The Passage
“1 Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:1-9 NRSVue
The fourth chapter of Genesis introduces the first set of children born into the Adam and Eve epoch in a post paradise reality. In this chapter we are given insight into the first religious ritual (sacrifices and offerings) and subsequently, the first homicide recorded in scripture. What ensues is the callousness of a man born into a family known for their moral failure and the second and evidentiary incidence of the consequence of sin on human nature: death. (The first consequence in humanity’s lapse and disobedience was their banishment from the Garden of Eden.)
Cain, a devout religious man, toiled the ground to provide for his family. Abel, a keeper of sheep, was also diligent in his work as both men kept their mind on their work and also on their religious duties. The Bible does not relay to us the “why” God refused Cain’s offerings nor the “why” God accepted Abel’s efforts and sacrifice. What we are given instead, through inference, is that Cain’s heart, not necessarily his work, was in the wrong place. This introduces a dynamic into the world of religious ritualism that tells us our heart posture means more to God than the efforts of our toils. Namely, if we offer God gold and silver and all sorts of wonders on a platter but our heart is sapped of authenticity and humility, God will refuse it.
Cain, the first “son” of creation born through the natural means of reproduction, a child of consequence, a blessing and a curse, enacted the first murder in scriptural history as a result.
His callousness was solidified not in the murder itself, after taking his brother away from his work with animals and into his comfort zone in the field where he knew what to plant and where and potentially where to hide a body, and there, in the open arena, visible to God and all creation, he slew his brother. Whether spite, hatred, jealousy, or religious animosity, it all led him to a point where when questioned by God about his brother’s whereabouts Cain distanced himself not only from the responsibility to truly care for his brother but also the responsibility to care at all about his fellow man.
“I do not know.” Cain lied. Perhaps blood still under his nails. The image of his brother’s corpse seared into his brain. The final cries of his brother housed in his ears for life. The taste and smell of his brother’s blood might still be in his system.
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” He finalized the posture of his heart as if the murder were not enough; the abandonment of love and family ties ensued; as if Cain had abandoned his humanity altogether. He asked the rhetorical question. He introduced a negative for which a positive already existed: Yes, we are all our each other’s keepers. And to deviate from this is to deviate from our humanity.
The Commentary
“Plenty of worship nowadays is Cain worship. Many reputable professing Christians bring just such sacrifices. The prayers of such never reach higher than the church ceiling. Of course, the lesson of the story is not that a man must be pure before his sacrifice is accepted. Of course, the faintest cry of trust is heard, and a contrite heart, however sinful, is always welcome. But we are taught that our acts of worship must have our hearts in them, and that it is vain to pray and to love evil. Sin has the awful power of blocking our way to God.” Alexander MacLaren
MacLaren does not miss when he writes that worship nowadays is Cain worship. As if to say that the methodology of apathy implemented in a post paradise fallen world ages ago is still very much present in our 21st century experience. We cannot submit clamors and petitions to the heavens while our hearts are crusted over with evil, cooled by sin, and shattered by apathy.
The Literary Reflection
I recently finished a marvelous book by Black Guinean-Brazilian theologian, historian, and activist Jacira Pontinta Vaz Monteiro titled, A Estigma da Cor (The Stigma of Color). In it, she tackles a wide range of issues that plague the Church as it relates or fails to relate to the question of race and racism in church history. Namely, how so many Christians (in Brazil, Latin America, and in the United States of America) struggle to grapple with the reality and legacy of racism in and out of the church today. She says that this failure to “see” Black people and believe that Black suffering “still exists” in our time is akin to the plight of Cain. Apathy in the hearts of Christians is the sin of Cain all over again.
In one of her most gut-wrenching chapters (The Cain Syndrome: When Indifference and Contempt Become My Response To My Neighbor’s Pain) she better defines and breaks down the crisis that is The Cain Syndrome.
(Editor’s Note: The translations from Portuguese to English below were procured via Google Translate and myself. Any inaccuracies or grammatical errors are on my part and my part alone.)
- “Cain reveals egocentrism and individualism.”
Response: It is true. Cain’s actions reveal an individual so focused on himself that he tarnished the communal and fraternal relationships required of a community and family to flourish. He escapes the selfless and communal mindset present at the time to invoke the unnecessary and extreme act of murder to avenge his emotions. He destroyed the feelings of his brother and fellow human when he killed him. Perhaps, in his psyche, he may have severed those ties long before the death blow was dealt so as not to deal nor cope with the gravity of his wrongs. His self-centeredness, namely, his egocentric and individualistic heart posture was a consequence of apathy in practice. One cannot commit murder without cutting ties between heart and mind. A detachment from one’s communal responsibility must take place before the ensuing violence solidifies.
- “We Black people suffer discrimination every day and we witness to people what it is like to be treated unequally by society, based on our experiences, in hope that people will mobilize and join us in the fight against racism. However, many do not effectively get involved, for various reasons. Some still identify the legitimate pain of Black people as ‘victimhood.’ The truth is that the expression ‘victimhood’ has become a scarecrow for those who do not care about the pain of Black people, the pain of those who have been wronged. They are too busy talking – they are reactive and have little time to listen and understand the life experiences of Black people. Using an analogy, it is as if I had a cut on my arm and was showing the cut on my arm to someone and that person looked at my cut and said: ‘That cut of yours is your invention!’”
