OK, enough already.  Please stop using the teachings of Jesus Christ to justify government-run health care.

No matter in what language it is written, you cannot find a verse in which Jesus proposes that it is the government’s responsibility to care for the sick.

It may be comforting to believe that we can shirk our mission as Christians, a mission that he gave to all of us, by passing it to our government. However, this would mean that the end of the Good Samaritan parable would end with the Samaritan taking the man to the nearest social services office. 

He would have said, when your government feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, gives water to the thirsty, cares for the sick, etc. your government will have done it unto me. All of those commands were given to his followers, to us.

If the government wants to help us, that is fine, but the job is first given to his disciples. If we were accomplishing our mission, a discussion of government health care would be irrelevant. The fact that we are having this discussion is an admission that we have all failed him.

Lois Rae Merskin, Lincoln