Around this time every year, right-wing organizations go out of their way to pretend there is a "war on Christmas" and to remind us that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Last month, the American Family Association urged a boycott on Gap believing the company wasn't showing enough tradition and recognition of Christmas in their holiday advertisements.

To me it is a little odd that the AFA actually wants companies to use Christmas in their advertising. You would think Christians would be concerned with the commercialization of a religious holiday....

In any case, the message is clear: Christmas is supposed to be about Jesus.

Unless you are a teabagger.

At a small gathering this morning in Upper Senate Park, Tea Party activists sang The 12 Days of Christmas, refashioned with lyrics about the problems under President Obama. Later on at a larger gathering organized by AFP, both Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and conservative radio host Laura Ingraham invoked Christmas as a reason to defeat reform.

How is Christmas a reason to defeat reform? Because...um....the thing is...uh....

Here are some thoughts on health care and Christianity:

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10 5-8)

And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Matthew 22:39)

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' (Matthew 25:31-36)

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: "Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them." So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere. (Luke 9:1-6)

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."

The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. (Luke 13:10-17)

Earlier this year, Drew Smith wrote an article entitled "How Would Jesus Handle Health Care?" In the article, Smith notes the two stories of healing in Mark 5:21-43; the daughter of Jairus, a synagogue ruler, and an unnamed female outcast.

...Yet, when we read the stories as one, we also come away with the idea that the two individuals that come to Jesus could not be more different. Jairus, whose name we know, is a male. The woman, who remains nameless, is a female. Jairus is a leader in the synagogue, a man of great religious and political stature and influence. The unnamed woman is an outcast, who has been shunned by her community because of her disease. Jairus can come to Jesus expecting to seek healing for his daughter. The woman is disregarded by the crowd as she approaches Jesus from behind....

...In a market-driven system of health care, the unnamed woman would have perhaps gone untreated, but Jairus would have had the health care he needed for his daughter. After all, Jairus is a man of means. But the woman has no money left. Jesus, however, saw things differently. Jesus valued all human life as sacred to God, and he extended healing and wholeness to both the woman and Jairus' daughter.

But in stopping to heal the unnamed woman instead of proceeding straightaway to Jairus' house uninterrupted, Jesus also rebuked a system that offered preferential treatment for those like Jairus who have power, status and money. He recognized the universality of pain and suffering, and thus he desired to heal both the woman and Jairus' daughter....

It amazes me that many Conservatives can claim the Christian faith as their motivation for actions that directly contradict the teachings of that faith.

Jesus never said "screw the poor". Nor did he preach that one should be more concerned with the amount of taxes he or she personally pays more than one should be concerned with the health of others. Quite the opposite, actually.

Recall Matthew 22:15-22 (...Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.")

There is no moral argument against helping those who are in need. None. And there certainly isn't a theological argument against helping the sick and the poor. The groups united against health care reform are motivated by greed. Period. Nothing more, nothing less.