Ben Nelson, Senator from Nebraska, nominally a Democrat is pro-life and Methodist. I am visiting my 91 year old aunt in Nebraska and have been bombarded by TV ads from both pro-Ben and anti-Ben groups. Every ad urges us to call Senator Nelson and... which must be working because all his voicemail boxes are full.
I started to google Ben Nelson to get a handle on why he thought he was a Democrat and why he was so against health care reform. I fully expected to find that he was a Catholic. I was surprized to discover that Ben Nelson is a Methodist. I spent my first 20 odd years as a Methodist. (I am now at 62, to borrow a phrase from Karin Armstrong, "a free lance monotheist")
The Methodist church, in the person of the Rev. Cynthia Abrams, issued an email to Nebraska Methodists that clarifies the Methodist Church's position on both abortion and health care reform. Keep reading...
The entire email can be found at http://chuckcurrie.blogs.com/...
"United Methodists To Ben Nelson: Act More Like Jesus
The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society is asking UMC Nebraskans to reach out to their fellow United Methodist Ben Nelson, the U.S. Senator holding up health care reform. Here's what the church agency has to say:"...
"It is important that Sen. Nelson set aside his personal agenda and think about the common good. According to a recent report, if this bill fails to pass, nearly 40,000 Nebraskans will join the ranks of those without health-care coverage. Please call the senator’s office today and urge him to support health-care reform that will address such abuses: Use this toll-free number, 1-888-797-8717, and ask for Sen. Ben Nelson's office.
"
I’m proud to be a clergy member of a denomination that declares "health care is a basic human right" and a "responsibility of government to provide its citizens. (United Methodist Social Principle ¶162V).Frankly, I believe Jesus set the bar high in reaching out to the disenfranchised among us. I disagree that some ought to be able to have better health care than others — and so does The United Methodist Church"
Above are the Methodist Church's words, and this is my take since I've used up my three paragraphs. I was really proud to have been raised Methodist when reading this. I found myself reexamining some of my assumptions about religion and health care reform and abortion. My original search was to try and discover why Sen. Nelson was pro-life and why he was so against reform. What I found was a mainline Protestant denomination that was actively involved in promoting health care reform.
I still have no clue why Ben Nelson thinks he is a Democrat other than he probably couldn't have won a Republican promary when running for Governor in 1990. I wish someone would go out and interview all the blue dogs and ask them, "Why are you a Democrat?"