Alabama governor’s “brothers and sisters”
Making headlines today were the comments of new Alabama governor Robert Bentley, to the effect that anyone who has not accepted Jesus as a personal Lord and Savior is not his brother or sister. The comment raised the ire of non-Christians and elicited a statement from the Anti-Defamation League. The governor quickly apologized for the comments, indicating that he believes he is a public servant to all the citizens of the state.
The story called to my mind the words of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago when he became the Catholic archbishop of that city in 1982. “I am Joseph, your brother.” The words recalled the story of the Old Testament patriarch Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers and who later ascended to the right-hand of the Pharaoh of Egypt and saved his brothers from starvation. The reference is rich, both historically and symbolically.
There is a terrible history of Christian persecution of our “elder brothers” in faith, and recent advances have paved the way for a robust, developing theological conversation. It is very unfortunate that Governor Bentley made the comment that he did, for it reflects a weak understanding of Christian faith.
A striking contrast is provided by the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, in an interview he gave just yesterday.
all of us must acknowledge we have a common predecessor so no one can say — our texts say this — he is superior to another, because we have a common origin. In this sense, the whole of humanity is brotherhood.
It is possible to recognize that past hurts need not define relations between members of a family, even if that family is broad enough to encompass all of humanity. Jesus himself looked beyond the usual assumptions about family: “my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:21). To be fair to Governor Bentley, he later indicated that he wants to be a brother to everyone. One can hope that, like Jesus, he might see the shared work of building a good world–rather than a confessional litmus test–as the way to go about it.
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Believe it or not, when I first read the story I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and could totally see how his comments were misunderstood. In fact, it seemed to me, from the snips that I saw anyway, that he was in fact making a point about his desire to be “brother” to all. It’s a very Evangelical way to put it, and easily misunderstood, but I take him at his word that he was misunderstood.
Is the necessary distinction being made here between “brother and sister” as Jesus would have defined it, and “neighbor,” which would seem to be a different category? It would seem that, Christians, we are to love all of our neighbors; but that our spiritual “brother and sisters” are with us in Christ.
Other than in having been terribly politically incorrect, I don’t know that Bentley can justly be faulted for what he said.
This is being reported as Christian vs. non-Christian. In fact, he is saying that only American-style-evangelicals are his brothers and sisters. In that theology, we Catholics are also doomed.
MM–
Is that an assumption on your part? Or do you have something explicit in Bentley’s own words to substantiate it? (I can’t believe that I’m defending this character!)
To me, “accepting Jesus as your [personal] savior” connotes a flawed “born again” evangelical theology that is both incompatible with, and hostile toward, Catholicism.
Read the Bible.
Well, he can feel however he wants to feel. He just should not be a Governor of a diverse people if he feels this way.
The problem was his statement of it in the negative. Few would object to a suggestion of a particular fraternty or brotherhood among those who share a faith in Jesus Christ. And we in the labor movement address each other as brother and sister in affirmation of that particular fraternity as well.
It was the Governor’s unqualified statement that othere ARE NOT his brothers and sisters.
If Barack Obama went before the UAW Convention and said anyone who is NOT a union member is not his brother or sister, imagine the response.
Jesus said explicitly that his blood relatives were His “brothers and sisters” in a lesser sense than his disciples. Deal with it.