For Many Congregations, Wiping Out Medical Debt Has Become a Popular Calling
Yonat Shimron of Religion News Service reports, “Helping ease medical debt, especially for people of color, is an increasingly popular social justice project among liberal Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations. Over the past few years some 800 U.S. congregations have partnered with RIP Medical Debt to do so.” The organization has paid off medical debt for more than 5.4 million Americans thus far. The initiative has wide appeal given the biblical mandate in many faith traditions to cyclically forgive debts. The Rev. Jim Harrison, a priest at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Midland, Michigan, said, “It’s love in action.”