Know Jack #512 My Brother’s Keeper

Cain was cursed by God, so if he gets a bad rap, it’s deserved. Be that as it may, the one thing that he’s remembered for saying is a legitimate question. He used it to try and deflect God’s attention from his more serious crime, and the question went unanswered. The assumption among most folks is that the answer is “yes”. It seems almost needless to say that I disagree with that assumption. I am not my brother’s keeper, and I don’t want to be. I love him too much for that.

Before you write me off as callous and heartless, let’s take a moment and reflect on what it means to be our brother’s (or sister’s) keeper. I’m a writer. Words matter to me. That being said, zoos have keepers, flocks and herds have keepers, free people don’t have keepers. We’re coming up on the 250^th anniversary of a document that tells us why.

People, by divine design, have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of their own happiness. The Constitution didn’t give us rights. The government did not give us rights. God did. We were given free will with which to make life choices. We are not even forced to obey God. We have no keeper but conscience.

Yes, some people have limited physical and mental abilities. They require caregivers to protect and help them, not keepers to rule over them. We are morally responsible for helping those in need. Scripture says we should bear one another’s burdens. It also says, if a man will not work, neither should he eat. This is not a contradiction. Moral virtue always exists between two extremes, and there is a time for every purpose.

There is a difference between a man who will not work and one who cannot work. Helping benefits the latter. It robs the former of his humanity by making him dependent upon a keeper. Help ceases to be help when it begins to be control. Our culture is flooded today by people wanting to control the behavior of others…and I’m not talking about government now.

During the Covid fiasco, churches closed, and I heard people say it was an act of love that helped their brethren. By agreeing to close, they became their brother’s de facto keeper, deciding for him what he needed and what he was allowed to do. Does my brother not have the ability to decide for himself? Could he not stay away if he was concerned about infection? Do I have so little regard for his judgment that I must exercise it for him? That is not love.