Herman Cain
Cain in October 2011
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
In office 1995–1996
Preceded by	Burton A. Dole, Jr
Succeeded by	A. Drue Jennings
Deputy Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
In office 1992–1994
Preceded by	Burton A. Dole, Jr
Succeeded by	A. Drue Jennings
Personal details
Born	(1945-12-13) December 13, 1945 (age 66) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Gloria Cain (m. 1968) «start: (1968-06-23)»"Marriage: Gloria Cain to Herman Cain" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Herman_Cain)[1]
Children	Melanie Cain Vincent Cain
Residence	Sandy Springs, Georgia, US[2]
Alma mater	Morehouse College (BS) Purdue University (MS)
Occupation	Business executive, radio host, columnist
Religion	Baptist[3]
Website	cainconnections.com

	This article is part of a series about Herman Cain	Herman Cain
2012 presidential campaign Political positions 9–9–9 Plan This is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House 9-9-9 An Army of Davids

Herman Cain (born December 13, 1945)^[4] is an American author, business executive, radio host, syndicated columnist, and Tea Party activist from Georgia.^[5][6][7] He was a candidate for the 2012 U.S. Republican Party presidential nomination.^[5]

Cain grew up in Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics.^[8] Cain pursued graduate studies at Purdue University, and graduated with a Master of Science in computer science in 1971,^[9] while also working full-time for the U.S. Department of the Navy.^[10][11][12] In 1977, he joined Pillsbury Company where he later became vice president.^[13] During the 1980s, his success as a business executive at Burger King prompted Pillsbury Company to appoint him as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, in which capacity he served from 1986 to 1996.^[14]

Cain was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Omaha Branch from 1989 to 1991.^[15] He was deputy chairman, from 1992 to 1994, and chairman, from 1995 to 1996, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.^[15] In 1995, Cain was appointed by Newt Gingrich to the Kemp Commission,^[16] and was a senior economic advisor to the Bob Dole presidential campaign.^[17] Cain became the CEO of the National Restaurant Association,^[18] in which he served as president and CEO from 1996 to 1999.^[18][19] During the Presidency of Bill Clinton, Cain publicly opposed the Clinton health care plan of 1993, about which he questioned the president at a town hall meeting.^[20] Cain has served as a member of the board of directors of several companies, including Aquila, Inc., Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader's Digest, and AGCO.^[14][21][22]

In May 2011, Cain announced his presidential candidacy. His proposed 9–9–9 tax plan, along with his debate performances, made him the Republican front-runner in fall of 2011, during which he briefly led President Obama in the polls.^[23] In November his campaign struggled to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct, which resulted in Cain suspending his campaign on December 3.^[24][25][26] The Pew Research Center reported that, of the Republican candidates, "Herman Cain was the most covered candidate in 2011."^[27][28] After suspending his campaign, Cain first endorsed Newt Gingrich,^[29] and then on May 15, 2012 Cain endorsed Mitt Romney.^[30]

Family and personal life[link]

Herman Cain was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Lenora Davis Cain, a cleaning woman and domestic worker, and Luther Cain, Jr., who was raised on a farm and worked as a barber and janitor, as well as a chauffeur for Coca-Cola Company president Robert W. Woodruff. Cain has said that as he was growing up, his family was "poor but happy." Cain related that his mother taught him about her belief that "success was not a function of what you start out with materially, but what you start out with spiritually". His father worked three jobs to own his own home – something he achieved during Cain's childhood – and to see his two sons graduate.^[12][31][32]

Cain grew up on the west side of Atlanta, Georgia, attending school and Rev. Cameron M. Alexander's Antioch Baptist Church North in the neighborhood now known as The Bluff. Eventually Cain's father saved enough money and the family moved to a modest brick home on Albert Street in the Collier Heights neighborhood. He attended Archer (public) High School, graduating in 1963.^[33]

Cain married Gloria Cain (née Etchison), of Atlanta, soon after her graduation from Morris Brown College in 1968.^[34][35] His wife of 43 years is a homemaker, with experience as a teacher and a librarian.^[34] The couple have two children and three grandchildren.^[34]

In 2006, Cain was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in his colon and metastases to his liver and given a 30-percent chance of survival. Cain underwent surgery and chemotherapy following the diagnosis, and has since reported that he is in remission.^[36]

