How Should We Respond to the Obamacare Ruling?

“Sometimes, bad is bad.” Huey Lewis and his mullet-loving friends had it right back in the days of Reagan. Sometimes, bad law is just bad law. Obamacare is bad law. It doesn’t help when a narrow Supreme Court decision makes it worse.

I’ll point you to Tim Dalrymple’s excellent first take on the decision here to sort through the political implications and to Paul Mirengoff here for a summary of the legalese. Suffice it to say, I’m not a fan of Obamacare as evidenced from my series “Why Obamacare Fails to Get God’s Vote.” I think the Court got it wrong.

So now what?

My humble concern is that we as Christ-followers respond in a way that pleases God. Here are a few ways to respond to the Obamacare ruling though they may grate against our feelings at this time:

• Respect those in authority over us. Immediately after the decision, the blogosphere and Twitter lit up with insults hurled by all sides and in all directions. Jesus often spoke the truth with great clarity, but not with vitriol. We should do the same but with passion not poison.
• Obey those in authority over us. Like it or not, the law has been duly — if somewhat shadily — passed by Congress, signed by the President, and upheld by the Supreme Court. Under our national covenant, we are bound as citizens to comply to the extent that we can with a clear conscience. Submitting does not mean agreeing or that we won’t work to change the law. It means our allegiance is first to Christ and then to country and other legitimate and passionate loyalties.
• Double our efforts to provide creative and compassionate alternatives to government programs. Instead of giving up on showing the compassion of Christ now that the government’s role just increased exponentially, we should let this decision fuel our commitment to developing health-care ideas and real-life partnerships with churches and other voluntary associations. When the government program collapses due to lack of funds — as it must — we will need alternatives ready and functioning to fill that care gap.
• Work to change the law. Now is not the time for critics of the law to head for an island somewhere off the coast of Canada where Alec Baldwin is rumored to hide after disappointing political decisions. Tim gets it right predicting a reawakening of grassroots conservatism for the coming election. I call it “Tea Party 2.0.” Already the Romney campaign has seen more than $4.2 million pour into its campaign coffers. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Obamacare but may have just handed a mini-landslide victory in November to Mitt Romney.

What other suggestions do you have on how Christ-followers should respond to the Supreme Court ruling? Leave a comment by clicking here to share your thoughts?