Matthew 25 and Health-Care

This article was taken from the Sojourners web site from the "God's Politics" a blog by Jim Wallis & friends.

Judgement Day: Does Matthew 25 Apply to the Health-Care Debate?

by Valerie Elverton Dixon 09-03-2009

Yesterday, I heard a Christian leader say that the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 25 is not a reason for Christians to support universal health care guaranteed by their government. His argument was that this text is Jesus' instruction to the Christian community for the Christian community. This sounded like an error of interpretation to me.

I read the biblical text through the lens of ethics. I am not a biblical scholar. So, this morning, I called my friend and colleague Allen Callahan to ask him about this interpretation of Matthew 25. Dr. Callahan is an ordained Baptist minister, educated at Princeton and Harvard. He has taught New Testament at Harvard Divinity School, Macalester College and now at Seminario Teologico Batista do Nordeste in Bahia, Brazil. He is an international lecturer and has appeared in television documentaries about the early church, and about politics and spirituality.

Read the balance of this article at http://blog.sojo.net/2009/09/03/judgement-day-does-matthew-25-apply-to-the-health-care-debate/

Dr. Valerie Elverton Dixon is an independent scholar who publishes lectures and essays at JustPeaceTheory.com. She received her Ph.D. in religion and society from Temple University and taught Christian ethics at United Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Theological School.