Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis

The phrase, Am I my brother’s keeper, is part of a well known story in the biblical tradition of Christianity. Cain had just murdered his brother Abel when God confronted him. Cain’s flippant response was an attempt to shrug off responsibility for the welfare of his sibling. In doing so his attitude came to be equated with many of the most immoral human tendencies. He was not only a murderer but one who seemed to believe that he was entitled to independence from the problems of others. His was an “every man for himself” way of thinking that has continued in some circles throughout the long history of humankind. 

A question that we all face at one time or another is how much time and effort should we provide for the welfare of people beyond ourselves or our families? Why should we be concerned about whether or not people that we do not even know have the same sense of safety, security and freedom from want that we have? After all, nobody can be all things to all people, so why should we worry about individuals and groups that have nothing to do with us? Such are moral questions that have been the stuff of debates for centuries. 

Some insist that charity begins at home and that our real challenge should be pushing people to learn how to fend for themselves. While this might be a very noble way of thinking, it does not take into account the individual challenges that people may endure either for a lifetime or a moment. In every case we need to consider what has brought a person or an entire group to a tragic situation in which they struggle to pull themselves out of despair. 

We might see a homeless person and instantly make a judgement about why he is there. Some of our guesses might actually be true. He may be a drug addict or an alcoholic. He may be suffering from mental illness. He may be all of those things and much more. What we do not know is how the person became this way. The stories of people who live on the streets are incredibly complex and viewing them stereotypically will not solve the homeless problem nor will simply arresting them. It would be far better to feed them, clothe them, provide them with a safe place to stay, treat their medical needs and attempt to determine what has brought them to this state. 

The same can be said of immigrants who come to live among us. Do we not see them as people equal to us? Do we focus only on the fact that they came here without the proper papers? Do we deny them any kind of assistance and insist that they leave even if that means locking them up in prisons? Does being our brother’s keeper mean that we should first treat them with the dignity that each person deserves? Perhaps if we saw them as equal to ourselves we might view their situations with kinder eyes. We would begin to understand their desperation. It is a fact that few people would pick up and leave their homeland to travel to a place where they are all too often unwanted unless they felt that there was no other alternative. This has been the reasoning migrations of individuals and groups throughout history.

There are not doubt lazy people, criminals, individuals who seem unwilling to even try to fend for themselves or to do the right things. Sadly they have been among us for all time and knowing what to do with them can be a very tricky decision. Sometimes for our safety we have to incarcerate them, but once we have locked them up we don’t have to be cruel. We all know of people who did horrific things who eventually found peace in admitting their wrongs. There are good souls who work inside prisons doing the work of loving even the worst sinners. They bring hope and compassion to people who do not seem to deserve it and in the process they literally change lives. 

We play a balancing game in life. We have limited resources, limited time. Each of us can only do so much to be our brother’s keepers. We cannot allow someone who does foul things or someone unwilling to change to deplete our resources and our energy but we might certainly do better in our willingness to share our bounty and goodwill with those whose situations are brutal through no fault of their own. In such instances we have a moral obligation to do whatever we can to help even if that means voting for leaders who are compassionate rather than those who are stingy and cruel. 

There are so many voices crying out for our help right now. It seems incredibly wrong that we are allowing food to rot in warehouses, creating a force of masked thugs to grab people for little or no reason other than suspicion of being illegal. How can we sit by and watch a genocide unfolding in real time in places like Gaza? Why are we so reluctant to make healthcare available to everyone when ours is the wealthiest nation in the world? What good is a guilded White House or an unnecessary ballroom or a fancy plane? Our president should be a man of the people and for the people, not a power hungry individual who does not seem to understand his duty to be the keeper of even the souls who did not vote for him.

There are presently many efforts to make our nation a Christian nation which actually fly in the face of our concept of freedom of religion. They also call into question our willingness to be our brothers’ keepers as instructed in the Bible. We might start with examples of the true tenets of Christianity rather than forcing everyone to accept the ideals. If we want citizens to adopt a moral way of living we would do well to demonstrate our willingness to be compassionate with everyone. Jesus made it very clear that we are to love one another as we love ourselves. We need to work toward becoming that way. Our nation will rise by lifting others.