Rev. Dr. Chuck Poole, the former pastor of Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson who now works for the nonprofit Together For Hope, said working to improve the lives of groups that have been marginalized is not about “wokeness,” “political correctness” or any of the other terms he called a “lexicon of diversion.”
“To work for a more just society is to lean the way Jesus leans,” Poole said. “To lean into and live up to our baptism, which we received in the name of the one who spent his life sitting down with and standing up for whoever was most in need of help and hope, comfort and relief. Which is why I keep saying that closing the health care coverage gap is not a politically partisan, red or blue thing, but a clearly moral, right and true thing.”
While Medicaid expansion was far from the only issue discussed, it hung heavy over the entire weekend. Expanding the program would bring in more than $1 billion in new health care revenue each year and provide coverage to hundreds of thousands of Mississippians who are working, but too poor to afford private health insurance.
The lecture series provided an opportunity for the faith community to get involved in the conversation around health care access. It's also significant because Galloway is the home church of Gov. Tate Reeves, the state's most high-profile opponent of expanding Medicaid.
Dr. Dan Jones, former chancellor of the University of Mississippi, and one of the weekend's lecturers, said this moment compares to 2020, when faith leaders and groups like the Mississippi Baptist Convention voiced support for changing the state flag shortly before the Legislature succeeded in passing it.
“I think there's a lot of relationship between what happened with the flag and what can happen with Medicaid expansion… It's time for Mississippians to decide we'll treat everybody fairly and that everybody will have access to health care, just like we finally decided we would have a flag that can represent all Mississippians.”
Mississippi has one of the highest rates in the nation of people without health insurance.
