Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.
Today's question:
How should Christians think about and respond to the shooting of the UHC CEO?
Pastor Brady's thoughts:
There’s an old adage that says “Everything before the “but” is hogwash.”
“I like spending time with you, but…”
“I want to follow Jesus, but…”
“I don’t believe in authoritarian government dictatorships, but…”
Of course this proverb doesn’t always play out, but as a general rule of thumb it’s a pretty valuable observation that helps us see people and situations as they really are, and not as we wish or hope they would be.
It’s been a few weeks since the event, but today I want to use this space to think through the general reaction to the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson - then the CEO of UnitedHealthcare - back in early December, and the opportunity situations such as this presents to Christians.
To be frank, much of the public response to what was a clear and obvious cold-blooded murder has been among the most disturbing and disappointing spectacles I can recall from the American people in many years.
“Murder is wrong, but…”
“Violence is bad, but…”
“I wish he didn’t handle his frustration that way, but…”
These are the start of nearly verbatim quotes from a great many of our countrymen and women, and not just those on random social media accounts. An alarming number of prominent elected national officials, popular TV hosts and widely-read newspaper columnists, celebrities, and other well-known voices said some version of the following:
“Of course murder is wrong, but the big insurance companies mistreat their customers, so it’s understandable why the shooter did this.”
This is a Theology Thursday, not an op-ed in the New York Times, and I’m a minister, not a political pundit. And yet, part of understanding the problem of sin and evil requires making an effort to see the world clearly. If “all truth is God’s truth,” as St. Augustine declared 16 centuries or so ago, then working to ascertain the truth about our world and its systems helps point us to the God who created us and about which Scripture seems to closely attach the very definition of truth.
In the Bible, the understanding and application of truth is about more than just personal honesty (though that is no small thing). Numerous passages from a variety of the biblical writers align the idea of truth with the perfect, uncorrupted - and incorruptible! - moral character of God’s essential being (Psalm 43:3, 25:5, 26:3, 86:11; Isaiah 65:16). In Isaiah 65:16, he is the “God of truth,” and in Psalm 117:2, God’s steadfastness, trustworthiness, and eternal faithfulness all operate under the umbrella of his truthfulness.
This aspect of God’s character was a big deal to the biblical writers; truth is who God is and what he’s about, and it is referenced regularly. How one interacts with truth mirrors how one interacts with God, and as such it underlines moral integrity, shaping how one sees and behaves within the world (Psalm 86:11; 119:30, 43–44; Malachi 2:6).
God desires for his family to be people of the truth (Ephesians 4:25), and believers are encouraged by Paul to put on the “belt of truth” as part of the “full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10–17) so as to not be deceived by Satan and his lies about the world and us.
The more mistaken we are about the reality around us, the harder it is for us to comprehend, discern, and respond faithfully to the challenges of fallenness in a way that both honors God and represents his glory and goodness to a watching world.
My point is that a major contributor to our ability to respond to evil and tragedy Christianly is to understand situations truthfully (as truthfully as possible given our limited human knowledge, of course).
As I see it, in terms of followers of Jesus behaving like the Jesus they’re supposed to follow, there are two related challenges here:
The first is our corrupted moral sin nature that leads - when reacting to situations like this - to haughtiness instead of humility, glee instead of sorrow, triumphalism instead of meekness, pettiness instead of altruism and kindness, and the desire for vengeance instead of mercy.
All of this is anti-gospel, and to the extent that we Christians allow ourselves to be drawn down into the mob rather than up to the cross, so are we.
This isn’t so different from some of the public declarations of “They had it coming” I’ve seen from professing Christians expressing hubris and even self-righteous indignation about the devastation of the Los Angeles fires the past couple weeks.
If - when we witness destroyed homes, schools, businesses, churches(!), critical infrastructure, historic landmarks, natural beauty, and the loss of human life - our response is anything other than sincere sorrow and genuine pity, we have severely misunderstood our assignment.
To put it even more bluntly: if you are professing God’s direct judgement on Hollywood or any other victims of natural disasters on account of their sin, you better be awfully doggone certain you don’t have a plank in your own eye (Matthew 7:9).
The second challenge to publicly following Jesus above the fray of an unbelieving culture is our combined (unavoidable) deficit of knowledge and our (more avoidable!) laziness to pursue knowledge about how the world works before we respond as if we already know everything. Even when our tone or attitude isn’t outrightly arrogant, when we shake our heads and complain or publicly criticize on complicated issues as if they’re simple, the underlying sensibility of our hearts is indeed one of arrogance, rather than the intellectual modesty that is almost always more appropriate.
