Was Governer Bentley Wrong About “Brothers and Sisters?”

Politics Daily: Was Governer Bentley Wrong?

Alabama's new governor, Robert Bentley, has apologized for saying on his inauguration day that he regarded only committed Christians as his brothers and sisters.

"If anyone from other religions felt disenfranchised by the language, I want to say I am sorry," Bentley, a Republican, told the Associated Press and other news agencies Wednesday. "I am sorry if I offended anyone in any way."

There was an important context for Bentley's Monday statement. It came at a Martin Luther King Day event at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery — where King once served as pastor. Speaking in the language of his faith, Bentley told those in the pews: "Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister — and I want to be your brother." In the same speech, he promised to be a governor for "all of the people." …

From a political standpoint, this may not have been an appropriate remark for the context. But from a theological standpoint, the governor is correct from what I read in this brief quote. The idea of "the universal brotherhood of man" is a perspective that came with the Enlightenment and later. In the New Testament, the fictive family metaphor of "brothers (and sisters)" is reserved only for those who have become part of the baptized community. Pull out a concordance of the Bible, and you will see what I mean.

A particularly interesting use of the metaphor is in Jesus' parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25:40:

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

Who does "brothers" refer to here? The passage is often interpreted as a universal brotherhood of man reference … Jesus is in brotherhood with the suffering of the poor and outcast, and whatever we do to them, we do to Jesus. In a discussion at Jesus Creed a while back, New Testament scholar Scot McKnight pointed out that the universal brotherhood idea was foreign to the New Testament. Jesus refers to his brothers (Christians) being sent out to other nations and their treatment at the hands of those people. How the brothers are received determines who is labeled the sheep and the goats.

So, Bentley is theologically correct. But he might have added that the mission "brothers and sisters" have been given by their Father is to lay down their lives for those who are not yet brothers and sisters so that they may see a glimpse of their Father in heaven and be drawn into the family.