GOP Senators - "The Kingdom of Heaven is Like..."

Walking & talking with my mind stayed on #healthcare4all @BRepairers @TheRealFPL @RedLetterXians @AuburnSeminary #BlackClergyUprising pic.twitter.com/HnsXnUPBji

— Macky Alston (@MackyAlston) July 18, 2017

(Middle Collegiate Church leaders via Twitter @middlechurch and retweeted by @MackyAlston) Matthew 13:31–33, 44–52 (NRSV)

31 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches." 33 He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." 

44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; 46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. 47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." 52 And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

Dear GOP Senators & Faith Leaders Everywhere:

The Kingdom of Heaven is God's Just and Peaceable Reign for all. It is happening NOW!!  It is for the benefit of all God's creation -- not just some.  The mustard seed is the smallest of seed, but when it is grown it is the greatest of shrubs and trees, even birds come and nest with their young in the safety of its branches.

The ACA is like the mustard seed, it is our healthcare system growing, maturing, eventually becoming Single Payer Universal Healthcare that protects and provides for the well being of all American Citizens.  Single Payer Universal Healthcare will be half the cost of a system that now has to make obscene profits for insurance corporations and other entities.  Those obscenities will become even worse if the healthcare system is allowed to revert to the old days of insurances corporations being in charge of what they will pay for and what they will not.

Reverting to the old days of insurance companies in control and Congress handing our states severe cuts to Medicaid and/or elimination of the Medicaid Expansion means that American lives will again be devastated and bankrupt by expensive medical costs that only the rich and powerful can afford.  Employers will no longer have to provide health insurance coverage.  Essential Health Benefits will no longer be covered.  The ACA repeal-minded congresspersons will continue to enjoy their extravagant and luxurious health coverage while seniors, the poor, and working poor will suffer tortuous bare bones totally inadequate despicable McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare policies.  Pro-repeal advocates claim Americans have been hurt by ACA -- that is bull.  Millions upon millions have healthcare coverage they were never able to access before.  Frankly and rightly in the eyes of God, all American citizens should have the very same incredibly generous health insurance you have Senators!!  Why is that so hard for you to figure out and compassionately advocate for??? 

Yes, costs need to come down and come down now!!  You, GOP Senators, along with your democratic colleagues, have the power and means to do so -- if you would simply find the courage to stand over and against the so-called leaders driving our country to the brink of disaster with McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.

Your fellow citizens call on you, GOP Senators, to find and discover the pearl of great value that is Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  As your Republican Party once did so sacrificially freeing Americans from the evils of slavery, the pearl of great value that is Single Payer Universal Healthcare will free all your fellow citizens from having to ever worry again about skyrocketing medical costs financially enslaving and bankrupting their live and their families           

GOP Senators, you are like the earliest followers of Jesus, you are having "....to learn what it means to be in relationship to God and with others in new ways"* -- to learn that you are in Washington DC beholden only to ALL the citizens of the state you represent, not just some -- especially when only 16% of Americans approve of McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.  You are not beholden to a political party, or a wing or leader of that party.  You are especially not beholden to a POTUS who makes and breaks promises to Americans about their healthcare.

Stand over and against all the evil that acts against the interests of the Americans you represent.  Be the voice of your constituency that's calling for courage to buy the pearl of great value, the pearl that is Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  The pearl that the third richest man in the world, Warren Buffet, said we can easily afford because we are such a rich and great country.  Single Payer Universal Healthcare is an expression of The kingdom of heaven for it will be like "yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."   

Single Payer Universal Healthcare is that mustard seed in the above scripture.  A senator only need have the smallest bit of faith and Single Payer Universal Healthcare will grow into a solid foundation for all Americans.  It will be a means of safety -- as crucial to our nation's well-being as presently are our Military and Defense.

Have but a mustard seed of faith, Senators, and you will be able to move mountains like POTUS out of the way.  You will be able to cast nets far and wide and drag in all fish regarding Single Payer Universal Healthcare, and then begin to sort the good from the bad -- what should be kept alive and well in our system of healthcare and what needs to be discarded.

