The Politics of Cain

The observation of a swing in North American politics to the right is hardly rocket science.
Whether locally with Torontoʼs Mayor Ford, federally with Prime Minister Harper or south of the border with the meteoric rise of the Tea Party, the politics of tax cuts at the expense of social programs has gained the upper hand. Looking to the upcoming Ontario Provincial election, advance polls indicate this trend is likely to continue.
Mired in the rhetoric of the political right is an appeal to traditional family values. For many this equates to 'biblical' values with this ʻreligiousʼ component ranging from the quiet Catholicism of Rob and Doug Ford to the more boisterous evangelism of the Tea Party.
Past history repeatedly confirms the mix of religion and politics is a volatile one. The Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the recent tragedy in Norway are a few of the many examples of what can go wrong when politics and religion mix.
But there is also historical evidence of what can go right when politics and religion mix.
The abolition of slavery in the UK, the civil rights movement in the US, the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa, the fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, all are examples of what can go right when politics and religion mix.
Think of the horrors that occur when religion is severed from politics. The massacre of millions in Russia and in the Ukraine during 1920's and 30's; millions more in China in the '50's and 60's, the extermination of 1/4 of Cambodia's population in the 1970's, are what can happen when politics forbids religion.
As volatile the mix of politics and religion is, the atrocities of the last century suggest that politics without religion is even worse.
So the question then becomes:
When is religion good for politics?
Deliberating on this question, an old bible story came to mind:
One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Letʼs go out into the fields.”
And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.
Afterward the Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?”
“I donʼt know,” Cain responded. “Am I my brotherʼs keeper?”
But the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brotherʼs blood cries out to me from the ground! Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brotherʼs blood. No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work!
Genesis 4:8-12
Whether one understands the story of Cain and Abel to be literal or not, is not the issue here.
The story captures both religion and politics when both were in their infancy.
The story occurs before the variants of language, ethnicity, politics and religion emerge.
Two brothers are together in a field. Both believe and make sacrifices to the same God.
But Cain wants what his brother has and kills him.
Survivorʼs first winner now has the field to himself, his politics built on this foundation:

I am not my brother's keeper!

His dead brother is the world's first victim of oppression.
To the victor belong the spoils.

By killing his brother, Cain holds all the cards.
Without religion, the story would end here with this caption:

Oppression wins.

But the story continues.

God confronts Cain with a question, which is the basis of all responsible political inquiry.
'Where is your brother?'
This is when religion is good for politics.
When it asks those who rule with the sword: 'where are the victims you've imprisoned or buried?'
When it stands in the way of the politics of self-interest.
When it confronts injustice by cross-examining those in power: 'what are you doing?'
When it presses home the responsibility that those who rule are the guardians of our poor brothers and sisters regardless of their race, religion, politics or language.
When it speaks on behalf of society's silent and silenced victims.
When it curses societal indifference to oppressed and hurting people and links God's blessing not with how hard we work but with how much we care.
The case could be made that the politics of the ʻChristian Rightʼ is very much the politics of Cain. It is the polar opposite of the biblical equality found in both the Old and New Testament:
Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed. (Exodus 16:18; 2 Cor 8:15)
But my concern is broader than the antics of those who insist their politics are based on ʻbiblical valuesʼ when in fact their politics are closer to the politics of Cain. We are still a democracy and for our politics to move from whatʼs good for Cain to whatʼs best for society, nobody excluded, we have to vote for those running on a platform of something better than tax cuts.

If the last 30 years from President Reagan onwards has taught us anything, it is this:

tax cuts = social cuts

Whether itʼs the closing of community facilities in Toronto, the shrinking of EI, Health and pension benefits in Canada, or funding reductions to US Social programs by the extension of tax cuts to the wealthy, nothing is going to change until we shift from voting out of self-interest and vote instead for the common good.