that level I feel like her remark was inappropriate. I also have to object to her assumption that I am actively anticipating my own death.

Lately I've noticed a lot of “Christians” flaunting their religious status. I strongly suspect that ministers are urging their flocks to “witness” by praying in public, wishing everyone a “blessed day” and speaking of being a “Christian” at every opportunity. If I, as a Christian, find it a big turnoff, imagine how the other religious affiliations feel.

For a while, I lived in a Senior Living Apartment and they fed us lunch every day. A number of the ladies would come into the dining room, sit down at a table where some of us were already eating and insist on holding hands and praying over the food. It was extremely awkward and annoying.

Matthew 6:5-7 says
"When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the             synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.

And, by the way folks, we are the Gentiles that Matthew is referring to. This also applies to ostentatious prayer in any public place. I find it difficult to continue eating when the guy at the next table is praying over his food. I have no objection to a quick, quiet prayer but if you're so worried about your food that you have to pray until mine gets cold, find another place to eat.

How, then, are we as Christians supposed to be witnesses? The Bible has something to say about that too.   

James 2:18 says

“But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds”. Show me your faith without deeds, and   I will show you my faith by my deeds”. 

Sounds right to me. The PA recognized me as a Christian although she really had no way of knowing and I'm certainly not ashamed of that. I recognize a Christian or a good person of any other faith (or lack thereof) by their smile, their consideration, their daily routine that is helpful and caring, their modest demeanor, their acknowledgment that even if our beliefs are different neither is necessarily wrong and most of all their upbeat attitude. And I've met a lot of so-called “Christians” who fail miserably to meet any of those qualities.

One last thought – if your Christian “posturing” turns me off as a Christian, imagine how it feels to the non-Christians among us. I can’t imagine anything that would be a less effective witness.

Penny The Pest

This blog is about my personal beliefs and the reasons for them. I have no wish to offend anyone so if you find that you are offended just quit reading. I will be posting a few essays that I have written in response to current issues and will add to it on a erratic basis - when I feel up to it.

The Affordable Care Act:

First confession: I voted for Barak Obama. I’m not too happy with a lot of things he is doing or not doing but I did vote for him twice. I don’t like the NSA scandal, I don’t like the IRS scandal, I don’t like that he hasn’t closed Guantanamo as he promised, I don’t like that the “too big to fail banks” haven’t been prosecuted. But…I do like the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare) and this is why.

Second confession: I read a lot and am inclined to believe what I read over what I hear or what is said  in the dining room. If something is said that interests or disgusts me, I come back to my computer and read up on it. So, occasionally something gets into print that is not absolutely gospel. Then I’ll try to follow the bouncing ball until it lights somewhere.

True story: In about 1999, I had an appointment for a CT Scan at HEB Hospital for 1:00PM. I arrived on time and was told they had a patient in the CT room and had to get her out before they could do my scan. Over the course of three hours I learned that the lady was dying, had no insurance, and HEB certainly didn’t want her to die there. Hospital personnel were calling every hospital they could think of that would take her as a transfer. If she died at HEB, then all expenses would be charged to HEB and would most certainly not be reimbursed. If she died at another hospital then that hospital had to cover the expenses. For some reason, John Peter Smith Hospital kept refusing to take her, even though JPS was the indigent hospital for Tarrant County. I think they were finally able to foist her off to JPS and I finally got in to have my CT Scan. If HEB hadn’t been able to offload her, then HEB would have transferred the expense to their other patients by raising rates. This was before the law was passed that if a patient arrived at an emergency room without the ability to pay they had to be treated anyway.

The moral of this story is…somebody is going to have to pay. We pay through our taxes and insurance premiums, so they go up. It doesn’t matter whether a person is treated at HEB or JPS or the minor emergency clinic down the road. Somebody is going to have to pay and ultimately we are that somebody. This is the concept behind the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. By requiring everyone to have some kind of insurance, the burden is spread more evenly and we all will benefit.

Social Security and Medicare:

History: Social Security was signed into law in 1935, during the worst recorded depression the world has seen to date. In 1939 it was expanded to cover dependents & survivors and in 1950 it was expanded to cover jobs outside commerce and industry. In 1956 Disability Insurance was created and early retirement was allowed for women at age 62. Men were added to the 62 retirement age in 1961.

In 1977 Social Security was thought to be actuarially sound, meaning that it wasn’t going to go bankrupt and was again declared to be actuarially sound in 1983. In 1996 the Social Security Trustees’ Report stated that the system would  start to run deficits in 2012 and be exhausted in 2029.  See http://www.socialsecurityreform.org/history.

My husband Ken worked for Social Security from 1962 until about 1990. He believed that if congress and the President hadn’t “raided” the trust fund to pay for Viet Nam and other wars that it would have been secure forever. What did happen is that the Advisory Panel decided to invest some or all of the trust fund in the private sector. So a lot of the flap about Social Security going bankrupt can be blamed on Wall Street (i.e. the private sector).

History: Medicare was created in 1965 to provide health insurance for people age 65 and older. Before Medicare only half of older adults had health insurance with coverage unavailable or unaffordable to the other half because older adults had half as much income as younger people and paid nearly three times as much for health insurance. Obviously health care and Medicare have changed over the years as the population has aged and the science of medicine has improved and gotten more expensive. Medicare premiums have also increased to $96.40/month for Part B and between $254.00 and $461.00 per person per month for Part A. Prescription Drug Insurance was split off in 2006 into Part D which is a separate insurance program that is set up by individual private insurance companies. Part D costs, as well as what is covered can vary considerably. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States)  Disclaimer – this link is 35 pages long. I may have missed something.

History: Medicaid was set up in 1965 to cover those too poor or too young or the elderly that couldn’t even afford Medicare. It is jointly run by the state and federal government. Each state negotiates what they will and won’t cover. Yes, there are mandatory benefits and some states can even cover optional benefits. Obamacare is supposed to replace Medicaid.

Affordable Care Act: There is so much noise going around about this that it is almost impossible to find the truth.  Check out the links below for some of the advantages. Disclaimer – this is the White House web site so they may be a little biased.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform

http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform/healthcare-overview#consumer-rights

http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform/myths-and-facts

What’s going to happen in 2016? Your guess is as good as mine. One place I read said that Medicare payments to doctors would actually increase in 2016 but I haven’t been able to verify it. I spent over a month trying to get official information about the doctor percentage. Finally I called Medicare and was told that they didn’t have any information on what the percentage is going to do which leads me to believe that the powers that be are still dithering about it.  Most doctors and Fox news seem to think that the Doctor percentage will go down which is why Doctors are trying to get rid of their Medicare patients. The percentage was supposed to go down in 2013 and it didn’t happen.

Medicare and the Affordable Care Act are both trying to reduce the cost of medications. If you’ve gotten a prescription lately, you may have noticed that even generic drugs are costing more than they used to. That applies whether you have standard insurance, Medicare or just suck it up and pay full price. One good thing is that the Medicare Donut Hole is going away. That means that I will continue to have my prescriptions covered at the same rate all year, instead of paying full price for part of the year.

For more on the Affordable Care Act, see the following links.

http://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/8061-021.pdf

http://kff.org/health-costs/perspective/pulling-it-together-19-7/