— Spiritual Perspectives —
Amos and Cain —
Am I my Brother's Keeper?

Sanjay Choudhrie

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
Special to the Independent

This is a story of putting together, coming together and conversion for me. And I blame the prophet Amos for this. As contradictions go, about twenty years ago I was the youngest executive of a national church in India. And I was what could be politely called a nominal Christian.

At lunch at an international conference in Chennai (then Madras) I was chatting with delegates about this, that and the other while we waited in line for food. Somebody asked me a question about faith and I immediately raised the issue of the Church’s witness as my excuse for not wanting to have much to do with Christianity or being Christian. The immediate response to this was, “Oh you need to read Amos!” All I knew from catechism, vacation Bible school and Sunday school was that Amos was a book in the Bible. A short book.

 Since I was fairly secure in my agnostism, I followed the lady’s advice and read Amos.  I quickly realized that this was one of the books in the Bible that seemed to have bypassed the censors and editors completely. Amos’s courage in confronting the rulers of Israel and Judah in their high holy places controlled by the priests was amazing. It was almost as though the man had a death wish. 

 Way before John the Baptist, Amos angered the rulers and their henchman in the places where they were most vulnerable and sensitive (maybe why he didn’t get assassinated). He told them like it was and is.

 He didn’t just tell. He screamed. He screamed about payday lending, about homelessness, about rich ripping off the poor, about ritual being more important than heart, and appearance more important than justice or mercy. And he told the practicing religious about their hypocrisy to their faces. And for the most part people heard him, particularly the poor. He argued, cajoled, shouted that God is intensely engaged with our lives — that God is impassioned about justice.

 And all of this led to an intense engagement and reading of the Bible. Liberation theology was becoming more established in Asia and I devoured books and articles from all over the world about this way reading and understanding the Bible and the meanings of faith. To shamelessly boil down a complex and multilayered theology, Liberation Theology maintains that “God has a preferential option for the poor.” These theologians look to the life of Jesus to see that God seems to show particular interest in, have stunning compassion, and a continued desire to “hang out” with the people on the margins of society. I saw that the Bible is not at an irrelevant book for the most pietistic among us, but a powerful guide for living in and engaging with the world in which I live.

 Amos is a raw reminder of what matters about faith and religion in the Bible. He boils faith and the religious life down to doing justice. To him everything else is secondary. 

 A question for us is, “Does our individual and corporate religious life provoke, provide and procure justice for the downtrodden and the oppressed?” By downtrodden and oppressed I mean those who live in poverty. We are called, after all, in one of the first questions in the Bible, to be our brother’s keeper. 

 Over the years I have mellowed a little. I have come to see that there are incentives for being our brother’s keeper. Taking care of people who have fallen on bad times or crises is good for the whole community. Ensuring that people have their basic needs means that there is less crime and more security for all. Ensuring that people have food, jobs, homes, dignity and respect regardless of who they are, or what troubles they have fallen into makes for a vibrant community that is a good place to bring up children and a good place to plant industry.

 Our new low-income green apartment complex, Chuska Apartments, brought investment, jobs, contracts, gross receipts taxes, and fees to this community. Most of that money came from outside this community. That money paid for groceries, rents, mortgages, car loans, and school clothes in Gallup. Projects like these have at least a dual impact because besides all of the above low-income and homeless families now have a decent place to live.

 Amos reminds me that Cain’s rhetorical question is the core of our faith and the taking care of our brother is good not only for our poor sister but also for the whole of this community.

Sanjay Choudhrie is the executive director of CARE 66 (Community Area Resource Enterprise) in Gallup. He can be contacted at (505) 722-0066 or sanjay@care66.org.

This column is written by area residents, representing different faith communities, who share their ideas about bringing a spiritual perspective into our daily lives and community issues. For information about contributing a guest column, contact Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola at The Independent: (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or lizreligion01@yahoo.com.