In a campaign speech on Friday in Vermont, as reported by CNSNews.com, President Obama ripped into “you’re-on-your-own-economics” and actually suggested that hard work and personal responsibility were not supreme Biblical values. Instead, he suggested, “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.”
Apparently, being his brother’s keeper does not actually mean his brother’s keeper – President Obama’s half-brother lives on less than a dollar per month. “I have seen two of my friends killed,” says George Obama. “I have scars from defending myself with my fists. I am good with my fists.”
Beyond the obvious, Obama’s interpretation of Biblical stories leaves something to be desired. In the story of Cain and Abel, Abel offers a sacrifice and so does Cain; God is pleased with Abel’s and not with Cain’s. In a fit of jealousy, Cain kills Abel. When God asks Cain about it, Cain replies, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The moral of the story isn’t that Cain ought to redistribute his wealth – in fact, Cain is the proletariat character in the story. The moral is that Cain shouldn’t have killed his brother out of wealth spite. Or, precisely the opposite of the message Obama is fond of promoting. Leave it to Obama to completely misinterpret a Biblical passage to back his own agenda. After all, it took God six days to complete the world; according to Obama’s supporters, it only took Barack Obama one day to fundamentally transform it with his election.