(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Obama, concerned with the fact that Americans are losing faith in him and that his goals for healthcare reform are faltering, held a telephone conference with a group consisting of as many as 1000 Jewish rabbis asking for their assistance in meeting a “core ethical and moral obligation” calling them “God’s partners in matters of life and death.”
During that same conversation, the president “accused opponents of his healthcare plan of spreading ‘misinformation’ and ‘bearing false witness’” while saying that it is our responsibility to “look out for one another” because, in his words, “I am my brother’s keeper and I am my sister’s keeper.”
His words, paraphrased from Old Testament Biblical passages, basically said that God’s children have a religious or spiritual responsibility to help fellow Americans by pushing for government sponsored healthcare.
Since Obama’s speech writers have a history of misquoting Scripture. Let’s see what the Bible actually says about being “my brother’s keeper.”
Genesis 4 relates the story of Cain and Abel. Both were sons (the first two recorded children in the Bible) of Adam and Eve. Both sons were farmers and both were raised to worship God.
Then one day, Cain, who grew fruits and vegetables, along with Abel, who was a shepherd, each brought an offering to the Lord from their perspective farms. But there was a difference.
Cain’s offering came from a sense of obligation and, for it, he picked up the “fruit of the ground,” meaning that he basically just burned his trash on an altar. On the other hand, Abel took from his best with a cheerful heart and offered the “firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions.”
God knew the hearts of both men and He respected Abel’s offering while rejecting Cain’s offering. This angered Cain and so he slew his brother Abel in cold blood.
A little while after that, God approached Cain and asked him for Abel’s location (even though He already knew the answer) and Cain responded, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In other words, the Biblical phrase does not imply a need to watch out for our siblings or our fellow citizens. But, rather, it comes from a man who killed his brother and tried to hide his sin from God.
Therefore, the statement “I am my brother’s keeper” is fairly ironic coming from the president in a conversation concerning healthcare because he is making reference to a Biblical passage that relates specifically to a person’s death; and, even more specifically, the passage relates to a person’s premeditated murder and attempted cover-up.
Bobby’s Related Content:
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Comments
Forget splitting hairs on Obama's Biblical (mis)interpretation, and focus on the root of the issue. I didn't see you address compassion here, and our role in it. What would Jesus say about all of this? Is it considered acceptable to enjoy a quality standard of health care and be complacent about others who lack this standard? Would you let a hungry man starve in the same way, if you had some power to do something about it?
3 John 1:2 "Beloved, I pray that in all things thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."
Melinda, thank you so much for your questions. I actually debated going into all of that as part of this article. But, in the end, space/time constraints (as well as trying to stay focused on one issue at a time) won the debate and so I kept this article focused on the Biblical root of the "brother's keeper" comment.
Please come back in a few days and I'll try to post another article that addresses your concerns.
Melinda, please take a look at my most recently posted article entitled: Does healthcare reform constitute Christian compassion?
A link to it has been added to the "Bobby's Related Content" list above.
His comments are nothing more than a reference to his philosophy as a "Alinksyite." He derives his ideology from the radical Saul Alinksy not the bible.
Obama didn't quote Cain, so why is it surprising that it doesn't mean the same thing that Cain meant?
You are correct that Cain was making a sarcastic, evasive comment to an omniscient God regarding the whereabouts of his murdered brother. Who was he fooling?
Obama, on the other hand, said "I am my bother's keeper." And he meant exactly that - he is willing to take moral responsibility for the welfare of his figurative "brothers" which you might suppose includes at least all Americans but perhaps the entire human world. Now that is a noble sentiment.
To imagine that you are a disconnected island of humanity, capable of surviving without the help and goodwill of your brothers, is incredibly arrogant. If you really don't believe you have a stake in the well-being of others, then that is truly an unfortunate misunderstanding on your part.
I wonder what's your real motive for attacking Obama based on imagined meanings of things that sound like, but are not in fact, biblical
Isnt Obama's actually brother still living in a dirt floor hut in Kenya collecting firewood for a living? Maybe that the scripture literally and go be his brothers keeper instead on just using it a metaphor for raising taxes.
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