Obama Misquotes Bible on Wealth Redistribution
By W. A. Beatty
AmericanThinker.com
Liberals/Progressives/Democrats say the Bible is off-limits when it addresses the subject of homosexuality, homosexual marriage, abortion, or any issue liberals favor but the Bible condemns. But it's permitted to be used when wealth-redistribution is being discussed. The only problem is that when President Barack Hussein Obama quoted from the Bible, he both took his quotation out of context and got it wrong.
On Friday, March 30, 2012, in an address to supporters at the University of Vermont in Burlington, VT, Obama condemned what he called "you're-on-your-own economics," arguing for policies that involve transferring wealth from one group of citizens to another to support providing public schools with more money for teachers' salaries; supporting companies developing bio-fuels, electric batteries, and wind and solar power; and funding scientists who are researching climate change. Obama then quoted from Genesis to support his argument for more taxes and wealth redistribution.
Obama said, "I hear politicians talking about values in an election year. I hear a lot about that. Let me tell you about values. Hard work, personal responsibility - those are values. But looking out for one another. That's a value. The idea that we're all in this together. I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper. That's a value."
Obama said, "I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper." The "brother's keeper" quote comes from the book of Genesis. But when the entire story is presented, a quite different message comes forth:
1Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." 2Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4And Abel also brought an offering - fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. 8Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Lets go out to the field." While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
10The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground[.]"
By the way, I searched the NIV Bible, with "brother's keeper" as my search argument, and found reference only to Genesis 4:9, so Obama cannot plead "wrong verse."
Further, the Hebrew word for "keeper" is what a prison guard does, keeping prisoners in cells. Abel was a keeper of flocks, not a lamb that needed "keeping." A "keeper" implies control of a flock of docile, stupid, incompetent, wandering, helpless...sheep. The only economic function of sheep is to be sheared. The State has been the "keeper" of the poor for so long that many of them act like caged animals, fed through the bars of their limited freedom, beholden to the State for sustenance.
This passage has become a familiar one in liberal political and theological circles. The liberal interpretation of this passage is that each man owes his neighbor property, confiscated from the rich through political action. We are supposedly the guardians of the poor, the infirm, and the feebleminded. We have this responsibility, liberals say, as members of the body politic, not as Christian individuals, members of churches, or contributors to voluntary charities. (See page 215 of Dr. North's referenced PDF.)
So the question is, "Is Obama (or his teleprompter) suggesting that we 'keep' our brothers?" Is being kept what Obama really has in mind? The verse Obama misquoted asks a question of a liar (Cain knew where his brother was) and a murderer. To use Cain's reply to God as justification for wealth redistribution is like using the quotation usually attributed to Joseph Stalin -- "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs" -- to support "change."
A better illustration of care would be the Good Samaritan in the tenth chapter of Luke, but that wouldn't work for Obama because the Samaritan used his own money.
What is saddest is that we in the internet blogosphere can find the biblical reference and its complete meaning, but the MSM cannot or will not.
Dr. Beatty earned a Ph.D. in quantitative management and statistics from Florida State University. He was a (very conservative) professor of quantitative management specializing in using statistics to assist/support decision-making. He has been a consultant to many small businesses and is now retired. Dr. Beatty is a veteran who served in the U.S. Army for 22 years. He blogs at rwno.limewebs.com.