JESUS MAFA - "The Hidden Treasure"

For those who have forgotten themselves and what they are in Congress to do in this most urgent of times, there will come a day that they and their evil are separated out and their constituencies will replace them in Congress with persons more ably suited to serve and likely those individuals replaced will leave Congress weeping and gnashing their teeth -- for they never truly cared and never truly understood that God's Just and Peaceable Reign requires our compassion and generosity for all to have and lead healthy lives.

Your small act of faith to vote against repeal of the ACA and to instead set in motion a bill for Single Payer Universal Healthcare is enough to set change in motion -- a change that will move us and humanity one step closer to the time of God's Just and Peaceable Reign here on Earth.

May God's Peace be with You as you contemplate your vote this coming week.

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon

GOP Senators - Become Children of the Kingdom

Become Children of the Kingdom

Religious News Service, Faith Leaders five days ago arrested for protesting GOP healthcare bill outside Senator Mitch McConnell's office in the Capitol, Washington DC

Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43 (The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat) NRSV 

24 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Dear GOP Senators:

“The Kingdom of Heaven” which is “God’s Just and Peaceable Reign” will witness your vote on repeal of the ACA or on a vote for McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.  Some of you may yet be good seed as described in Jesus’ story above – unfortunately you are having to live among the weeds sown by POTUS 45 who has clearly declared himself an enemy to American citizens and their right to Universal Healthcare.  45 has made clear that he intends for millions upon millions of American Citizens not to have Universal Healthcare.  

45 has also made clear that he intends for one American in every 830 uninsured Americans to step forward and die because of the lack of Universal Healthcare.  45 expects many of you to be automatons and mindlessly support what he intends for Americans and their healthcare.  As a GOP automaton, you GOP senators, are to vote on healthcare exactly as Putinesque aspiring POTUS 45 tells you or 45 will have a temper tantrum and “be very angry”.  How childish a statement can a Putinesque aspiring POTUS make?  Thankfully 45 does not have the power to snuff out a life as effortlessly as Putin does, though 45 is clear that we are to understand how much he admires Putin and that the American Constitution is archaic and obsolete. 

Jesus freely sowed hope and freely sowed healing to any and all who came to him.  The only people he could not heal were the rich and powerful.  As Jesus said, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  The weeds in Jesus story above are the senate colleagues of yours who as 45’s GOP automaton senators who would seek to undo the Medicaid Expansion that gave so many Americans access to comprehensive healthcare.  45 and his GOP automatons pursue this end despite the bipartisan protests of American Governors throughout our land who valiantly stand over and against the insanity 45 will commit on our healthcare system and the lives of Americans who will be harm including seniors, the middle class, the working poor, and those living in grinding poverty.

GOP Senators, some of you may yet be children of God’s Kingdom.  Isaiah prophesied of you, prophesied that a time would come upon the Earth when nothing will harm or hurt.  You are the key in this time and this place to moving Humanity’s journey forward toward that end through being brave souls willing to establish Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  Have the courage to vote “NO” on repeal of the ACA and/or vote “NO” on McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.  You GOP Senators are supposedly so concerned about skyrocketing healthcare costs, do the one thing that makes the most sense, cuts costs in half, and achieves the greatest efficiencies -- establish Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  Warren Buffet, the third richest man in the world, says it makes sense and that we are such a rich country that we can easily afford it.  It’s also what every other developed country in the world has done.  Stop being so foolish – get the job done.  Establish Single Payer Universal Healthcare.

Single Payer Universal Healthcare is akin to gathering the wheat into the barn that will bless American lives with well-being for countless generations to come.  The GOP healthcare bill attempts represent nothing more than enemy activity toward American Citizens, an enemy sowing weedy, seedy, and sickening fictions that will mire American lives in suffering and devastation because of healthcare the Congressional Budget Office says Americans will not be able to afford or cannot access.      

The Kingdom of Heaven is a work in progress.  It takes great sacrifice, one that requires your courage to stand with the governors and citizens of your states – and to do so over and against the GOP POTUS 45 who has never truly understood healthcare and who breaks his campaign promises of Universal Healthcare for everyone.  Have courage like the faith leaders who protested McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare in the photo above this week in the Capitol of our great nation.