For example, the man who shot Thompson did so - apparently - out of anger about his perception that the American health insurance system is not merely flawed, but actively predatory and pernicious. He claimed in his manifesto, “A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.”
Now, even if his claim were true, the gap between “Health insurance companies are bad!” and “Shoot their CEOs!” is impossible to bridge - morally, ethically, theologically, all of it - especially for believers.
The Christian response to injustice can never be approval or satisfaction at further injustice. We live in an “eye for an eye” world, but our savior is a “turn the other cheek” savior (Matthew 5:39).
This is part of what made, say, Martin Luther King, Jr’s nonviolent protests during the Civil Rights era so effective and noble. He helped lead a group of people who had been personally and systematically oppressed and abused to respond not with injustice in return, but with peaceful firmness. That’s what Jesus asks and demands of his disciples.
But, and this is part of my point, the killer’s claim about health insurance spending and life expectancy isn’t true - it is technically factual, but enormously misleading.
To begin with, what nations spend on health care corresponds almost exactly with their relative wealth. Richer countries spend more on health care than do poorer countries. The U.S. is the richest country in the world by far (Mississippi is our poorest state, and it has a larger economy - a higher GDP per capita - than every European country except for Germany, and it’s getting close to surpassing Germany too), and it spends the most on health care. That’s not exactly shocking or even unexpected.
What’s even more relevant is that health care (which is not the same as health insurance per se; distinctions matter) is not the only factor that goes into calculating life expectancy data.
Political writer Jonah Goldberg notes that “One reason we have a lower aggregate life-expectancy has to do with the way we measure infant mortality. Another reason is American culture. We’re a more violent country, and homicides are concentrated among younger people. We also drive more than other countries and auto fatalities factor in.”
Thompson's killer either acted out of immense ignorance regarding the very reasons he gave to justify his actions, or he was mentally unwell. Probably some of both. Either way, those who have essentially taken his side because sometimes health insurance companies are a pain in the tail have aligned themselves with some combination of pompous stupidity and social-emotional disability.
Let’s compare two people groups in the U.S. that help us recognize that “health insurance companies are killing people” (as many have claimed in the wake of Thompson’s murder) is far from a full picture:
Native Americans participate in the formal health insurance industry (purchase plans, work for employers that offer plans, etc.) at the lowest rates of any American racial demographic, and they also have the lowest life expectancy. Asian Americans, on the other hand, participate at the highest rate, and have the highest life expectancy.
I’m not here to defend Big Insurance - I have my own frustrations and infuriating experiences - but I am here to insist that we look for every opportunity to represent the love and grace and compassion and humility and generosity and gentleness (Matthew 11:29) of Christ, especially in the midst of crisis and chaos.
Christians must be the steady voice in the storms of life pointing to the God who calms them.
Issues like health insurance are incredibly complex and require sober study and analysis before conclusions are reached, and even if we arrive at a conclusive opinion, we are called and obligated by our faith to conduct ourselves “in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27).
Knowing God means - among other things - knowing truth. And making God known means - among other things - being people of truth, pursuing the truth, communicating the truth, committing ourselves to the truth, responding to outrage with reasoned, grace-filled truth, and living in the truth.
Regardless of what other truths can be ascertained related to Luigi Mangione, Brian Thompson, health insurance, guns, mental health, news media, or any of the rest of it, this one is most important: Thou shalt not murder (Exodus 20:13).
Not: “Thou shalt not murder, but…”
The blood of Christ has made us holy; it has made believers set apart from the darkness of a world that hasn’t accepted his salvation and submitted to his lordship. His is the only bloodshed for which we should ever be thankful.
Related Resource:
A valuable explainer on what health insurance is, and what it isn't.
To know God and to make Him known!
- Pastor Brady
Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.
Today's question:
How should Christians think about and respond to the shooting of the UHC CEO?
Pastor Brady's thoughts:
There’s an old adage that says “Everything before the “but” is hogwash.”
“I like spending time with you, but…”
“I want to follow Jesus, but…”
“I don’t believe in authoritarian government dictatorships, but…”
Of course this proverb doesn’t always play out, but as a general rule of thumb it’s a pretty valuable observation that helps us see people and situations as they really are, and not as we wish or hope they would be.
It’s been a few weeks since the event, but today I want to use this space to think through the general reaction to the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson - then the CEO of UnitedHealthcare - back in early December, and the opportunity situations such as this presents to Christians.
