Religious Liberals Take Lead In Massachusetts Health Debate

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Religious Liberals Take Lead In Massachusetts Health Debate

By JENNIFER SIEGEL July 21, 2006

As Democrats debate the proper role of faith in public life, liberal

religious activists and organizations in Massachusetts are mobilizing

to ensure that a new state health plan is offered to residents at a

low cost.

From Seventh-day Adventists praying in a former Jewish synagogue in

Roxbury to members of Boston's gleaming Temple Israel, the members of

the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization — a decade-old 65-member

coalition of faith groups, unions and social service agencies that

includes seven synagogues and the Jewish Community Relations Council

of Greater Boston — are holding dozens of " affordability workshops "

in an effort to persuade the state to hold down the costs of the new

insurance policies.

The effort, the coalition's latest step in a multiyear health care

campaign, comes as Massachusetts grapples with the implementation of

its historic health care reform law, passed in April, which requires

nearly all state residents to have health insurance by July 2007. The

new plan — a mix of subsidies and new requirements for both

individual and corporate contributions to health care — has been

hailed as an out-of-the-box win, both for the state's Democratic

legislature and

for Republican Governor and possible 2008 presidential contender Mitt

Romney. For activists, the push for the new law and the debate over

its implementation have provided a chance to prove that religious

groups can be marshalled behind liberal issues at a time when faith

is more commonly associated with conservative social causes, such as

the campaign against same-sex marriage.

" It's a tremendous story about the power of the pews to organize for

justice — and particularly, the Jewish pews, " said Rabbi Jonah

Pesner, who helped head the interfaith coalition from his post as a

religious leader of Temple Israel, a Reform synagogue in Boston.

Pesner recently assumed leadership of the Union for Reform Judaism's

new Just Congregations initiative, which aims to replicate the

successes achieved in Boston.

Within Massachusetts's wider health care coalition, the religious

activists are known for contributing both manpower and moral power.

Religious volunteers gathered more than 40,000 of the 110,000

petition signatures that were collected to force a universal health

care state ballot initiative in the event that the legislature failed

to pass acceptable reform. Religious leaders also have publicly been

framing the issue in moral terms. After the bill's passage, the

president of the interfaith coalition, the Rev. Hurmon Hamilton, said

in a statement that " there is no question that a spirit of generosity

and respect for the dignity of the person is written throughout this

bill. "

With their willingness to inject religion into public policy debates

from a liberal vantage point, Boston's religious leaders have waded

into a national debate, currently bubbling on the left, about whether

to counter the right with liberal religious rhetoric or fight to keep

all references to faith out of the public discourse.

Last month, Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama sparked the

latest round of debate with a speech, delivered at a conference of

the liberal religious group Call to Renewal. Obama chastised fellow

Democrats for failing to " acknowledge the power of faith in the lives

of the American people " and insisted that the party compete for the

support of religiously observant Americans. He also called for

liberals to moderate their opposition to faith-based initiatives and

to some expressions of religion in public life.

" It is doubtful that children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance feel

oppressed or brainwashed as a consequence of muttering the

phrase 'under God,' " Obama said.

The speech drew some negative reactions from liberal bloggers and

from church-state watchdogs, including the Anti-Defamation League,

but was also praised by many on the left.

" I cannot overplay the extent to which the Obama speech is still on

people's minds, " said Mik , director of communications of the

anti-poverty organization Jewish Funds for Justice. is the

blogger behind jspot.org.

He said that discussions of the relationship between faith and

politics featured prominently at a convention of about 50 progressive

religious bloggers, held at New Jersey's Montclair State University

last weekend. The convention was co-sponsored by his organization and

the Washington, D.C.-based organization, Faith in Public Life.

In an interview with the Forward, Pesner said that he agreed with

much of Obama's analysis: " I really say to progressives, it's time to

get over " any fears about religious rhetoric or activism in the

public square.

" For some reason, liberals get uncomfortable when people act on their

deeply held beliefs together, because there's a language of faith

undergirding those beliefs. But in a democracy, we don't and we

shouldn't have a litmus test about where those beliefs come from, "

the rabbi said. He added, " The progressive side may get uncomfortable

because we disagree with the positions that people on the religious

right take... but that doesn't mean that in a good, functioning

democracy, people shouldn't organize around the things they believe

in. "

At the same time, Pesner and the other leaders of the interfaith

coalition are quick to point out that its membership is broad based.

Individual members include Democrats and Republicans, and

participating congregations and organizations fall at all points on

the religious spectrum. While Pesner's flock at Temple Israel has

fought particularly hard for same-sex marriage, Hamilton, the pastor

of Roxbury Presbyterian Church, has said publicly that he opposes it.

" One of the great things about being part of [the coalition] both

from a faith standpoint and a political standpoint is that you're

permitted to be who you are, " Hamilton said in an interview with the

Forward. " We agree to disagree on narrow stuff, and we agree to work

independently on those things, because that's who we are, but we

agree to work together on the broad stuff. "

The Jewish community's work in the coalition appeared to pay off in

the fight to stop Christian denominations from divesting from Israel.

Last year, for example, when the General Synod of the United Church

of Christ took up the issue of divestment from Israel, it was Boston-

area clergy involved in the interfaith coalition that led the effort

to defeat the initiative.

" We who have had good, strong relationships with the Jewish community

that go back a long ways were sort of pulling the reins on this, "

said the Rev. of Boston's Old South Church. " We

said, 'this is a nuanced matter and let's talk about selective

investment rather than divestment.' "

The interfaith coalition and its partners in the larger, ad hoc

coalition — dubbed Affordable Care Today! — that pushed for the new

health care law are carefully monitoring its implementation. Of the

515,000 uninsured people in Massachusetts, about 200,000 are living

at or below 300% of the federal poverty line — $29,399 for a single

person — which will entitle them to buy subsidized health care plans

through the state. By law, Massachusetts is required to determine by

October 1 what benefits those plans will include and how much they

will cost.

While Romney has suggested that the plans will likely be available

for $30 to $140 per month, the coalition is pushing for $15 to $30

per month, according to Rosman, policy director of the not-for-

profit group Health Care for All. Because the new law also specifies

that all Massachusetts residents must purchase heath care plans as

long as they are " affordable " — or be penalized on their income

taxes — the legislature also has tasked a state agency with defining

affordability more generally by the year's end.

Members of the interfaith coalition say that they plan to inject

moral values into what is sure to be a series of technical debates in

the coming months about what a decent health care package should

include and how much it should cost.

" We want to make sure the definition that the state comes up with for

affordability is truly affordable, " Hamilton said. " What we want the

state to do is deliver on those promises. "

http://www.forward.com/articles/8149