Disclosures filed during his campaign in 2011 categorized Cain's wealth as of that time as being between $2.9 to $6.6 million, with Cain's income for both 2010 and 2011 combined being between $1.1 to $2.1 million.^[37]

Cain also serves as an associate minister at Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, which he joined at the age of 10.^[38] The church is part of the National Baptist Convention^[39] and is politically liberal and theologically conservative; the church's senior pastor, Rev. Cameron M. Alexander, does not share Cain's political philosophy.^[40][41]

Education and career[link]

Cain grew up in Georgia^[8] and graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics.

Accepted for graduate studies at Purdue University, Cain received a Master of Science in computer science there in 1971,^[9] while he also worked full-time as a ballistics analyst for the U.S. Department of the Navy as a civilian.^[10]

After completing his master's degree from Purdue, Cain left the Department of the Navy and began working for The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta as a computer systems analyst. In 1977, he moved to Minneapolis to join Pillsbury,^[42] soon becoming director of business analysis^[43] in its restaurant and foods group in 1978.^[14][44]

Burger King[link]

At age 36, Cain was assigned in the 1980s to analyze and manage 400 Burger King stores in the Philadelphia area. At the time, Burger King was a Pillsbury subsidiary. Under Cain, his region posted strong improvement in three years.^[13][45] According to a 1987 account in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Pillsbury's then-president Win Wallin said, "He was an excellent bet. Herman always seemed to have his act together."^[14] At Burger King, Cain "established the BEAMER program, which taught our employees, mostly teenagers, how to make our patrons smile" by smiling themselves. It was a success: "Within three months of the program's initiation, the sales trend was moving steadily higher."^[46]

Godfather's Pizza[link]

Cain's success at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him president and CEO of another subsidiary, Godfather's Pizza. On his arrival on April 1, 1986, Cain told employees, "I'm Herman Cain and this ain't no April Fool's joke. We are not dead. Our objective is to prove to Pillsbury and everyone else that we will survive."^[14] Godfather's Pizza was performing poorly, having slipped in ranks of pizza chains from third in 1985 to fifth in 1988.^[13] Under Cain's leadership, Godfather's closed approximately 200 restaurants and eliminated several thousand jobs, and by doing so returned to profitability.^[37] In a leveraged buyout in 1988, Cain, Executive Vice-President and COO Ronald B. Gartlan, and a group of investors bought Godfather's from Pillsbury.^[13]

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City[link]

Cain served as Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Omaha Branch from January 1, 1989 to December 31, 1991.^[15] He became a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1992.^[15] He served as deputy chairman from January 1, 1992 to December 31, 1994, and then as its chairman until August 19, 1996,^[15] when he resigned to become active in national politics.^[47]

National Restaurant Association[link]

Cain left Godfather's Pizza in 1996 and moved to Washington, D.C. From 1996 to 1999 he served as CEO of the National Restaurant Association, a trade group and lobbying organization for the restaurant industry, on whose board of directors he had previously served.^[18] Cain's lobbying work for the Association led to a number of connections to Republican lawmakers and politicians.^[37] Under Cain's leadership, the Association lobbied against increases to the minimum wage, mandatory health care benefits, regulations against smoking, and lowering the blood-alcohol limit that determines whether one is driving under the influence.^[48]

Cain was on the board of directors of several companies, including Aquila, Inc., Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader's Digest, and AGCO, Inc.^[14][21][22]

After Cain's term with the restaurant advocacy group ended in 1999, he returned to Omaha for about a year, then moved to his hometown of Atlanta in 2000.^[49]

Media work[link]

Cain writes a syndicated op-ed column, which is distributed by the North Star Writers Group.^[50]

Cain appeared in the 2009 documentary An Inconvenient Tax.^[51] From 2008, until February 2011, Cain hosted The Herman Cain Show on Atlanta talk radio station WSB.^[52][53] On January 19, 2012, Cain began working for WSB again by providing daily commentaries, while occasionally filling in for Erick Erickson and Neal Boortz.^[53]

Recognition[link]