To be frank, much of the public response to what was a clear and obvious cold-blooded murder has been among the most disturbing and disappointing spectacles I can recall from the American people in many years.
“Murder is wrong, but…”
“Violence is bad, but…”
“I wish he didn’t handle his frustration that way, but…”
These are the start of nearly verbatim quotes from a great many of our countrymen and women, and not just those on random social media accounts. An alarming number of prominent elected national officials, popular TV hosts and widely-read newspaper columnists, celebrities, and other well-known voices said some version of the following:
“Of course murder is wrong, but the big insurance companies mistreat their customers, so it’s understandable why the shooter did this.”
This is a Theology Thursday, not an op-ed in the New York Times, and I’m a minister, not a political pundit. And yet, part of understanding the problem of sin and evil requires making an effort to see the world clearly. If “all truth is God’s truth,” as St. Augustine declared 16 centuries or so ago, then working to ascertain the truth about our world and its systems helps point us to the God who created us and about which Scripture seems to closely attach the very definition of truth.
In the Bible, the understanding and application of truth is about more than just personal honesty (though that is no small thing). Numerous passages from a variety of the biblical writers align the idea of truth with the perfect, uncorrupted - and incorruptible! - moral character of God’s essential being (Psalm 43:3, 25:5, 26:3, 86:11; Isaiah 65:16). In Isaiah 65:16, he is the “God of truth,” and in Psalm 117:2, God’s steadfastness, trustworthiness, and eternal faithfulness all operate under the umbrella of his truthfulness.
This aspect of God’s character was a big deal to the biblical writers; truth is who God is and what he’s about, and it is referenced regularly. How one interacts with truth mirrors how one interacts with God, and as such it underlines moral integrity, shaping how one sees and behaves within the world (Psalm 86:11; 119:30, 43–44; Malachi 2:6).
God desires for his family to be people of the truth (Ephesians 4:25), and believers are encouraged by Paul to put on the “belt of truth” as part of the “full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10–17) so as to not be deceived by Satan and his lies about the world and us.
The more mistaken we are about the reality around us, the harder it is for us to comprehend, discern, and respond faithfully to the challenges of fallenness in a way that both honors God and represents his glory and goodness to a watching world.
My point is that a major contributor to our ability to respond to evil and tragedy Christianly is to understand situations truthfully (as truthfully as possible given our limited human knowledge, of course).
As I see it, in terms of followers of Jesus behaving like the Jesus they’re supposed to follow, there are two related challenges here:
The first is our corrupted moral sin nature that leads - when reacting to situations like this - to haughtiness instead of humility, glee instead of sorrow, triumphalism instead of meekness, pettiness instead of altruism and kindness, and the desire for vengeance instead of mercy.
All of this is anti-gospel, and to the extent that we Christians allow ourselves to be drawn down into the mob rather than up to the cross, so are we.
This isn’t so different from some of the public declarations of “They had it coming” I’ve seen from professing Christians expressing hubris and even self-righteous indignation about the devastation of the Los Angeles fires the past couple weeks.
If - when we witness destroyed homes, schools, businesses, churches(!), critical infrastructure, historic landmarks, natural beauty, and the loss of human life - our response is anything other than sincere sorrow and genuine pity, we have severely misunderstood our assignment.
To put it even more bluntly: if you are professing God’s direct judgement on Hollywood or any other victims of natural disasters on account of their sin, you better be awfully doggone certain you don’t have a plank in your own eye (Matthew 7:9).
The second challenge to publicly following Jesus above the fray of an unbelieving culture is our combined (unavoidable) deficit of knowledge and our (more avoidable!) laziness to pursue knowledge about how the world works before we respond as if we already know everything. Even when our tone or attitude isn’t outrightly arrogant, when we shake our heads and complain or publicly criticize on complicated issues as if they’re simple, the underlying sensibility of our hearts is indeed one of arrogance, rather than the intellectual modesty that is almost always more appropriate.
For example, the man who shot Thompson did so - apparently - out of anger about his perception that the American health insurance system is not merely flawed, but actively predatory and pernicious. He claimed in his manifesto, “A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.”
Now, even if his claim were true, the gap between “Health insurance companies are bad!” and “Shoot their CEOs!” is impossible to bridge - morally, ethically, theologically, all of it - especially for believers.
The Christian response to injustice can never be approval or satisfaction at further injustice. We live in an “eye for an eye” world, but our savior is a “turn the other cheek” savior (Matthew 5:39).
This is part of what made, say, Martin Luther King, Jr’s nonviolent protests during the Civil Rights era so effective and noble. He helped lead a group of people who had been personally and systematically oppressed and abused to respond not with injustice in return, but with peaceful firmness. That’s what Jesus asks and demands of his disciples.
