Editor’s note: In this article, McMullen gives an analysis of three different religious approaches to the current Health Care Reform discussions

The great religious faiths of the world differ in some important ways, but most agree that believers are supposed to take care of the sick. The instructions of the Torah, the words and deeds of Jesus and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad give the foundation for moral and ethical principles, sometimes developed over centuries, on responsibilities toward the injured and ill.

But are those principles a blueprint for modern health care reform?
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 20 percent of Americans under the age of 65 lacked access to affordable health care in 2008. Religious groups generally have cast the issue in moral terms and have been outspoken about the Democratic proposals laid out by Congress and the Obama administration.

Yet there is a significant divide, with some liberal religious groups cheering the proposals and some conservatives strenuously opposing them. And a third group – the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – has steered an independent course, favoring some parts of the reform and opposing others.
How do religious groups decide whether to support the labrynthine bills now pending before Congress? Do political alliances count as much as moral tradition?

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