Introduction

All human beings have been created in the image of God and are called to abundant life. In the biblical story of the woman with the hemorrhage, Jesus provides an example of his healing ministry that includes the spiritual as well as the physical status of the person.

And behold, a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment; for she said to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I shall be made well." Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well (Matthew 9:20-22, RSV).

The United Methodist Church believes that its mission is to continue the redemptive ministry of Christ, including teaching, preaching, and healing. Christ's healing was not peripheral but central in his ministry. The church, therefore, understands itself as called by the Lord to the holistic ministry of healing: spiritual, mental emotional, and physical.

Health in this sense is something beyond, but not exclusive of, biological well-being. In this view, health care is inadequate when it fixes its attention solely on the body and its physiological functions, as is any religion that focuses its interest entirely on the spirit. Taking the Gospel mandates seriously, United Methodists are called to work toward a healthy society of whole persons. Part of our task is to enable people to care for themselves and to take responsibility for their own health. Another part of our task is to ensure that people who are ill, whether from illness of spirit, mind, or body, are not turned aside or ignored but are given care that allows them to live a full life. A related obligation is to help society welcome the sick and the well as full members, entitled to all the participation of which they are capable. People who are well, but different from the majority, are not to be treated as sick in order to control them. Being old, developmentally disabled, or physically disabled is not the same as being sick. Persons in these circumstances are not to be diminished in social relationships by being presumed to be ill. We see this task as demanding concern for spiritual, political, ethical, economic, social, and medical decisions that maintain the highest concern for the condition of society, the environment, and the total life of each person.

Human suffering is caused by a variety of factors—the environmental, social, and personal factors mentioned, as well as others that remain unknown to us.

Environmental Factors. Clean air, pure water, effective sanitary systems for the disposal of wastes, nutritious foods, adequate housing, and hazard-free workplaces are essential to health. The best medical system cannot preserve or maintain health when the environment is disease-producing.

Social Factors. Inadequate education, poverty, unemployment, lack of access to food, stress-producing conditions, and social pressures reinforced by marketing and advertising strategies that encourage the use of guns, tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs are detrimental to good health.

Personal Habits. Overeating or eating non-nutritious foods, substance abuse (including alcohol, tobacco, barbiturates, sedatives, and so forth) are clearly destructive to health. Failure to exercise or to rest and relax adequately are also injurious to health. Overeating and undereating, due to food security emergencies or eating disorders, are opposite but not unrelated health crises.

Although medical care represents a very important part of health care, it does not include the whole. More medical care does not always equal better health.

Medical care in much of the world has evolved too much as disease care rather than health care. Disease prevention, public health programs, and health education appropriate to every age level and social setting are needed globally. Services should be provided in a compassionate and skillful manner on the basis of need, without discrimination as to economic status, mental or physical disability, race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, language, or multiple diagnosis.

A just health system

Within a just society, every person has a right to:

(1) basic health services that are accessible and affordable in each geographic and cultural setting;

(2) an environment that promotes health;

(3) active involvement in the formulation of health-care activities that meet local needs and priorities;

(4) information about his or her illness, and to be an active participant in treatment and rehabilitation;

(5) receive compassionate and skilled care;

(6) a health-care system sensitive to cultural needs and medical/ethical critique; and

(7) access to funding sources where necessary for basic health services.

Health insurance

For all persons to have adequate access to needed health-care services, public financing must be a significant part of an overall health insurance plan. Public funding is necessary to pay for insuring those who cannot pay part or all of the necessary premiums required.

Health maintenance

Many health problems and illnesses are preventable if we accept the fact that health maintenance requires understanding of the unity of the human body, mind, and spirit. The whole person needs proper nutrition, exercise, the challenge to learn and grow, and an acknowledgement that this is a lifelong process. We recognize that these needs are difficult to meet when environmental factors contribute to ill health. But we must acknowledge the fact that we have separated spiritual health from physical health. In Western Protestant interpretation of health and healing, the union of the body and spirit is often dismissed. Cultures that respect and revere that union are often disregarded or looked upon in a condescending manner. The early church did not make these distinctions, nor did Jesus in his healing ministry. We must, if we are to obtain good health, unite the body and spirit in our thinking and actions.

