It turns out that a lot of the anti-healthcare misinformation lies can be traced back to the Liberty Council. Liberty Council is a religious group that’s part of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. In fact Falwell, who died in 2007, was quoted as saying he could “think of no greater work being done right now in America for the sake of our religious freedom and Christian heritage than that being done by Liberty Counsel.”

This is a group that is desperately trying to keep millions of people from receiving healthcare by promulgating notions of death panels, forced euthanasia, and rationed care. They are positing a delusional future where marriage will be “controlled” by subversive government agencies and enrollment of special needs people will be heavily restricted. Not only are these assertions wrong, several are completely the opposite of what the proposals currently on the table are trying to accomplish.

I find it hard to believe that the Liberty Council is simply not smart enough to realize their misinterpretation. It seems too comprehensively calculated. But to what end? Why would an organization ostensibly trying assure that Christian values are alive and well in America want to defeat a bill intended to help people get medical care who lack it now? I find it hard to believe that Jesus would have rejected a humanitarian effort because he feared the economic implications. There are clearly other forces at work here.

On the flip side, a local interfaith group seems to be getting it right. At a recent rally, the group was advocating universal care as the Christian thing to do. That sounds more like a position Jesus would get behind. Don’t you think?