wfn.org | UCC - Interfaith group urges action on health care reform

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Interfaith group urges action on health care reform

> Written by Jeff Woodard
> March 3, 2010

The United Church of Christ joined a myriad of faith community leaders
and organizations last week in urging the Obama administration and
Congress to "complete the task at hand on behalf of the millions who
are left out and left behind in our current health-care system."

Faithful Reform in Health Care, a coalition of denominational and
interfaith organizations including the UCC, has conducted follow-up
calls on next steps, said Barbara Baylor, minister for health care
justice in the UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries. "We are asking
our individual congregations and members to deliver the Hill letter to
their own congressional members in their own districts," said Baylor today.

The Feb. 24 letter ? which included the signature of the Rev. Geoffrey
Black, UCC general minister and president ? was signed by more than
4,000 people of faith under the umbrella groups Faithful Reform and
the Washington Interreligious Community.

Fifty-eight national religious organizations were represented, as were
more than 80 regional and state faith groups, and 26 national faith
leaders. Religious leaders also ran a full-page print ad in The Hill
and an online ad at The Hill's web site, showcasing the letter and its  signers.

The letter implores action to create a society in which "every person
is afforded health, wholeness and human dignity. Martin Luther King,
Jr., famously wrote in his 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' that 'justice
too long delayed is justice denied.' Less well known is his admonition
that 'of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the
most shocking and inhumane.' Let us not delay health-care justice any  longer."

"This is your moment for political courage, vision, leadership and
faith. We urge you to take heart and move meaningful health-care
reform forward," the letter insists.