By Rev. Victor Carpenter

Did you watch the Olympics? I did. And I found it a blessedly peaceful interlude between the two political conventions that "bookended" it.

Although I never thought of women's beach volleyball as an Olympic event before, I have to confess that I was not entirely unhappy with the large amount of TV coverage devoted to it. Who could object to the spectacle of several comely maidens, all scantily clad, frolicking about in a sandbox! I found it preferable to the twin spectacles of Democrats and Republicans kicking sand in each other's faces.

But then, why should I object to the entourages of Bush and Kerry bashing each other when we, as a nation, are divided from each other to a greater degree than at any time since the run-up to the Civil War and over a whole range of issues?

Marriage equality, the war in Iraq, abortion rights, school vouchers, stem-cell research, arms control ... and on and on.

Our social divisions were accurately caricatured by New Yorker magazine, which devoted the cover of its 4th of July issue to depicting two groups of people - men, women and children - lined up and shouting angrily at each other. One group waved American flags from which the color red was deleted; the other waved American flags with no blue in them; overhead some of the rockets had a "red glare" and some had a "blue glare."

Red Nation, Blue Nation ... and each with its share of "flag wavers." While the "right" seems to have a virtual lock on talk radio with the likes of Limbaugh, the "left" can point to Michael Moore and his film "Fahrenheiht 9/11" for emotional reinforcement.

It needs to be said that the "red nation/blue nation" caricature of our divisions, the social issues which define them, and the media outlets which exploit them do not end at the door of religion. Quite the contrary - we are divided religiously as we are divided socially.

You could say that we have always been divided along religious lines. Certainly this has been true when one thinks of Boston's religions divisions with Roman Catholic immigrant Boston struggling against Protestant established gentrified Boston during the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. And the divisions between Protestant and Roman Catholic were by no means limited to Boston. The story is told of a Catholic prelate being driven to an appointment in a Southern city in the years before the Civil Rights Movement changed the Southern United States.

Seeing a young African American boy at the roadside, the prelate directed his driver to stop the car, pick up the youth and give him a lift to his destination. As they rode together, the prelate turned to the boy and asked, "Are you, by any chance, a Catholic?" "No sir, said the boy, "I got enough trouble just being black without being one of those!"

That's not the way it is anymore. I'm not saying that there is no more prejudice against African Americans or Roman Catholics in the south or anywhere else in the United States. I know - and you know - that prejudice does exist - everywhere. What I am saying is that the important division in American political life (at least where religion is concerned) is not between Catholics and Protestants; not between Catholic John Kerry and Protestant George Bush; not even between believers and non-believers.

The significant religious division is between those who support a secular state which respects and honors a variety of religious traditions and perspectives and those who do not. In that latter group I include those whose religious perspective would lead them to damn as un-scriptual lesbian and gay marriage; rail against women's reproductive freedom; withhold funds from international family-planning efforts, from domestic contraceptive efforts; and from scientific research (such as stem cell research) which they deem inconsistent with religious fundamentalism.

Some of you who have been around for a while will remember back to an earlier presidential campaign when religion as defined by the label of a specific faith tradition was an issue. You will remember when the Greater Houston Texas Ministerial Association confronted the candidate John Kennedy about his Catholicism.

Kennedy answered those Protestant ministers with these words,

"I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end - where every person has the same right to attend or not to attend the church of his choice, where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote; no block voting of any kind, and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews - at both lay and pastoral levels, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their work in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood."

I long to hear such words - more gender inclusive and with acknowledgement of the other religions that partake of our diversity - from a Presidential candidate today - and I hope you would too.

A couple of years ago I attended another Unitarian Universalist church and listened to the minister deliver a sermon with the same title that I have used this morning. He listed several of same divisions that I have mentioned, but he didn't know where to take the congregation beyond the divisions to common ground. I think I do, and I think it turns on the issue of Health Care. I believe that the issue of Health Care represents our common ground. It is my belief that health care - care that is not a priviledge but a human right - could be the key to overcoming the divisions and serve to re-establish our sense of national community!

Remember the Good Samaritan? Remember that after he had bandaged the stranger's wounds and brought him to the Inn he instructed the innkeeper to provide whatever further care is needed! The Samaritan says that he will foot the bill; grab the tab; pay the freight. That action (according to Jesus) defines what it is to be as neighbor. Beyond the show of sympathy and the move to give physical aid it's the willingness to pay the bill!

Think of that part of the parable as it relates to Health Care in this country where health premiums rise 4 times faster than workers' wages and where 44 million have no health insurance and, as a result, live on the edge of economic disaster: One serious illness and you are into bankruptcy.

Both Presidential candidates have health care plans - and while this is not the time nor place to argue their merits - suffice it to say that neither is adequate to the needs of the 44 million who are in need. So the question hangs there: Who pays the bill?

The message of the good Samaritan is that genuine care goes beyond the occasional stop to give immediate help; genuine care is on-going and it's comprehensive. And those who receive the lowest level of care should be the object of the community's healing efforts. This is the one issue that transcends all that separates us from each other; the issue that can bring us together.

Perhaps the place to begin is to stop asking who you are voting for in November and start asking if you have good health care and, if not, how can we help each other get it. I really don't expect the election to turn on this issue but our individual humanity - as it is intimately linked to the humanity of our neighbors very well could!

The Rev. Victor Carpenter is the interim minister at First Parish on Meetinghouse Hill, a Unitarian Universalist church, which is Dorchester's oldest existing congregation.