But, and this is part of my point, the killer’s claim about health insurance spending and life expectancy isn’t true - it is technically factual, but enormously misleading.
To begin with, what nations spend on health care corresponds almost exactly with their relative wealth. Richer countries spend more on health care than do poorer countries. The U.S. is the richest country in the world by far (Mississippi is our poorest state, and it has a larger economy - a higher GDP per capita - than every European country except for Germany, and it’s getting close to surpassing Germany too), and it spends the most on health care. That’s not exactly shocking or even unexpected.
What’s even more relevant is that health care (which is not the same as health insurance per se; distinctions matter) is not the only factor that goes into calculating life expectancy data.
Political writer Jonah Goldberg notes that “One reason we have a lower aggregate life-expectancy has to do with the way we measure infant mortality. Another reason is American culture. We’re a more violent country, and homicides are concentrated among younger people. We also drive more than other countries and auto fatalities factor in.”
Thompson's killer either acted out of immense ignorance regarding the very reasons he gave to justify his actions, or he was mentally unwell. Probably some of both. Either way, those who have essentially taken his side because sometimes health insurance companies are a pain in the tail have aligned themselves with some combination of pompous stupidity and social-emotional disability.
Let’s compare two people groups in the U.S. that help us recognize that “health insurance companies are killing people” (as many have claimed in the wake of Thompson’s murder) is far from a full picture:
Native Americans participate in the formal health insurance industry (purchase plans, work for employers that offer plans, etc.) at the lowest rates of any American racial demographic, and they also have the lowest life expectancy. Asian Americans, on the other hand, participate at the highest rate, and have the highest life expectancy.
I’m not here to defend Big Insurance - I have my own frustrations and infuriating experiences - but I am here to insist that we look for every opportunity to represent the love and grace and compassion and humility and generosity and gentleness (Matthew 11:29) of Christ, especially in the midst of crisis and chaos.
Christians must be the steady voice in the storms of life pointing to the God who calms them.
Issues like health insurance are incredibly complex and require sober study and analysis before conclusions are reached, and even if we arrive at a conclusive opinion, we are called and obligated by our faith to conduct ourselves “in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27).
Knowing God means - among other things - knowing truth. And making God known means - among other things - being people of truth, pursuing the truth, communicating the truth, committing ourselves to the truth, responding to outrage with reasoned, grace-filled truth, and living in the truth.
Regardless of what other truths can be ascertained related to Luigi Mangione, Brian Thompson, health insurance, guns, mental health, news media, or any of the rest of it, this one is most important: Thou shalt not murder (Exodus 20:13).
Not: “Thou shalt not murder, but…”
The blood of Christ has made us holy; it has made believers set apart from the darkness of a world that hasn’t accepted his salvation and submitted to his lordship. His is the only bloodshed for which we should ever be thankful.
Related Resource:
A valuable explainer on what health insurance is, and what it isn't.
To know God and to make Him known!
- Pastor Brady
Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.
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2025
January
Theology Thursday: What is the purpose of Scripture?Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - God's BlessingTheology Thursday: Son of God, Son of ManTeaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - God's Blessing CopyTheology Thursday: Buffet 2Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Alive in ChristTheology Thursday: Murder is wrong, but...Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Unity in Christ
2024
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Teaching Tuesday: 2 JohnTheology Thursday: Eternal SecurityTeaching Tuesday: 3rd JohnTheology Thursday: Cultural ChristianityTeaching Tuesday: RevelationTheology Thursday: God's RegretTeaching Tuesday: Remember Who You AreTheology Thursday: Romans 13 vs Acts 5Teaching Tuesday: Before You VoteTheology Thursday: Guidelines for Christian Voters
November
Teaching Tuesday: 150th AnniversaryTheology Thursday: Translation of ScriptureTeaching Tuesday: Be the Church - Everyday EvangelismTheology Thursday: The Whore of BabylonTeaching Tuesday: Be the Church - Preach the Word, Hear the WordTheology Thursday: A Relationship With GodTeaching Tuesday: Be the Church - What a Difference a Meal Makes
December
Teaching Tuesday: Be the Church - WashedTheology Thursday: Why was Jesus baptized?Teaching Tuesday: This is Christmas - ServiceTheology Thursday: God can save whomever he wants?Teaching Tuesday: This is Christmas - LoveTheology Thursday: My Favorite Christmas StoryTeaching Tuesday: This is Christmas - King David's King