THE ANGRY, SELF-RIGHTEOUS SAMARITAN
Is He Still Good?

Joy Kauffman

The parable Jesus told went a little something like this. . . .

A man was walking down the road and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. A preacher, the kind who tells people he is a Christian, went by, saw the man, and passed on the other side of the road. A U.S. government official went by, saw the man, and passed on the other side of the road.

Then a Christian who doesn’t usually tell people he is Christian but has one of those "War is not the answer" signs in his front yard so he assumes everyone should know, comes along. He sees the man but also sees the government official and the Christian preacher up ahead. He thinks to himself, I can’t believe that government official and that preacher just walked by. Those heartless conservatives, how dare they just leave this man here bleeding?

So the man decides to take the victim to a hospital, since no one else could be bothered. After two hours of hassle during which the patient continues to bleed in the waiting room, the beat-up man is finally admitted. His helper is relieved to find out that since it’s an emergency, even though the guy is uninsured, Medicaid rules require the hospital to treat him anyway. So the rescuer leaves, out a few hours but not a dime (except of course his tax dollars, some of which are channeled to pay for the guy’s care).

So that’s that. Or is it? No, that is surely not enough, he thinks to himself, I must speak out against the injustice. I must let everyone know. I bear witness to the political powers that be. The man sends out an e-mail to all his friends about a protest he’s organizing at the White House calling on the Bush Administration to stop allowing people to be beaten and citing the government official for walking by.

They have a candlelight vigil which involves prayers about the callous indifference of the Christian preacher and chants of "No more years." The rescuer is thrilled. Fifty people showed. The banners were great, including catchy slogans like "Bush is a Murderer," "Real Eyes Realize Real Lies," "God is not a Republican," and finally "The Moral Majority is neither." There was even a small write-up in the Post. While sipping his fair trade, shade-grown coffee, the man thinks contently, Now that is good.

Back at the hospital the nurses, their funding provided mostly by Medicaid and Medicare payments, change the dressing on the wounds and the hospital chaplain, one of those types that tell people they are a Christian, visits the man daily for prayer. And the healing is progressive.

—Joy Kauffman, Hyattsville, Maryland, is currently a full-time mom to two-and-a-half-year-old Anya as well as a potter, wife, and board member of a D.C. community health center. During the 10 years prior to becoming a mother, she worked with social justice and public health issues focused on underserved people internationally in Romania, Brazil, and Nicaragua; and domestically at several Washington D.C.-based not-for-profits as well as with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services..