Obama asks people of faith for help

Health care reform is a moral issue and one you should do something about was the message of a call today hosted by a coalition of faith groups, 40 Days for Health Reform.

The call began with stories of people who either don't have health care or are struggling to get by with what health care they do have. They also had people of various faiths from across the country chime in with what their religious communities are doing to promote reform.

Clearly people of faith are all behind health care reform, or at least you would think so listening to this call. When President Obama got on the line, he repeated the message that health care reform is about our morals, our desire to care for our neighbors.

Using religious language as he so often does, he said that some are "bearing false witness" and then went on to deny that health care reform would mean funding abortions, cutting Medicare, or covering illegal immigrants. He asked the people of faith on the call to "speak the truth."

The U.S. is a religious nation, so you'd think if religious people were all behind health care reform, it'd get done, right? I guess that's the hope of the call's organizers, but unfortunately it seemed they assumed the listeners were on board already. They could have used more specifics in their arguments.

The White House representative did answer questions about abortion, taxes, and cost favorably, but as someone commented to me on Twitter, "are we supposed to just 'trust him'?" (Him referring to Obama.)  See our Twitter page.

Another commenter saw the group organizing it as "a wolf in sheep's clothing"–  Obama's people in the faith community. Some might be closely connected but there are a number of respectable churches and religious groups in the coalition (see list) . No USCCB, but they do have their own site advocating for health-care reform.

Regardless of what type of health care you want–from private insurance to a single-payer plan–I'd say the main message of the call still stands: Health care reform is a moral issue and you should become part of the conversation.

Check out our page on health care reform and contribute to our forum on what you'd like to see. Then tell you representatives in Congress what you think.