“It’s the economy, stupid!” Remember those words? They became, more or less, a campaign slogan for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign when he was running against incumbent George H.W. Bush. Bush’s approval rating in March, 1991 was 90%. His re-election as President seemed to be a “done deal”. But the success Bush had in foreign affairs was not matched by his domestic economic policies. The country had gone into a recession in 1991 and Clinton’s campaign strategist, James Carville, seized upon this crack in Bush’s armor by coining the phrase, “It’s the economy, Stupid!” The constant reminder that the economy, and thus the standard of living for every American, was in danger of declining if Bush were re-elected for four more years, proved a winning formula for Clinton. Bush’s approval rating dropped to 64% by August, 1992 and Clinton set up housekeeping in the White House shortly thereafter.

But how could a man who was openly pro-abortion and in favor of legitimizing the homosexual lifestyle, moral values that stood in stark opposition to the Judeo-Christian values America was founded upon, win the Presidency when a survey in 1990 found that 86% of Americans identified themselves as Christians? Because calling oneself a Christian and actually being a Christian are two different things. 

True Christianity is not revealed in words alone. Talk is cheap. True Christianity is revealed when one comes face to face with decisions that require him to die to self, to willingly suffer the loss of material blessings and physical comfort if keeping them requires a compromise between right and wrong, good and evil, truth or lies. What the 1992 Presidency election revealed was that the majority of the 86% of Americans who identified themselves as Christians had an idol set upon the throne of their hearts. That idol was Money.

This truth was repeated more forcefully in 2008 when Barack Obama, a man much more radical in his pro-abortion and pro-homosexual views than Clinton, was elected President with the promise of reassuring Americans their standards of living would improve under his leadership. It was the “It’s the economy, Stupid!” syndrome all over again. As with Clinton he could not have been elected President without the votes of self-identified Christians. (The percentage of Americans who identified themselves as Christian in 2008 had dropped to 76%, a significant decline from 1990, but still a large majority).

The election of Clinton and Obama prove that many people, including some who call themselves Christian, place a premium value on the possession of money and the physical comforts it promises. When the economy, and by extension, their lifestyle is in danger of declining, they will vote for the person they believe is best capable of ensuring their standard of living will increase, even if that means voting for a person whose values in other areas are not consistent with their own. How people vote in a democratic society reveals the spiritual health of that society because votes reveal the god(s) in whom the citizens truly believe. Their vote is in essence their sacrifice to their god offered at the ballot box and more and more often that god is Money. Money is America’s idol and nothing proves that more clearly than our willingness to offer human sacrifices to this god.

That may seem like hysterical hyperbole to some, but consider these words of Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York and health care expert in a recent New York Post column about Obama’s proposed national health care bill: “One troubling provision of the House bill compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years (and more often if they become sick or go into a nursing home) about alternatives for end-of-life care (House bill, p. 425-430). The sessions cover highly sensitive matters such as whether to receive antibiotics and ‘the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration.’ This mandate invites abuse, and seniors could easily be pushed to refuse care.”

In other words seniors will be compelled to come before a government approved board and justify their use of increasingly scarce health care dollars to sustain their lives when younger, more productive citizens are in need of those same dollars.

Such a scenario is not farfetched or in the distance future. It is happening now in the United Kingdom which already has nationalized health care. Listen to the words of Baroness Mary Warnock, 84, a woman described by the Daily Telegraph as Britain’s leading moral philosopher during an interview in the Church of Scotland’s magazine, Life and Work, in September, 2008: “If you’re demented, you’re wasting people’s lives – your family’s lives – and you’re wasting the resources of the National Health Service. I’m absolutely, fully in agreement with the argument that if pain is insufferable, then someone should be given help to die, but I feel there is a wider argument that if someone absolutely, desperately wants to die because they’re a burden to their family, or the state, then I think they too should be allowed to die” (emphasis added).

Perhaps these words shock you. They should. But when Money becomes god within an individual heart or a nation, materialism can quickly desensitize then deaden the conscience.

Such thinking results from a non-Biblical worldview. In such a worldview human beings are valued for what they can produce and materially contribute to society. In contrast a Biblical worldview teaches that human beings in all stages of life, from conception to natural death, are of infinite value because they are created in the image of God. A person’s worth from a Biblical worldview is not dependent upon what he does, but upon what who he is. Unfortunately, a Biblical worldview is increasingly rare in America, even among those who identify themselves as “born-again” Christians. That lack of understanding puts everyone that drains the economic resources of a nation at risk of being put to death, even against their will.

Three states have legalized physician-assisted suicide: Oregon and Washington by the vote of the people and Montana by judicial fiat when Judge Dorothy McCarter, in her wisdom, unilaterally decided Montanans’ have the right to kill themselves.

But Oregonians have since found out that physician-assisted suicide is a very small step from physician-insisted suicide. Barbara Wagner found out in May, 2008 that her lung cancer that had been in remission for two years was back. Her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that could slow the cancer growth and extend her life. But Wagner was notified by the Oregon Health Plan that it would not cover the cost of the prescription. It would, however, pay to kill her. She did not take Oregon up on its offer. She has since died from her cancer. Barbara Wagner was in every sense of the word a human sacrifice to the idol Money, the very idol millions of Americans, including self-proclaimed Christians, worship daily.

What happened to Barbara Wagner at a state level is a harbinger of what will happen on a national level if Obamacare becomes the law of the land. When the sword of government (Romans 13:4) is placed in the hands of those who believe life is only valuable when it can contribute monetarily to society, thus insinuating money is more valuable than a human life, people who drain the economy will inevitably be sacrificed to reduce that drain. Considering who now wields that sword (Obama, a man who has already proven he will use the sword of government to kill the unborn and the just born while a senator in Illinois, and a majority of Congress who shares his values) that sacrifice is being prepared right now to sate the monetary appetite of the self-indulgent.

“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money" (Luke 16:13 ESV). We are called to love people and use money. This is the mark of true Christianity. When the people of a nation insist on loving money and using people what mark do they bear?

Soli Deo Gloria!