{"id":79,"date":"2012-06-11T03:09:34","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T09:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billintheblank\/?p=79"},"modified":"2012-06-11T03:09:34","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T09:09:34","slug":"why-obamacare-fails-to-get-gods-vote-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithwalkers\/2012\/06\/why-obamacare-fails-to-get-gods-vote-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Obamacare Fails to Get God’s Vote (Part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Often as we probe real life with real faith,\u00a0 there are no easy answers. Only shades of grey. Not fifty of them, thank God, as my friend and author Joel J. Miller points out in his critique of that latest fad<\/a>.\u00a0 But there is a vital need to maintain a healthy balance between two equally essential values that exist in tension with one another. And that\u2019s not a bad thing.<\/p>\n

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Photo via http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My home site is here <\/a>for now for those who want to know more about me. My latest project is here<\/a>. My passion is connecting real life with real faith.<\/p>\n

My first post <\/a>suggests the first of five reasons that Obamacare fails to get God\u2019s vote: 1) God requires rulers to keep their covenant with the people.<\/p>\n

My second post <\/a>argues that 2) God rewards those who put their trust in Him.<\/p>\n

The third reason appears below today. Subscribe now to the right to be sure not to miss any.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 God calls us to personal as well as corporate responsibility.<\/h3>\n

Obamacare further advances a culture of dependence on our\u00a0government\u00a0instead of encouraging personal responsibility. With my health care administered by the impersonal government, I need do nothing to have it supplied through the diligent efforts of others. I need take no responsibility. I can pursue whatever reckless or immoral behavior I choose. Somebody else will ensure I\u2019m covered. And if I choose to not play by the rules? The government will act on my behalf to curb my expensive appetites, even banning my Big Gulps <\/a>or Happy Meals as needed.<\/p>\n

Certainly, both corporate and personal responsibility are needed. Without\u00a0concern for\u00a0others as part of our corporate culture,\u00a0we would struggle even to survive, let alone thrive. Yet when we abandon individual responsibility, we become not only a burden to others but also easy prey for tyrannical demagogues.<\/p>\n

But which is more Biblical, an emphasis on personal or on corporate responsibility? At issue here is yet another expression of the tension that exists between the One and the Many. It is the tension that exists in the very nature of the triune God of the Bible.<\/p>\n

God is both one in essence yet many in three distinct persons. He is both an individual and three individuals in unified relationship with one another. We could say he is both personal and corporate without confusion or contradiction. He is personal so that Christ could bear our sins to satisfy the just demands of the Father and permit the Spirit to apply his atoning work to our hearts. But he is also most assuredly corporate: \u201cHear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.\u201d \u201cI and the Father are One.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI pray that they may be one even as we are one.\u201d \u201cLet us make man in Our image.\u201d<\/p>\n

We are similar to our Creator, not surprising as we are made in His image.\u00a0 We are corporately responsible to others \u2013 our family, church, community, country, and entire planet to varying degrees; but we are also personally responsible to our Maker for our actions in a way that no one else can be.<\/p>\n

We see this personal responsibility reflected in countless Biblical commands:<\/p>\n