Response: “That cut of yours is your invention!” is akin to “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The sentiment is the same. Pain is visible. Blood covers the floor. But here we not only negate the pain but the reality of the wound and its consequence, death.
- “It seems that we, Black people, in addition to suffering racism, have to prove that we are in fact telling the truth. And when we show historical, social and statistical facts, our evidence is still declared insufficient. The big issue is not the proof of the fact, the big issue is who we are and they do not care about us and our situation. The Cains are hostile to us Black people because they do not care about our well-being.”
Response: The carelessness derived from engaging fellow believers in such issues such as poverty, racism, and oppression is that some of them simply do not care. The faith of many Christians has become a egocentric and individualistic hotbed where individual salvation is all the matters and to hell with all else. Heaven is the goal. Hell be avoided. And everything in between is a mystery to be dealt with by God and God alone. This sentiment of distancing oneself from the plight of humanity is a psychological cancer. It is a spiritual disease. The ability to lie your way out of feeling your neighbor’s pain is demonic.
- “When there is an injustice happening and you pretend not to see it, you become complicit. And omission is a sin. You will be held accountable to God. Jesus will ask you why you could have reached out to one of His little ones and did not do so.”
Response: “Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.” James 4:17 Berean Standard Version.
Conclusion
I never thought, in a million years, that my greatest conflict in the world as a Christian would be the apathy and cooled hatred of fellow Christians.
I believed, erroneously so, that I would live long enough to witness a resurgence of religious persecution in the world, directed mostly at Christians and Jews at the hands of Atheists and Muslims. My mindset growing up, reading all sorts of condemnable dispensationalist literature, was that a totalitarian or authoritarian government would take control of the world and force all Christians to deny Christ at the threat of bodily injury and death.
I read books about martyrs, their histories, their stories, their woes, and their grievances with local and imperial governments. Men, women, and children who faced legitimate and deadly persecutions that challenged their faith in Christ and got them killed. Some were burned alive, others were flayed, others yet were stoned, stabbed, ripped to pieces by beasts, or murdered by mobs who detested the idea of a Jewish cult that worshipped a man called Joshua (Yeshua, Jesus) who claimed to be the Son of God.
And with these stories in mind I prepared my heart and mind to face a world of threats and potential death at the hands of bloodthirsty mobs or a totalitarian state. Forever vigilant and always near a panic as a result of these doctrines and mythologies I was taught to ingest.
But now, three and a half decades into the world I have discovered a truth. Christians are predominantly in power. Whether Christians at heart or Christians in culture. There exists a concept, an idea, a validity to the claim that there exists Christian Supremacy in the world and this supremacy of cultural identitarianism, not Christ, has instigated so much apathy and death in the world.
Today my battle, a real intellectual and spiritual battle, is not with the potential of religious persecution at the hands of non-Christians but it is a battle against the apathy of Christians. Christians who see the history of death and oppression that has happened to my people, Africans and their descendants, to the indigenous peoples, to the Asian peoples, and more, at the hands of Christians or a Christianized people, and refuse, to this day, to accept that the wounds happened and that scars exist as a result.
The spirit of Cain, namely, of denying the truth that is evident and then apathetically denying the connection one has with his fellow human, is objectively consuming whole swaths of Christian networks of influence.
The consequence of this denial and apathy is a world where Christians have become the most dangerous group of people to ever exist. Religious like Cain, constantly offering their day’s work to God and then, without further notice, they take their fellow brother and sister into the field to kill them.
Kill them in thought. Kill their emotions. Kill their stories. Kill their pain. And yes, lastly, kill them.
Once the deed is done, they shout at God, denying the initial family ties, the human ties, and then they deny having responsibility over one another.
Are we not all one family? Different cultures, ethnicities, perhaps, even, different races (a social construct) but yet, are we not one family?
If so, why the apathy? Why the refusal to admit that your neighbor lives in perpetual pain, perhaps not even caused by you but it is still there!
What has the Church to do with Cain?
Well, the Church is guilty of witnessing a crime and denying it ever happened.
The Church is guilty of benefiting from said crime and denying the fact that it has grown fat from said crime.
The Church has committed the crime and now it refuses to acknowledge the humanity of those it has killed.
The Church has become Cain.
“If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait
I write this not only to the Church in general but to the white Church in the global north (North America and Europe) which has historically benefitted from racialized systems and institutions, a culture and social sphere structured on the idea that white people were inherently better and superior to other races. And the ghost of this white institution exists today to combat the grievous reality of its historical and contemporary sins. It is this institution, this culture and mindset, this spirit of the age that haunts us still, denying a crime whilst the blood of its victims is still fresh on its hands.
Please, do not approach God in worship and in deed if your heart is calloused to the plight of your Colored brothers and sisters. God will not accept what you have to offer.
What has the Church to do with Cain?
Nothing.
It should reflect the heart of Christ in doctrine (thoughts and creeds) and in action.
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. – Proverbs 31:8 NLT
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Display: The Death of Abel by Gustave Doré (1832-83), artist H. Pisan, engraver
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