Cain received the 1996 Horatio Alger Award^[54] and has received honorary degrees from Creighton University, Johnson & Wales University, Morehouse College, University of Nebraska, New York City Technical College, Purdue University, Suffolk University, and Tougaloo College.^[21]

Political activities[link]

Role in the defeat of 1993 Clinton health care plan[link]

Cain publicly opposed the Clinton health care plan of 1993. As president-elect of the National Restaurant Association, he challenged Bill Clinton on the costs of the employer mandate contained within the bill and criticized its effect on small businesses. Bob Cohn of Newsweek described Cain as one of the primary opponents of the plan:

The Clintons would later blame "Harry and Louise", the fictional couple in the ads aired by the insurance industry, for undermining health reform. But the real saboteurs are named Herman and John. Herman Cain is the president of Godfather's Pizza and president-elect of the National Restaurant Association. An articulate entrepreneur, Cain transformed the debate when he challenged Clinton at a town meeting in Kansas City, Missouri. Cain asked the president what he was supposed to say to the workers he would have to lay off because of the cost of the "employer mandate". Clinton responded that there would be plenty of subsidies for small businessmen, but Cain persisted. "Quite honestly, your calculation is inaccurate," he told the president. "In the competitive marketplace it simply doesn't work that way."^[20]

Joshua Green of The Atlantic has called Cain's exchange with Clinton his "auspicious debut on the national political stage".^[55]

Conservative politician and former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp was so impressed with Cain's performance that he chartered a plane to Nebraska to meet Cain after the debate. Cain credits Kemp with his becoming interested in politics.^[56]

Senior advisor to 1996 Dole campaign[link]

Cain was a senior economic advisor to the Bob Dole presidential campaign in 1996.^[17]

2000 presidential campaign[link]

Cain briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000; he says it was more about making political statements than winning the nomination. "George W. Bush was the chosen one, he had the campaign DNA that followers look for." However, Cain went on to state, "I believe that I had a better message and I believe that I was the better messenger."^[57] After ending his own campaign, however, he endorsed Steve Forbes.^[58]

2004 U.S. Senate candidacy[link]

In 2004, Cain ran for the U.S. Senate in Georgia and did not win in the primaries. He was pursuing the seat that came open with the retirement of Democrat Zell Miller. Cain sought the Republican nomination, facing congressmen Johnny Isakson and Mac Collins in the primary. Cain and Collins both hoped to deny Isakson a majority on primary day in order to force him into a runoff.^{[citation needed]} Collins tried to paint Cain as a moderate,^[59] citing Cain's support for affirmative action programs, while Cain argued that he was a conservative, noting that he opposed the legality of abortion except when the mother's life is threatened.^[60] Cain finished second in the primary with 26.2% of the vote, ahead of Collins, who won 20.6%, but because Isakson won 53.2% of the vote, Isakson was able to avoid a runoff.^[61]

Americans for Prosperity and America's PAC[link]

Starting in 2005, Cain worked for the political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) alongside Mark Block. Block would later become campaign manager for Cain's 2012 Presidential run and would be joined in Cain's campaign by several other AFP employees. Cain continued to receive honorariums for speaking at AFP events until he announced his campaign for the Republican nomination.^[62] Cain's senior economic advisor during his 2012 presidential campaign, Rich Lowrie, who helped devise Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan, had served on the AFP board.^[63] In 2006, Cain voiced several radio ads encouraging people of color to vote Republican; the ads were funded by a group called America's PAC and its founder J. Patrick Rooney.^[64]

2012 presidential campaign[link]

Cain speaking at the Ames Straw Poll in August 2011.

In 2010, "Cain addressed more than 40 Tea Party rallies, hit all the early presidential states, and became a YouTube sensation."^[8] On September 24, 2010, Cain announced that he was considering a run for president in 2012 on the Republican Party ticket.^[65] In December, Cain was the "surprise choice" for 2012 GOP nominee in a RedState.com reader poll.^[8] Cain announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee on January 12, 2011,^[66][67] and officially announced his candidacy on May 21 in Atlanta.^[68]

Straw poll victories[link]

