251: Brother’s Keeper
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It's a simple story, Cain kills Abel, God comes around and asks him, "Where is your brother?" He replies, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Then God punishes him for what he's done. If there's a lesson in here about how we're supposed to treat each other and look out for each other, the lesson is so broad that it's almost useless. Yes, it says, you hear your brother's keeper to the extent that you shouldn't actually murder your own brother. It's not until later in the Bible that you get into more practical, everyday kinds of instructions, to lend your neighbor's money in hard times, give him a place to stay if they need it, to love your neighbor as yourself. The story of Cain and Abel is kind of a blunt instrument, a guy misjudges what he should do, and then someone dies. It's the first death in the Bible, Abel is the first person to die, and it's because his brother screwed up. But today on our program we have three stories of people trying to figure out how to treat their brothers and their neighbors, and whether they should step in to help, trying to figure out if stepping in will do anyone any good at all. From WBEZChicago, it's This American Life, distributed by Public Radio International, I'm Ira Glass, our program today, brothers keeper, biblical stories ripped from the day's headlines, necked one, whatever happened to baby Cain, and that act Jonathan Goldstein retails the story of Cain and Abel. Finally, we get to hear Cain's side of things, necked two, this land is your land, this land is my land, or maybe not. We hear the story of somebody trying to help all sorts of people who absolutely do not want his help, necked three, neighbors keeper. In that act, could anyone in a small farming town have done anything to prevent a brutal crime committed by one of their neighbors? Stay with us. Back one, whatever happened to baby Cain, one of our contributing editors here at This American Life, Jonathan Goldstein, has taken on as his latest project, Rewriting the Bible. Regular listeners to our show may remember his retelling of the story of Adam and Eve a few months back. To tell this story of Cain and Abel, he pretty much picks up the tale where he left off. On their first night outside the Garden of Eden, it was windy and cold, and the air was full of whistling. They scraped at the tree trunks and dug their fingers into the earth. At the top of their voices, Adam and Eve called out to God. We get it, they screamed. You've made your point. To fend off the cold, they hugged each other with all of their might. They thought about all of the things God had said in his wrath. How a little human would one day tear his way out of Eve. How they would no longer live forever, but would one day die. These thoughts made them colder. They slept face to face, pressed so tightly together that the bones in their noses hurt. Later they would learn to make clothing, but just then, all they had was each other. Nine months after that first night, this would change. In the beginning, in the Garden, a baby was supposed to be a surprise, appearing as suddenly as a sneeze.
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