During the couple of months since conference I have been pre-occupied with the debate over health care reform. It is the first serious proposal we’ve had in16 years, and it is facing the same opposition from the insurance industry and its wholly owned subsidiary the Republican Party. I don’t know why I’ve been surprised at their level of lies and dirty tricks since that is their standard political tactic, but it seems worse this time.

Before you get upset about my political leanings and my self-avowed support for universal health care, I hope that in the remaining weeks in August we can see a genuine debate and not just hysteria. Health care is a moral issue as much as it is a political or economic issue, and our group supposedly is addressing morality even when it isn’t specific to gender or sexual orientation.

I admit, as I have done before, that I’m not particularly concerned about changing the Methodist Book of Discipline even though I understand it is the official position of the church with all of those ramifications. I just can’t get into passing resolutions. Until we change hearts and minds then the rest is just an exercise in futility. The United Methodist Church has been very concerned about the plight of farm workers, who today are mostly immigrants. That’s good; we should work to support all those who are discriminated against or abused by the economic system.

The current issue of the Advocate magazine talks about the impatience of our community in getting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed and repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as well as repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. I don’t counsel patience, nor do I suggest street demonstrations. Politics is the art of the possible, and timing is everything. We’re getting there, but the timing and support are not there just yet. We got impatient in 1993 and dropped the ball and let Bill Clinton waffle with an unworkable compromise.

I’ve been busy writing this summer and haven’t thought much about RUM-NC. We have the film festival coming up in Durham next week, and that already has gotten lots of media play. I’ve been surprised that we haven’t had the crazies show up to protest that like they do the Pride parade.

I don’t mean to imply that everyone who doesn’t think or believe like I do is crazy or an extremist. We can have honest disagreements on a lot of topics and still have civil discourse. But when folks go beyond that and engage in fear mongering and threats to public officials, then they’re open game for criticism. I would never make a death threat, as has been done against some NC politicians who support health care reform, but my patience runs out quickly when all folks can do is shout slogans with no understanding of the issues. Our democracy, and our church, depends upon an informed electorate and involved membership who are vitally concerned about social as well as religious issues.

I’m going to have dinner tomorrow night with a good Republican friend, and we probably won’t talk about politics since we both know where we stand on issues. I accept that Republicans are not all bad, nor are all Democrats good. It isn’t about political parties per se as much as it is about social responsibility, and I haven’t seen much of that in the headlines lately.