George Barna: Christians need to think like Jesus on health care

George Barna, founder of the Christian-based research firm Barna Group, published an editorial Monday arguing that Christians need to more strongly consider Jesus’ view of illness when thinking about the health care debate. Barna categorizes the mainstream American view toward health care as the same as poverty — keeping it at arm’s length and letting the government take care of it as long it won’t cause too much inconvenience or expense. He contrasts this view with how Jesus is portrayed as a healer in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke, Barna argues, Jesus is shown to have cured maladies mainstream society of the day considered repulsive, to have had compassion for all afflictions (Luke 7:13) and gave healing as a mission to apostles and disciples alike. (Luke 9:1, Luke 10:1, Luke 10:9, Luke 10:17) To read the full editorial, see http://www.barna.org/component/wordpress/archives/70