Therefore, as Christians we accept responsibility for modeling this holistic, preventive style of health maintenance. We commit ourselves to examining the value systems at work in our society as they impact the health of people and to working for programs and policies that enable people to breathe clean air, drink clean water, eat wholesome food, and have access to adequate education and freedom that enable mind and spirit to develop.

Medical services

We support the following principles of access to health services:

(1) In a just society, all people are entitled to basic maintenance and health-care services. We reject as contrary to our understanding of the gospel the notion of differing standards of health care for various segments of the population.

(2) Health care should be comprehensive, including preventive, therapeutic, and rehabilitative services.

(3) Religious and other appropriate forms of counseling should be available to all patients and families when they are called upon to make difficult medical choices, so that responsible decisions, within the context of the Christian faith, may be made concerning organ transplants, use of extreme measures to prolong life, abortion, sterilization, genetic counseling, institutionalization, and death with dignity.

(4) We encourage development of community support systems that permit alternatives to institutional care for such groups as the aging, the terminally ill and mentally ill, and other persons with special needs.

(5) Professional health-care personnel should be recruited and appropriately educated to meet the health-care needs of all persons. Especially urgent is the need for physicians trained in geriatric medicine. Special priorities should be established to secure among the professional group at least proportional representation of women and minorities who are now seriously under-represented.

(6) In areas where medical services are not available or are under-supplied, we urge private or public funding to provide the full range of needed services. To meet these goals, we recommend the reallocation of funds from armaments to human services, both nationally and internationally (Social Principles ¶ 165C).

(7) Regional planning processes should coordinate the services rendered by all health-care institutions, including those funded by governments, to create a more effective system of health services in every area. Priorities should be established for the provision of health services, such as preventive care, mental-health services, home care, and health education.

(8) Corrective measures should be taken where there is maldistribution or unavailability of hospital beds, intermediate care and nursing home care, home-delivered care, neighborhood health centers, community mental-health centers, and emergency care networks.

(9) We encourage medical education for laypersons that will enable them to effectively evaluate medical care they need and are receiving.

(10) We support the medical community in its effort to uphold ethical standards and to promote quality assurance.

(11) We support and encourage medical volunteers.

Health and wholeness ministry

As United Methodists, we are called to a ministry of health and wholeness. Therefore, we challenge our membership to:

(1) make health concerns a priority in the church, with special emphases that include but are not limited to women's health concerns; appropriate, unbiased, informed diagnosis and treatment of older adults; preventive care (including health education); special health concerns and needs of children and youth; and establishment of networks for information sharing and action suggestions;

(2) support the provision of direct-health services where needed and to provide, as we are able, such services in hospitals and homes, clinics, and health centers;

(3) accept responsibility for educating and motivating members to follow a healthy lifestyle reflecting our affirmation of life as God's gift;

(4) become actively involved at all levels in the development of support systems for health care in the community, including: dependent care (respite and twenty-four-hour care, in-home and short-term out-of-home care), meals, programs for women in crisis, halfway houses, support systems for independent living, and family support systems;

(5) become advocates for a healthful environment; accessible, affordable health care; continued public support for health care of persons unable to provide for themselves; continued support for health-related research; and provision of church facilities to enable health-related ministries;

(6) become involved in a search for Christian understanding of health, healing, and wholeness and the dimensions of spiritual healing in our congregations and seminaries;

(7) encourage colleges, universities, hospitals, and seminaries related to The United Methodist Church connectional units to gain an added awareness of health issues and the need for recruitment and education of persons for health-related ministries who would approach such ministries out of a Christian understanding and commitment; and

(8) support public policies and programs that will ensure comprehensive health-care services of high quality to all persons on the principle of equal access.

While public and private health initiatives are attempting to create manageable and sustainable health care services in the United States, we urge all parties to recall an early observation in the health care debate. As long ago as 1983, a presidential Committee on Medical Ethics wrote: "Measures designed to contain health care costs that exacerbate existing inadequacies or impede the achievement of equity are unacceptable from a moral standpoint."

All six billion members of God's global family live along a spectrum from sick to well. Lessons learned in every society—from the United States to every other one—are valuable to the health of all. Our goal will be the greatest health for all people in all respects.

ADOPTED 1984
AMENDED AND READOPTED 2000

See Social Principles, ¶ 162T and ¶ 165C.

From The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church — 2004. Copyright © 2004 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.