The Bible is a convenient prop for liberals. They’ll quote it when they can find something in it what they can twist to support one of their pet projects. The latest is President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative.

“After months of conversation with a wide range of people, we’ve pulled together private philanthropies and businesses, mayors, state and local leaders, faith leaders, nonprofits, all who are committed to creating more pathways to success, and we’re committed to building on what works. And we call it My Brother’s Keeper.”

Where’s the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State? President Obama appealed to the Bible. Where are the cries of “separation of church and state” and “it’s wrong to mix religion and politics”? Try quoting what the Bible says about same-sex sexuality and see how far it gets you.

There’s also a racial element to the initiative:

“But what we’re talking about here today with My Brother’s Keeper is a more focused effort on boys and young men of color who are having a particularly tough time.”

This program is racially discriminatory. If the president wanted to help “boys and young men of color” and everybody else, he would work to free the economy from the ravages of high taxes and burdensome regulations.

President Obama used the Brother’s Keeper concept in a State of the Union Address by quoting from Genesis 4:9 to support his argument for more taxes and wealth redistribution. Here’s what he said:

“I hear politicians talking about values in an election year. I hear a lot about that. Let me tell you about values. 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.”

President Obama was saying, given the true meaning of Bible verse he cites, that he and we are “keepers.” He completely misses the meaning of the text. A “keeper” is like a “Zoo Keeper.”

Here’s how the conversation goes after Cain kills Abel:

“Where is Abel your brother?” And [Cain] said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

This is a question from a liar (Cain knew where his brother was) and a murderer. To use Cain’s reply to God as justification for wealth redistribution by government decree is like using Joseph Stalin’s “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs” to support social and political “change.”

The Hebrew word for “keeper” is what a prison guard is to prisoners. He “keeps” prisoners in cells similar to the way a shepherd keeps sheep in a pen (1 Sam. 17:20). Is this the image that President Obama had in mind? Maybe so.

In Cain and Abel’s day, flocks and fields were the occupations of choice. “Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground” (4:2). Abel is not a lamb that needs “keeping.” The State has been the “keeper” of the poor for so long that many of them act like caged animals. Dr. Gary North’s comments on this passage from his economic commentary on Genesis, Sovereignty and Dominion, are well worth reading:

“Unfortunately, the passage has become a familiar one in liberal political and theological circles. ‘My brother’s keeper’ has become a catch phrase. More to the point, ‘your brother’s keeper’ has become the shibboleth of shibboleths of the so-called Social Gospel movement, second only to ‘the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.’

The standard explanation of this passage — completely out of context — is that each man owes his neighbor a great deal. Specifically, we all collectively owe each other life, liberty, and property, especially property, and most importantly, property confiscated from the rich through political action. We are supposedly the legal guardians of the poor, the infirm, and the feebleminded. We have this responsibility not as Christian individuals, members of churches, or contributors to voluntary charities, but as members of the body politic.

A “keeper” implies control of “a flock of docile, stupid, incompetent, wandering, helpless, and very profitable sheep. The primary economic function of sheep is, after all, to be sheared.”

Democrats love to be keepers of other people’s money and the voters who keep them in power.