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Release: Connolly Talks Health Care Reform with Baptists

Congressman Connolly spoke on health care reform to more than 200 Baptist ministers and representatives of Baptist congregations in Northern Virginia at the NoVA Baptist Association's 132 annual meeting. Read the speech.

Congressman Gerry Connolly addressed the 132nd annual meeting of the Northern Virginia Baptist Association on August 19 in Gainesville, VA.  He talked about faith and health care reform.

Speech by Congressman Gerry Connolly
Northern Virginia Baptist Association Meeting
August 19, 2009

Reverend Johnson, thank you for that kind introduction, and thank you for the wonderful works you and your congregation at Mt. Olive do for our community.  I know that you’re working on a new building and, God willing, I hope you’ll invite me to worship there with you when it’s finished.

I’m always surprised when people let me get up here behind the pulpit.  You see, I’m kind of a frustrated preacher myself…

Reverend Johnson and all of you had a calling to the work of God.  So did I.  I left home at 15 to join the seminary because I heard a biblical call to social justice.  I wanted to turn my faith in God into action.  I wanted to “Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:9)  Even in my youth, I felt a passion for that mission.

As a seminarian, I spoke out against the Vietnam War.  The War, hunger, poverty, and civil rights were, to me, moral issues that men and women of God had a responsibility to address.  To remain silent was to abandon our calling. 

After some time, and much prayer, I came to the conclusion that my calling would be fulfilled outside the Church.  I left the seminary, but I didn’t leave its values and spirit behind as I started a career in the non-profit world, working on anti-hunger and poverty initiatives. 

Eventually, that calling led me to serve my community as an elected official.  In my secular position, I carry with me the same spiritual and scriptural values that initially led me to a life of faith.
 
I believe in the separation of church and state.  But I don’t believe in the separation of public life from our values, especially our religious values….

There is a pastoral aspect to my current job, and my position in Congress has led me to be a participant in a great national debate -- a debate in which we all, as men and women of faith, have a stake.  That debate is over the future of our health care system and how we as a nation care for our entire flock.

Many of you are engaged in ministries that care for the sick and help alleviate the pains of poverty.  But skyrocketing health care costs now threaten access to care for Americans from all walks of life.  Premium costs have doubled over the last nine years and we spend 18% of GDP on health care.  If we do nothing, premiums will continue to rise and by 2040 we will be spending a staggering 34% of GDP. 

Furthermore, as we all know, there are 47 million Americans with no health insurance, living one accident or illness away from disaster… 

Here in our community – in Northern Virginia – 1,430 families were forced to declare bankruptcy last year because of health care-related costs; 1,430 families whose lives were turned upside down…

3,800 of our senior citizens, most living on fixed incomes, are hitting the Medicare Prescription Drug donut hole, forced to pay exorbitant drug costs just to get the medicine they need to survive.  3,800 seniors making a choice each month between buying groceries and buying medication…

46,000 men, women, and children in my district – the 11th district – have no health insurance.  No health insurance means no preventive care, no early detection of heart problems, high cholesterol, or cancer…

So, I ask each of you today, as Christians, how we can stand idly by and do nothing in the face of this crisis.  Jesus tells us nations will be judged by how they treat “the least of these.” (Matthew 25:31-45).  How will our nation be judged if we do nothing?  How will we be judged?

All of you here today are instruments of God in your own way.  Now each of us must become an instrument of healing by affirming the dignity of every man, woman, and child, by assuring that everyone have access to health care, and by enabling each person to regain health and enjoy the dignity that comes from productive work.

Along with President Obama, and many of my colleagues in Congress, I have expressed my support for some major principles of health care reform legislation:

1.  Choice.  You must have the freedom to choose your own doctor and insurance plan.  If you like the plan you have, you must be allowed to keep it.  If you would like a new plan, you should have that option as well.

2. Affordability.  Health care coverage must be made more affordable for everyone – families, businesses and the government.  Reform must not increase the deficit and can’t place an undue burden on families and small businesses already struggling under the weight of health care costs.

3. Access.  Every American should have access to quality care.  47 million Americans, including millions of children, have no health insurance.  That’s wrong.

4. Protecting the Poor.  We must strengthen Medicaid and improve preventive benefits to keep children and lower-income families healthy.

The legislative process is ongoing and important details remain to be worked out, including whether the reform package includes a public health insurance option to compete with private insurers.  I support the public option and believe it will be included in the House version of the bill. 

But this battle, this moral imperative that we provide for the “least of these,” will not be won or lost on the basis of legislative minutiae.  It will be won or lost on the basis of one fundamental question:  Are we a community that values the life and health of each and every person – black, white, or otherwise, poor, wealthy, or middle class?

Make no mistake.  This battle won’t be easy. 

But I know some of you here have been through some tough battles in your own lives…

I know this community has been through some tough battles together…

Harry Truman’s hopes of expanding health care to all Americans after World War II were extinguished when powerful interests aligned against him.

In 1965, in the face of fierce opposition from defenders of the status quo, Lyndon Johnson signed into law legislation creating Medicare and Medicaid, breaking the link between aging and poverty and providing care for indigent families, but not providing universal access.

And, most recently, in 1994, President Clinton’s attempt at health care reform failed because the forces of the status quo were more organized, and more energized, than the forces of change.   

The chosen weapon of those standing in the way of reform then and now – and it’s a powerful weapon – is fear.   You’ve heard the lies…

Obama’s going to “socialize” the health care system and ration care…

Obama’s going to take away the private insurance I have now…

Obama wants to euthanize seniors…

Obama’s going to cut Medicare to pay for reform…

All lies.  Lies designed to spread fear and prevent change. 

But I don’t have to tell you what the Bible tells us about fear.  “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). 

If those of you here today will, once again, make it your mission to fight lies with truth and fear with hope.  If you will, once again, become a voice for the vulnerable, making sure that the “least of these” are not left behind.  If you will summon your spirit of power, of love… 

If we educate and if we organize; if we meet and if we march.  If we stand with each other, anchored by our shared values, then together we can become powerful instruments of healing.  Together, we can turn our faith into action and pass meaningful health care reform.

God bless you all.

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