Letter: Christian values

To the editor:

In this holy and most sacred season of the Christian calendar, all of us — both laity and clergy — must hold ourselves accountable to our faith. No scripture is more clear or easier to understand than Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31 that relate the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” or Matthew 25:39, that specifically mentions the sick, and 25:40 that states, “inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

We need to decide which comes first, party ideology or Christian responsibility. Since Jan. 1, 2014, the state of Kansas has refused to accept over $486,590,000 in Medicaid expansion funds while more than 100,000 Kansans remain without health insurance, some rural hospitals are on the brink of bankruptcy and rural doctors are struggling to keep serving their communities. In spite of sound testimony from many health care professionals and religious leaders, our legislators have turned their backs on our most needy citizens, the least of us.

We need to ask ourselves how this could happen and then ask our legislators why they let it happen. During this discernment process we would do well to remember Proverbs 15:3, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”