A popular speaker, Cain's addresses to conservative groups were well received,^[69][70] and in late September and early October 2011, Cain won the straw polls of the Florida Republican Party, TeaCon, and the National Federation of Republican Women's Convention.^[71][72] "My focus groups have consistently picked Herman Cain as the most likeable candidate in the debates," says GOP pollster Frank Luntz. "Don't underestimate the power of likability, even in a Republican primary. The more likeable the candidate, the greater the electoral potential."^[71][73]

9–9–9 Plan[link]

In July 2011, an advisor suggested that his campaign's tax policy plan be called "the Optimal Tax", but Cain rejected the name, saying "[w]e're just going to call it what it is: 9–9–9 Plan."^[74] The plan would replace the current tax code with a 9-percent business transactions tax, a 9-percent personal income tax, and a 9-percent federal sales tax. During a debate on October 12, Cain said his plan "expands the base," arguing that "[w]hen you expand the base, we can arrive at the lowest possible rate, which is 9-9-9."^[75] An analysis released to Bloomberg News by the campaign claimed that the rate for each of the three taxes could in fact be as low as 7.3%, but "poverty grants" — which Cain has described as a lower rate in targeted "empowerment zones"^[76] — necessitated a national rate of 9%.^[75] Paul Krugman has criticized the plan, saying it shifts much of the current tax burden from the rich to the poor.^[77] Arthur Laffer,^[74] Lawrence Kudlow,^[78] the Club for Growth,^[79] and Congressman Paul Ryan^[80] have spoken favorably of "9-9-9". On October 21, Cain told a crowd in Detroit that the plan would be 9-0-9 for the poor, saying that "if you are at or below the poverty level ... then you don't pay that middle 9 on your income."^[81] Cain's 9-9-9 plan attracted skepticism from his fellow candidates at numerous Republican debates.^[82]

Allegations of sexual misconduct[link]

Cain in Scottsdale, Arizona in November 2011.

In late October 2011, Politico reported that Cain had been accused by two women of sexual harassment and misconduct during his time as CEO of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s.^[19][83] Harassment accusations have since been made by two additional women. Cain denies all allegations of sexual misconduct, while acknowledging that the restaurant organization made financial settlements to the complainants. Two of the four women have come forward publicly: Sharon Bialek and Karen Kraushaar.^[84]

On November 28, 2011, Cain asserted that a woman named Ginger White would be claiming to have had an affair with him, and that the allegation was not true.^[85] An interview with White was aired an hour later on Fox 5 in Atlanta. In the interview, White said the affair lasted 13 years and ended right before Cain announced his presidential campaign.^[86] On November 30, 2011, Herman Cain denounced allegations of sexual harassment and adultery as "character assassination" during an event in Dayton, Ohio.^[87]

Campaign suspension[link]

On December 3, 2011, Cain announced he was "suspending" his campaign for the presidency following allegations of sexual harassment and adultery, which he denied,^[88] but were widely considered responsible for the sharp drop in his poll numbers.^[89]

Cain’s Solutions Revolution[link]

On January 4, 2012, Cain announced the "Cain’s Solutions Revolution". Cain's stated goal is to get commitments from members of Congress to support the 9-9-9 Plan before the 2012 elections.^[90] Cain stated that he started a new movement because the "biggest comment I got when I ended my candidacy was to keep 9-9-9 alive. That's what this is about, and I'm going to keep it alive with what I'm calling Cain's Solutions Revolution."^[91] In order to promote this movement, Cain is using both a bus tour and a new website.^[92] New York magazine stated that "it's Cain's earnest effort to keep 9-9-9 alive and focus on solutions."^[93] On January 20, 2012, Cain spoke at Stephen Colbert's "Rock Me Like a Herman Cain: South Cain-Olina Primary Rally".^[94] The Huffington Post reported that the crowd size was between 3,000 and 5,000 people. It has been called "the largest campaign rally so far during this GOP presidential primary season",^[95] and "the biggest political rally of the primary season".^[94]

State of the Union response[link]

For President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address, the Tea Party Express chose Cain to give its second annual response.^[96] After Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels gave the official GOP response,^[97] Cain delivered his speech at the National Press Club.^[98] The speech was streamed live on the Tea Party Express website.^[97][99] Cain referred to Obama's address as a "hodgepodge of liberal ideas," adding that there were "no big ideas that would impact job growth" and "no big ideas that would stimulate economic growth in this country".^[100]

Bibliography[link]

