Remember that famous scene from The Brady Bunch where Jan was spouting off about “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia”?

I’m starting to feel that way about healthcare reform. It seems like everywhere I turn, it’s healthcare, healthcare, healthcare.

And if people can agree on one thing, it’s that they can’t agree on anything.

Which is why it’s so refreshing to see this story from CNN.com about Dr. Pedro Jose “Joe” Greer, a gastroenterologist in Miami, Florida who doesn’t care if his patients have the money to pay for his services.

President Obama presents Dr. Pedro Jose "Joe" Greer with Congressional Medal of Freedom. Source: Getty Images

Greer’s comments from his CNN profile are both beautiful and striking:

“I don’t know when it became socially acceptable in our country to refuse a patient because they have no funds,” he told CNN.

“It goes against all the ethics and morals that we know,” he said.

In discussing…

Rev. John Nunes, president and CEO of Lutheran World Relief, and others (me included) attempt to explain how well-intended government programs developed during the “war on poverty” initiatives help to destroy the urban black family, community, and especially low-income black men. Nunes also explains from the New York Times Magazine how there is no evidence that any government program made any improvement in any urban area anywhere. As a matter of fact, the welfare programs of the 1960s made matters worse in the black community.

Pope John Paul II explains how the intervention of the state can be a detriment of both economic and civil freedom when it assumes too much responsibility beyond the capabilities that are proper to it. The intervention of the state, as Rev. Nunes explains, should give us pause because government is ill-equipped to deal with the holistic needs of the human person…

From the Episcopal Public Policy Network: “In order to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), United Nations General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have called a meeting of world leaders, civil society and the private sector in New York this week…. Halfway towards the [MDGs] target date of 2015, the meeting is intended to review progress to date, identify gaps and next steps, and translate existing commitments into concrete plans and action on the ground to ensure that all countries can achieve the Goals. The meeting takes place during the UN General Assembly’s annual debate.

Anglicans, along with people of faith from diverse traditions and many others, will be gathering in New York to pray for the leaders meeting at the UN and to advocate for their governments to live into the promises that have been made.”

Christians believe themselves to be members of…

“The poor you will always have with you…” Mark 14:7

Sometimes it appears that poverty has no history, no causes, no solutions.  It just is, and any little step you or I might take to alleviate it, by working at a soup kitchen or making a contribution to a homeless shelter, is just a meaningless drop in the bucket. Remember that old Indigo Girls song “Hammer and Nail”? They sang: “My life is part of the global life/I’d found myself becoming more immobile/When I’d think a little girl in the world can’t do anything./A distant nation my community/A street person my responsibility/If I have a care in the world I have a gift to bring.”

If you’re looking for a shift in perspective, you might want to check out an event happening tonight at the History Museum. A friend just sent me an email about it, and it looks like a good…

Choose compassion over consumption.

That’s the message of the “Give it 4 Good” campaign. Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, an organization devoted to supporting the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, has begun a push to get people to think about the money they’ll be receiving from the government this spring.

“We have an economy that is based on overconsumption, one that puts our consumer desires above all other values,” says the Rev. Mike Kinman, EGR executive director. “It has caused us to cripple the creation with which God has entrusted us. It has led us into war. It has led us to look at our sisters and brothers around the world not as children of God but as objects in supply chains.”

“EGR has always been about spiritual transformation, and that’s what this campaign is about,” says Kinman. “The money given will transform and save lives, but even more than that the decision to…