Thinking Out Loud - "Not" My Brother's Keeper

The President has made a few statements lately that are actually quite disturbing. I want to look at these one at a time.

"There are some folks out there who are, frankly, bearing false witness."

President Obama said this while addressing a group of religious leaders on a conference call. This call and this statement are disturbing on several levels. First and foremost, there is the fact that Obama is asking religious leaders to basically preach politics from the pulpit. If I remember correctly, the Democrats were upset about this during the 2008 campaign when some religious leaders were making comments from the pulpit against various candidates who were in favor things like abortion. A few were even attacked by the IRS and threatened with things like losing their tax exemptions if they continue. Now that it would benefit them, they are asking these same preachers to do what they demanded they stop. Kind of hypocritical and smacking of manipulation.

Another issue with this call and this statement, it is the President who has consistently been caught up with exaggerations and outright lies when stumping for his health care reform. He has accused doctors of removing tonsils because it is more profitable than treating throat problems, and of amputating feet because this would net them $30,000, $40000, $50,000. Not only are these outright lies, and would be considered libel had he cited an individual doctor's name, but the American College of Surgeons have stated that a doctor would receive about $740 to $1140 for an amputation. And in this litigious society, the doctor in question would undoubtedly be sued for doing something so stupid.

"I am my brother's keeper."

The first thing that immediately comes to mind is "do as I say, not as I do." I mean, who is he to say we must be our brother's keeper when he has family living in squalor and poverty. The second is that he is misquoting. The question comes from Cain when God inquires as to Abel's whereabouts. Having killed him over a jealous fit, Cain replies to God's question "Am I my brother's keeper?" Many religious scholars may say that we indeed are responsible for taking care of our brothers. But my take on this is slightly different. Do we care for each other, of course we do. But there is a difference to caring for someone and being their keeper. America was founded with one of the principles being a need to care for the infirmed and elderly. But do we take responsibility for others? No. Do we give them a hand out or a hand up? I believe firmly in the "hand up" principle. I also have a quote for the President. "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a meal; teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."

"We are partners with God in matters of life and death."

As disturbing as the accusations of lying which the President lays at the feet of any opposition, the manipulation of the religious leaders to this administration's benefit and the socialistic (almost communistic) view of being responsible for others, it does not nearly come to the level of this latest quote. In speaking with some leading rabbis, Obama made this statement about being partners with God. And it occurs to me that perhaps all this talk of him thinking of himself as the messiah and the savior are maybe not so far-fetched. Could he truly have such a God-complex that he would put himself on the same level as God? Which begs the question, can his being on the same level as God lead to the decisions on who lives and who dies, vis a vis the "death panels" of the new health care reform bill?

Sources

The Bible (Gen 4:9)

FOXNews.com

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/08/21/andrea-tantaros-obama-god-faith/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2008/06/11/mccain-returns-obamas-bitter-cling-comments-small-town-america/

Surgeons Rebuke Obama

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/08/16/surgeons-challenge-obamas-50k-amputation-claim-media-mum