• "The Intangibles of Implementation" in the technical journal Interfaces (Vol. 9, No. 5, 1979, pp. 144–147), published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).
• Leadership is Common Sense (2nd ed.). Tapestry. November 2000 [first published 1997]. ISBN 978-1-930819-02-3. 
• Speak as a Leader. Lebhar-Friedman Books. December 1999. ISBN 978-0-86730-782-5. 
• CEO of SELF. Tapestry. August 2001. ISBN 978-1-930819-04-7. 
• They Think You're Stupid. Stroud & Hall. June 10, 2011 [first published 2005]. ISBN 978-0-9796462-7-0. 
• This is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House. Threshold Editions. October 2011. ISBN 978-1-4516-6613-7. 
• 9-9-9 An Army of Davids. Velocity Mascot. May 1 2012. ISBN 978-1-62086-030-4. 

See also[link]

Conservatism portal

• Political positions of Herman Cain

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Herman Cain on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote

• Cain's Solution Revolution official website
• Column archives at the North Star Writers Group
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
• Collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Works by or about Herman Cain in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Watch Herman Cain Battle Bill Clinton on Health Care, Joshua Green, The Atlantic, January 2011, with Profile

Cain (right) and Abel (left), 19th century Bible illustration

In the Bible, Cain and Abel (Hebrew: הֶבֶל ,קַיִן‎‎ Qayin, Hevel)^[1] are two sons of Adam and Eve. The Qur'an mentions the story, calling them the two sons of Adam (Arabic: إبني آدم).

Cain is described as a crop farmer and his younger brother Abel as a shepherd. Genesis 4:2 Cain is portrayed as sinful, committing the first murder by killing his brother, after God rejected his offerings of produce but accepted Abel's sacrifice "from the firstborn of his flock and from their fats".Genesis 4:1,3 Thus, Cain was the first human born, and Abel the first to die.

The oldest known copy of the Biblical narration is from the 1st century Dead Sea Scrolls.^[2][3] Cain and Abel also appear in a number of other texts,^[4] and the story is the subject of various interpretations.^[5] Abel, the first murder victim, is sometimes seen as the first martyr;^[6] while Cain, the first murderer, is sometimes seen as an ancestor of evil.^[7] A few scholars suggest the pericope may have been based on a Sumerian story representing the conflict between nomadic shepherds and settled farmers.^[8] Others think that it may refer to the days in which agriculture began to replace the ways of the hunter-gatherer.^[9][10]

Allusions to Cain and Abel as an archetype of fratricide persist in numerous references and retellings, through medieval art and Shakespearean works up to present day fiction.

Some Jewish traditions hold Cain to have been fathered by the serpent (Hebrew nahash נחש) from the Garden of Eden.^[11]

Etymology[link]

Abel
A Christian icon of Abel
Righteous, First Martyr
Honored in	Judaism, Christianity, Islam
Major shrine	Nabi Habeel Mosque, Damascus

Cain and Abel are traditional English renderings of the Hebrew names Qayin (קין) and Havel (הבל). The original text did not provide vowels.^[12] Abel's name is composed in Hebrew of the same three consonants as a root speculated by people to have originally meant "breath", because Rabbis postulated one of its roots thus, also "waste", but is used in the Hebrew Bible primarily as a metaphor for what is "elusive", especially the "vanity" (another definition by the Rabbis of medieval France, Rashi in specific from his translation into Old French) of human beauty and work e.g. Hevel Hayophi (He-vel Ha-yo-fi) vanity is as beauty from the Song of Songs of Solomon.^[13] Julius Wellhausen, and many scholars following him, have proposed that the name is independent of the root.^[14] Eberhard Schrader had previously put forward the Akkadian (Old Assyrian dialect) ablu ("son") as a more likely etymology.^[15] In the Islamic tradition, Abel is named as Hābīl (هابيل), while Cain is named as Qābīl (قابيل). Although their story is cited in the Quran, neither of them is mentioned by name. Cain is called Qayen in the Ethiopian version of Genesis.^[16] The Koine Greek of the New Testament refers to Cain three times,^[17] using two syllables ka-in (Κάïν) for the name.^[18]

