Why is it that a President can invoke God in sending troops to war, Supreme Court judges can speak of Bacts of GodB in making life-critical decisions, but it is taboo for a Surgeon General to invoke God in the health care process?

-- Tom Munnecke (Munnecket@saic.com), November 02, 2000

Answers

Because we have a strong Christian background that is confused about God. The God of our Constitution is the one that leads troops into battle for His "Right" cause. The God of our Bill of Rights is the one that stands behind both church(es) and state, but the one that we do not acknowledge because the Age of Reason couldn't prove its existence. Today's medicine is a science; it is a product of the Age of Reason, the supreme religion of atheism. Medicine is the youngest science, so speaking about God, the Father; Goddess the Mother; or Godhead, the Source, is not acceptable. However, scientific reductionism makes it possible for the practitioners of technologic medicine to treat disease as if it were something outside of us. That only works for cholera, not for AIDS or cancer. This has nothing to do with "health" or "care." These have to do with wholeness, holiness, and compassion...they reverse reduction by evoking integration. The transformation of what we euphemistically call "healthcare" into "Health Care" comes about when we place all of our therapies within the spiritual context of caring for the health of those whom we serve. I would offer that the same transformation is possible in every one of our institutions, both large and small.

-- Ken Hamilton (kenhhope@hopehealing.org), November 26, 2000.