Which gospel to preach

What would Jesus have us do?

​God as my witness, on the same day that I heard David Ortiz was shot, I was talking with someone who was considering the possibility of declaring bankruptcy because of medical expenses.  The person has medical insurance through the employer, but the deductibles are so high that a serious medical issue that required extensive care may bankrupt that person.  It is a blessing that Big Papi has access to the world’s greatest medical talents and institutions.  However, is it conscionable that an organization like the Red Sox who can pay the astronomical amounts needed to have a beloved Boston sports icon flown on a chartered plane with all the attendant medical attention and equipment from the Dominican Republic to Mass General Hospital for extremely costly care, while others are locked out of far less because they have less?  Is the value of people’s lives, like in some future science fiction dystopia, measured by wealth? 

God as my witness, on the same day that I heard about the shooting of Number 34, I heard on the news that the Vatican had declared an end to the discussion and treatment options for the transgender, declaring the issue settled by God at birth.  On the same day, I heard an interview prior to the opening of the Southern Baptist Convention in which a church leader declared that the gospel needs to be preached with a male voice because that is what Jesus commands.  Men must be unquestioned as Jesus’ mouthpiece.  This is the same denomination at the same Convention that must also deal with the same male privilege tragedy of clergy sexual abuse that was tolerated for who knows how many generations by the Vatican.

Churches seem to be unhesitant in preaching gospel as what they want to hear it.  But what about the gospel we hear in the Gospels?  Doesn’t Jesus stand with the marginalized and the oppressed?  Doesn’t Jesus warn against the selfishness that becomes more and more possible with the accumulation of more and more ridiculous amounts of wealth?  If churches are so willing to intervene in the political discussion of issues of sexual morality with a male-centric bias, issues which are far from biblically clear, shouldn’t they also speak out and protest the morality of something like the divide in medical care based on wealth?  Or is that just not the gospel that they want to hear?  If this is the case, can we blame people for abandoning organized religion as hypocritical?  Have churches become overrun with the very same sins that Jesus opposed? 
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Is it time again for reform fueled by Jesus’ example and Jesus’ presence?