Catholic Sister Simone Campbell came to Knoxville Monday without her bus. But the mission driving her was the same: to encourage leaders to ensure people of all faiths and socioeconomic statuses have access to health care.

Campbell, best known for organizing a nine-state “Nuns on the Bus” tour of Catholic Sisters in opposition of Paul Ryan’s 2012 proposed budget cutting Medicaid programs, and for writing the 2010 “nuns’ letter” supporting health reform and the Affordable Care Act, said traveling bus-less makes for a “faster pace.”

The executive director for Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Campbell stopped in downtown Knoxville en route to the Children’s Defense Fund at Haley Farm’s annual Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy, where she’ll speak this week.

"Partisan politics driving the debate"

Flanked by local religious leaders, she delivered a brief speech outside the federal courthouse in the oppressive noon heat, then listened to Knoxville-area residents speak about the impact funding cuts would have on them and their families, as she’s done in other cities across the country. She and others urged senators, who tabled the health care bill under consideration until after recess, to "stand up for" those who would be affected.

“I work in Washington, D.C., and there partisan politics is driving this debate, where we as people of faith know that all our faiths challenge us to care for the common good, to care for our brothers and sisters in need, to reach out and be healers in our society,” Campbell said.

“I know our partisan politicians share our faith. But sometimes they get caught in this political struggle a little too much, and they lose sight of what it’s doing to the people. And that’s why I’m here, to hear the stories of the people of Knoxville, and to make sure that Sens. (Lamar) Alexander and (Bob) Corker hear them also.”

Campbell shared a photo and story of a young woman in Cincinnati who lost her job and health insurance in 2008-2009 recession and died of colon cancer because she couldn’t afford adequate care.

She quoted from the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution and urged leaders to “form a more perfect union” to fix problems with the Affordable Care Act rather than instituting a new plan that she said would cut funding to Medicaid and other programs disproportionately used by the country’s most vulnerable: the poor, elderly, children, people with disabilities, and those with chronic diseases like cancer.

Other faiths unite

Deborah Oleshansky, executive director of the Knoxville Jewish Alliance, spoke of Jewish teachings that “human life is of infinite value” and that Jews and people of other faiths alike are called to provide healing for all in their communities.

“I call on Sens. Alexander and Corker to stand up for the values of compassion, humanity and basic human dignity represented in all faith communities, and to demand a more transparent, thorough, fair and balanced approach to fixing, not destroying, our health care system,” Oleshansky said.

The Rev. R.J. Powell, curate of St. James Episcopal Church, said Jesus also directed Christians to care for the neediest.

“It is therefore immoral for governments, for worshiping communities, for individuals to look the other way when there are injustices,” Powell said. “Would God be pleased for us to allow His children to suffer because of an ideological struggle about who has the responsibility about caring for the needy?”