The input by the American Nuns designed to stop the republican President Donald Trump with the US republican congressional representatives from passing any of their healthcare plans that would fave resulted in millions being kicked off of Obamacare, was truly an act of compassion.
Here is the rest of the story…
On July 30, 2017, E, J. Dionne of the Washington Post penned the following opinion piece/ story, “The 7,150 nuns who fought against Trumpcare.”
Excerpts:
“The votes from Republican Sens. Susan Collins, John McCain and Lisa Murkowski to stop their party’s repeal-Obamacare juggernaut were demonstrations of genuine courage.”
“The appearance of this virtue in a dark time is not necessarily miraculous, but I couldn’t help noticing the striking intervention in this debate by 7,150 American nuns who called the Senate GOP’s core proposal “the most harmful legislation for American families in our lifetimes.”
“In a letter organized by the Catholic social justice lobby Network, the nuns cited Pope Francis — “health is not a consumer good, but a universal right, so access to health services cannot be a privilege” — and noted matter-of-factly: “To cut Medicaid and take health care from millions of people is not a pro-life stance.”
“Their plea was a reminder, particularly to more secular liberals, that religious witness in politics is not confined to the political right, that Christianity has long had a lot to say about economic and social inequities, and that pushing prophets inspired by faith out of the public square would be harmful to progressives as well as conservatives.”
“In speaking out as they did, the socially minded nuns — who do the work of justice and mercy every day in hospitals, clinics, homeless shelters and schools — made clear that depriving millions of Americans of health coverage truly is a moral outrage. But while the most conservative among the faithful might not appreciate it, the sisters also did a service to believers of all stripes by demolishing stereotypes about what it means to be religious.”
“This is important because religion and the political standing of believers are badly harmed by the reality that so many Americans associate faith exclusively with the conservative movement. Large numbers of young people are abandoning organized religion (and particularly Christianity) altogether. A key reason: They see it as deeply hostile to causes they embrace, notably the rights of gays and lesbians.”
“Harvard University’s Robert Putnam and Notre Dame’s David Campbell, the authors of “American Grace,” their definitive 2010 study of data on American religious attitudes, concludedthat young Americans “have been alienated from organized religion by its increasingly conservative politics.” A Public Religion Research Institute survey in 2014 found that among millennials who no longer identify with their childhood religion, nearly a third said that “negative teachings about, or treatment of, gay and lesbian people” were either somewhat or very important to their disaffiliation.”
“But studies by PRRI and the Pew Research Center suggest that at least some who have moved away from formal religious affiliation do not see belief itself as a bad thing and remain spiritually engaged. They are turned off by the worldly, not the otherworldly, aspects of religion.”
“Alexis de Tocqueville, that shrewd 19th-century student of American life, noted in “Democracy in America” that religion was stronger and faced less hostility in the United States than in Europe precisely because faith on our shores was far less associated with propping up political power and ideological interests.“Unbelievers in Europe attack Christians more as political than religious enemies,” Tocqueville wrote. “They hate the faith as the opinion of a party much more than as a mistaken belief, and they reject the clergy less because they are representatives of God than because they are the friends of authority.” Religious apologists for President Trump should take note.”
A critic could fairly observe that the argument I offer here is naturally congenial to me as a liberal. Nonetheless, my conservative brethren who worry about religion’s decline should consider that a rampant secularism may be less to blame than a narrowing of the scope of faith-based public engagement. Pope Francis’s insistence that the church be associated more with justice and mercy than with cultural warfare can thus be seen as precisely the right antidote for what ails organized religion.
“The sisters are right that claims to compassion and love are hollow when they are severed from society’s obligations to the most vulnerable. They also make clear that faith is something more than a cog in the status quo’s political machine.”
Gronda Morin 
Despite my lack of belief or faith here I am surprised at what some believers can say and do to protect the less well off in society when normally I see those who profess to believe ready to cut the poor off and leave them without a health lifeline. Good is as Good does.
xxx Cwtch Mawr xxx
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Dear David Prosser,
I’m with you 100% on this one.
Those who were supporting any of the republican healthcare bills that kicked off millions off peoples in order to give tax cuts to the wealthy were acting in an immoral way, and are devoid of compassion.And they should be ashamed.
Hugs, Gronda
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Reblogged this on SOMETIMES and commented:
Thanks to our friend Gronda Morin for this!
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Dear Gradmama2011,
I don’t know how you feel on this subject, but I am sick of conservative republican legislators with their Christian righteous attitudes as they were all too willing to do harm to millions of poor folks with its various healthcare bills which failed; and their denial of climate change, which again will do harm for millions of peoples.
Thanks a million times for your support and for this reblog.
Hugs, Gronda.
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I would be as critical or more of a Hillary Clinton Democrat government than I am of the one we have now… except I would not be questioning her sanity. 🙂 Our government is and always has been hegemonic and dominant of world areas, tossing around money and guns as rewards and punishments. At this time we are consumed by Anti-Trump sentiment instead of healthy criticism of our inheret system.
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Reblogged this on Aspen Tree Book Reviews and commented:
Loves it
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Dear Mama Cass,
WELCOME!
I’m glad you liked this post. Thanks a million for sharing this post and with this reblog.
And thanks for stopping by. Hugs, Gronda
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Hi Gronda, I really enjoyed reading it and if you checked out my blog, esp the What I Believe post, you’d see that I’m an all embracing liberal. What I really liked about your post is how people are starting to realize that hating someone based on who they love, their identified gender, their skin color, their religion, their race or their income is not Christ-like.
Hooray for the nuns and their part of trying to save health care for those in need.
Hugs!
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Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
A new way to see things.
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The votes of many of the senators have had nothing to do with loving their neighbors. The nuns have put them to shame if they still have any. —- Suzanne
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Dear Suzanne,
Too many of the US senators obviously suffered no shame. Thanks a million for all of your support and for this reblog.
Hugs, Gronda
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This is wonderful! We need more religious right organizations, conservative conscientious objectors coming to the fore, expressing our collective concerns against the repeal of ACA. Let’s pray that Trump wakes up and actually listen to the ppl and work with the Dems, not catering to insurance company profits or his stupid tax cuts for the rich. We the ppl are just sick of it… literally!
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Dear 1EarthUnited,
I would not count on DDT listening to the peoples as he will always be his first concern. But he may be forced to do what is right.
Hugs, Gronda
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Gronda, the Nuns have got it right. While imperfect, the ACA is accomplishing much of what it set out to do. If it had been supported and amended as most major laws are, it would be working even better. Even without the sabatoge efforts of defunding committed payments to insurers, not expanding Medicaid when it is so beneficial to people, hospitals and states, and naysaying it through 50 plus repeal votes, it would still have some challenges that need fixing, but they would more easily solvable.
My old party has been quite Machiavellian about their efforts and quite proud of what they have done. Marco Rubio still brags on screwing insurers and Americans over by defunding the payments for adverse selection. I would love ask him why he is gloating over this. So, lets here it for the Nuns and all others who are asking leaders to think about what they are doing and what they have done.
Keith
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Dear Keith,
I love when the nuns get involved. They are not so easily kicked out of legislators’ offices. The imagery of disabled folks being arrested and carried out of the halls of the US Congress was horrible enough but then having nuns join them would make it all, so much worse.
And their voice does carry some weight. Along with “we the people” it was great to watch our democracy at work. This will go down in the history books as a win for “we the people.”
Hugs, Gronda
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True on all counts. They still need to follow through with changes to stabilize the ACA and quiet the man-child who has little knowledge of what the ACA does.
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