POTUS 45 is a man who promises the sky – but always he ends up handing out nothing burgers.  One day, the Master will come and the harvest completed and 45 and McConnell and Ryan will be bundled up with all the other weeds like them never to hurt or harm Americans again.

GOP Senators be courageous, be courageous as the faith leaders below who call you to be prophetic agents for God's Just and Peaceable Reign.

An ecumenical group of African-American clergy gathers outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 18, 2017, in opposition to the proposed budget and the health care bill. RNS photo by Madeleine Buckley

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon

GOP Senators – Plant Wisely! - For Sunday, July 16, 2017

GOP Senators – Plant Wisely! - For Sunday, July 16, 2017

Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23 NRSV

1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!"

18 "Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

GOP SENATORS - Plant Healthcare Wisely!

Dear GOP Senators:

Pay attention!!  Warren Buffet, the third richest person in the world (and far more successful than POTUS 45), said 26th of June 2017 during a PBS News Hour interview that Single Payer Universal Healthcare makes the most sense and since we are such a rich country we can afford to cover healthcare for each of our citizens.  Buffet notes that healthcare costs have gone from 5% of the GDP in 1960 to 17% now – with no end in sight!!

GOP senators, especially those of you who proclaim to be persons of faith seeking God’s Just and Peaceable Reign for all --- put a bill forward now that establishes Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  Such a bill will cut our healthcare costs in half when it removes the profit motive from taking care of the health of our citizens.  Healthcare coverage is as necessary to our way of being as is Defense, Highways, Bridges, the Electrical Grid,  Food Safety -- and the list goes on and on!!

Senators, get your act together and release Americans from the financial slavery healthcare binds them in.  Returning half of 17% GDP back to American citizens will strengthen our economy in profoundly creative and imaginative ways that will be certain to make America great again.  Stop POTUS 45 from fiddling while America burns to the ground – send the House AHCA bill back to Paul Ryan and his GOP House members who never read the bill they sent you to begin with.

Many of you GOP senators proclaim you are persons of faith.  Prove it!!  This week, you may possibly sow seed through your vote in terms of McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.  If you are a GOP automaton senator -- after the manner that POTUS 45 wants you to be -- you will robotically do as told and vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act without enacting anything close to what most makes sense, i.e. Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  This is because POTUS 45 is only interested in a legislative win.  Only a thorny heart like that of POTUS 45 peddles an agenda that would leave tens of millions of our fellow citizens vulnerable like seeds thrown on rough hard ground for birds to gobble up.  And those citizens who will be gobbled up will be our fellow citizens forced into financial crises and bankruptcy over medical costs that you could have safeguarded them from.  If you fail to safeguard American citizens from skyrocketing medical costs, then you will have committed democide.  Each of those seeds gobbled up by financial predators will one fellow citizen in every 830 uninsured fellow citizens who will have to step forward to die due to lack of healthcare coverage.

Repeal of the ACA is not the action of a chief executive who protects American lives, it is the action of a despot who wants to wield absolute power.  Too bad if 45 tantrums himself over failure of McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare -- just too damn bad.

GOP Senators, all Senators, it is time you exercise prophetic vision for the future.  To all who want to make our failing healthcare system be profit driven benefitting big corporations and big pharma, your message needs to be, “Friends, it’s time to part ways, thanks for all you’ve done through the years but we’re going to take it from here now and plant wisely and plant deeply in good ground, Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  It’s time to end poverty and end suffering.”

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon

For GOP Senators - "I Only Want to Heal." - Sunday, July 9th

Matthew 11:28–30  NRSV

"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Find Rest for Your Souls – “I only want to heal.....”-

“I only want to heal…,” the person said tearfully to me.  Hearing those words, concern surged heavily for the person because GOP Senators -- led by Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, devised a healthcare bill in secrecy and with lobbyists that will leave tens of millions of US citizens without insurance.  What this means is that McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare requires one US citizen in every 830 uninsured US citizens (mostly the working poor) to step forward and die per findings reported in LA Times article titled, “How many people will die from the Republicans' Obamacare repeal bills? Tens of thousands per year.”  Long and short of it by 2026, McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare could mean demanding that 92,000 to 96,000 citizens, again mostly our working poor, to step forward and die so that you and I have the privilege of transferring wealth -- nearly $1 trillion dollars -- to the richest people in the United States, and so a few other citizens have the privilege of not paying for any pieces of health insurance they don't want.  

