Social Principles Week 4- Immigration and Health Care

Wow!  I thought last week was going to be the week that things got heated and the class was relatively calm, but this was the week that got crazy!  We talked about the Social Community section this week in class.  There are many issues in this section that are worthy of discussion, but the main focus was on health care and immigration.  We also spent some time on Media and Christian Values, Alcohol and Drug Use, and Racial Equality.

I decided to do an interactive activity for some of these big topics, which had one corner of the room as "Agree" and the opposite corner of the room as "Disagree."  I went through the statements of some chosen sections individually and people were asked to move as they saw fit, which meant that one could agree with one statement in a section, but be unsure or disagree with another statement.  This was a good visual because it showed that sometimes we agree with part of a statement, but not with others.  There were a few moments where someone would start at the Agree corner of the room, and in the same section they would literally run across the room to the other side to show their dissatisfaction with a particular statement.  This was a good exercise, but after awhile, some of the older people got tired and had to sit down.  So if I were to go back and do it again, I would maybe only read 2 of the sections for the exercise and then do something different to discuss the other parts.  We ended up getting into discussion in the midst of the exercise, which made it a lot longer than I expected.

Some funny moments: most of the class didn't like that the SP said that abstinence from alcohol is recommended.  A big chunk of the class wanted to make a plea for medical marijuana during the section where legal/illegal drug use was discussed.  I didn't expect that!

The 2 hot button topics: immigration and health care.  Almost everyone disagreed with the UMC stance on immigration- that the issue of legal vs. illegal needs to be addressed by our government.  The idea that the church was not taking a stand against illegal immigrants in the USA did not sit well with this particular group.

And of course, health care.  The significant amount of the class agreed with the SP that health care is a basic human right and the government should play a role in providing it in some way.  But the people in the class that disagreed with this SP were actually "disgusted" with the SP statements about this issue!  We talked about the theological implications of this: that Christ healed and sent others to heal, that we are to care for our neighbors, etc.  Those on the other side did not budge.  There were some good arguments made, a lot of passionate pleas for others to understand their side, no matter what side they stood on.  It got pretty heated for awhile, but almost always respectful.  There is definitely not an easy answer to this problem and is probably one of those issues that people do not change their minds about.

It was over all a good class, but I felt a little uneasy this week.  I need to keep working on making sure that everyone feels comfortable talking.  We definitely have some who are very outspoken and a little argumentative, which is intimidating to many.  I'd like to work toward a better balance.

Tune in next week for the Economic Community!