For some time now, Glenn Beck has attempted to use religion as an argument against universal health care. Last August, for example, Beck said that unless Jesus came down to earth and opened a clinic where he dispensed medical care, “there cannot be a right to health care”:
BECK: We have a right to health care, really? God doesn't give health care. Man provides health care. So how can it be a right. If you are endowed by your Creator with certain unalienable rights, how can a God-given right be health care, unless Jesus comes down and starts to open up a clinic and heal us himself? There cannot be a right to health care, because the rights come to God.
On the opposite side of this issue? Pope Benedict XVI, who yesterday reportedly called access to health care an “inalienable right,” and urged governments to ensure that their citizen have it:
Pope Benedict XVI and other church leaders said it was the moral responsibility of nations to guarantee access to health care for all of their citizens, regardless of social and economic status or their ability to pay.
Access to adequate medical attention, the pope said in a written message Nov. 18, was one of the “inalienable rights” of man.
The pope's message was read by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, to participants at the 25th International Conference of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry at the Vatican Nov. 18-19.
The theme of this year's meeting was “Caritas in Veritate - toward an equitable and human health care.”
The pope lamented the great inequalities in health care around the globe. While people in many parts of the world aren't able to receive essential medications or even the most basic care, in industrialized countries there is a risk of “pharmacological, medical and surgical consumerism” that leads to “a cult of the body,” the popesaid.
“The care of man, his transcendent dignity and his inalienable rights” are issues that should concern Christians, the pope said.
Because an individual's health is a “precious asset” to society as well as to himself, governments and other agencies should seek to protect it by “dedicating the equipment, resources and energy so that the greatest number of people can have access.”
“Justice in health care should be a priority of governments and international institutions,” he said, cautioning that protecting human health does not include euthanasia or promoting artificial reproductive techniques that include the destruction of embryos.
Care for human life from conception to its natural end must be a guiding light in determining health care policy, the pope said.
This is a pretty explicit position on behalf of the Pope, and it appears diametrically opposed to the supposedly moral, religious argument laid out by Beck. Can it be long before the Pope finds his way onto Beck's infamous chalkboard?