Am I my brother’s keeper? Yes!
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A couple of years ago, I stumbled across Shola Lynch’s 2005 documentary Chisholm ’72. Thanks to the internet, I was able to order my own copy of the DVD. After being completely entranced by Shirley Chisholm’s political vision, I again traveled the information superhighway, this time in search of her memoir, Unbought and Unbossed, which I found through a web-based used bookstore. I even bought some vintage campaign pins on eBay!
Chisholm was elected to Congress and ran for president before I was even born, and yet there is something about what she represented in her time and what she represents today that has left an indelible imprint on my political views. Like her, I cannot support candidates who, after weighing all the options, choose to allow corporations and/or corporate interests to determine public policy, whether we’re talking about recycling, local economic development, affordable medication and housing, public education that values all kinds of children, or dealing with those who, like Cain, forget their obligations to the greater good.
One of Chisholm’s famous quotes goes like this: “I am, was, and always will be a catalyst for change.” Change is never easy, but change with generous helpings of grace, hope, mercy, and love is what will make a difference in politics in this land where the literal and figurative blood of many cries out to God and to us from the ground.
I support your point, but not your interpretation. In sarcasm Cain says, “Am I the keeper of that ‘keeper’ brother of mine!” In fact, Cain became his brother’s keeper. He treated his brother as if he were an animal. He killed him. Had God answered it would be, “You already acted as if you are your brother’s keeper. If only you had acted as your brother’s brother.”
Posted by Darrel Hostetler, on May 6th, 2008 at 4:00 pmThe world has so many keepers, and far too few brothers and sisters.
Darrel–your comments are helpful in terms of biblical exegesis, and in that way I stand somewhat corrected.
In my post, I reference Genesis 4:9 because the “keeper” language has surfaced in political discourse–Obama’s Philadelphia speech is one example. Taken at face value, I read the exchange as Cain trying to shirk responsibility he knows he has to those around him.
My point is simply that my faith and my politics come together along these lines. We are to be “keepers” in a relational sense (an older brother looking out for his younger brother) and in a symbolic sense (Psalm 23 and the parable of the Good Shepherd), looking out for others and beyond ourselves. In the words of Gwendolyn Brooks, “…we are each other’s harvest: we are each other’s business: we are each other’s magnitude and bond.”
Posted by Malinda, on May 10th, 2008 at 1:31 pm