“I only want to heal ….” – are words that mean nothing to 40% of this country who voted POTUS 45 into office.  Many of them are followers of Jesus and a considerable number think 45 is Jesus returned.  They love 45’s unrelenting pressure tactics to repeal Affordable Care Act (ACA).  They aren’t the least interested in fixing ACA.  They, like 45, are not interested in who is harmed and who can’t heal if ACA is repealed.  I don’t understand who their Jesus is because their Jesus bears no resemblance to the Jesus who freely healed – the Jesus to whom I was introduced as a child and in whom I subsequently came to believe.

“I only want to heal…..” – is a not a right but rather a privilege under McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.  They fail to see Single Payer Universal Healthcare as essential to our infrastructure as Defense is or as our Interstate Highway and bridges are.  Supporters of Trumpcare/Ryancare/McConnellcare have the audacity to say they shouldn’t have to participate in healthcare costs that affect all of us.  Well, how about if I and untold other millions of citizens say that we shouldn’t have to pay taxes for the brand new $13 billion dollar Gerald Ford Super Carrier and more such aircraft carriers currently under construction.  We already have ten more aircraft carrier groups than any other nation on the planet, why can’t I opt out of those aircraft carriers I’m not interested in or opt out of the parts of that I have no interest in.

“I only want to heal…” is so plaintively a tug at the heart of anyone with capacity to feel another person’s pain that we must not stand idly by.  Like all other developed nations of the world, it is time for Single Payer Universal Healthcare in the USA.  Take the profit motive out of healthcare and big pharma and watch the tax payer’s cost instantly go down by half.  While we're at it, let's send Health Secretary Price back home where he belongs -- hopefully rehabilitating his moral and ethical priorities toward being able to support for Single Payer Universal Healthcare.

“I only want to heal….” - is a Mental Health Recovery journey advocated by the US Department of Health (SAMHSA) that existed long before Secretary Price ever entered Washington DC politics to promote Trumpcare/Ryancare/McConnellcare.  Mental Health Recovery’s Ten Guiding Principles (2006) will be there long after Secretary Price leaves the scene – precisely because the “Guiding Principles” are enduring and Price's moral and ethical principles are disasterously short-sighted and will contribute to one US Citizen dying for every 830 uninsured US citizens.  Such principles are not consistent with the Christ whom I know who bids us that heavy laden should come and receive rest for Christ's yoke is easy and his burden light -- especially when we all share the yoke and burden of Single Payer Universal Healthcare.

“I only want to heal….” – is a statement that took a person with severe and chronic PTSD profound courage to say.  It took a year and a half through psychotherapy to build trust and feel safety for voicing this healing need of a traumatized human mind.  Thankfully the emotional healing that took place to this point happened because of the Medicaid Expansion.  Now it gets hammered down by a POTUS who selfishly tweets violent videos at the press --- violence like that which the person in this post suffered for years at the hands of others.  Well done 45, very well done.  There will come a time when you stand before God and will account for your self-absorbed life and the darkness you harbor in your soul.  If I thought it would do you any good, I would gladly offer you psychotherapy -- but it’s pretty clear there is no room for the yoke of Christ in your life.  I once told you that if you were to redeem yourself, it would require that you exercise toward all other human beings the exact same generosity you extend to loved ones you hold dearest – the exception being that you do so without expectations of anything in return – just as the Christian hymn goes, “Freely, freely, you have received, freely freely give…”

“I only want to heal…” – means that you, POTUS 45, must finally awake out of you stupor of self-absorbed living and look around you at all who are weary, heavy burdened, living in tears from pain and suffering, fearful that medical costs will bankrupt their lives --  and that you give them rest through Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  Right now, the weary and heavy burdened is the life of every citizen in this country who Trumpcare/McConnellcare/Ryancare would throw way, expect to die, or be rendered bankrupt or vulnerable to financial crisis by out of control healthcare costs.  As recently stated by the World’s third richest man, Warren Buffet, only Single Payer Universal Healthcare gets the USA and its citizens out of our current morass.

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon
USA