More recent scholarship has produced another theory, a more direct pun. Abel is here thought to derive from a reconstructed word meaning "herdsman", with the modern Arabic cognate ibil, now specifically referring only to "camels". Cain, on the other hand, is thought to be cognate to the mid-1st millennium BC South Arabian word qyn, meaning "metal smith".^[19] This theory would make the names merely descriptions of the roles they take in the story—Abel working with livestock, and Cain with agriculture—and would parallel the names Adam ("man") and Eve ("life", Chavah in Hebrew).^[20]

The name Abel has been used in many European languages as both surname and first name. In English, however, even Cain features in 17th century, Puritan-influenced families, who had a taste for biblical names, sometimes despite the reputation of the original character.^[21][22][23] Contrary to popular belief^{[citation needed]}, the surname McCain does not mean "Son of Cain" in Gaelic, rather it is a contraction (also McCann) of Mac Cathan. Gaelic cathan means "warrior", from cath "battle".^[24]

Murder and motive[link]

For convenience, the story can be considered in two sections — 1. murder and motive and 2. confrontation and consequences.

Religious sources of the Cain and Abel story can be found in Genesis (950 to 450 BC) in the Hebrew Bible, Sura 5 (Al-Ma'ida) of the Qur'an (early 7th century) and Pearl of Great Price (1851).^[25]

Biblical account[link]

Cain leads Abel to death, by James Tissot.

¹Adam knew his wife Eve intimately, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, "I have had a male child with the LORD's help."^{[26] 2}Then she also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of a flock, but Cain cultivated the land. ³In the course of time Cain presented some of the land's produce as an offering to the LORD. ⁴And Abel also presented [an offering]^[27] — some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.^[28] The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he was downcast.^{[29] 6}Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you furious? And why are you downcast?^{[30] 7}If you do right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it." ⁸Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field."^[31] And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

— Genesis 4:1-8 (HCSB)

The Septuagint has a different verse 7:

Hast thou not sinned if thou hast brought it rightly, but not rightly divided it? be still, to thee shall be his submission, and thou mayest rule over him.^[32]

Motives[link]

Though Genesis depicts Cain's motive in killing Abel as simply being one of jealousy concerning God's favour for Abel, this is not the view of many extra-biblical works. The Midrash and the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan both record that the real motive involved the desire of women. According to Midrashic tradition, Cain and Abel each had twin sisters, whom they were to marry. The Midrash records that Abel's promised wife was the more beautiful. Cain would not consent to this arrangement. Adam proposed to refer the question to God by means of a sacrifice. God rejected Cain's sacrifice, signifying His disapproval of his marriage with Aclima, and Cain slew his brother in a fit of jealousy.^[33]

In Latter-day Saint extra-Biblical scripture, the Book of Moses contains an expanded account of the story of Cain and Abel. In this account, Cain murders Abel as a result of a covenant of murder with Satan. Following the murder, Cain exclaims, "I am free; surely the flocks of my brother falleth into my hands" (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 5:33) indicating that coveting Abel's possessions was another motive for Cain's action.

Abel's death[link]

Adam and Eve mourn the death of Abel, painting by William Bouguereau

In Christianity, comparisons are sometimes made between the death of Abel and that of Jesus, the former thus seen as being the first martyr: in Matthew 23:35, Jesus speaks of Abel as righteous; and the Epistle to the Hebrews states that The blood of sprinkling ... [speaks] better things than that of Abel (Hebrews 12:24). The blood of Jesus is interpreted as bringing mercy; but that of Abel as demanding vengeance (hence the curse and mark).^[34]

Abel is invoked in the litany for the dying in Roman Catholic Church, and his sacrifice is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass with those of Abraham and Melchizedek. The Coptic Church commemorates him with a feast day on December 28.^[35]

Burial[link]

According to Shi'a Muslim belief, Abel is buried in Nabi Habeel Mosque, located west of Damascus, in Syria.

Underworld[link]

In classical times, as well as more recently, Abel was regarded as the first innocent victim of the power of evil, and hence the first martyr. In the Book of Enoch (at 22:7), the soul of Abel is described as having been appointed as the chief of martyrs, crying for vengeance, for the destruction of the seed of Cain. This view is later repeated in the Testament of Abraham (at A:13 / B:11), where Abel has been raised to the position as the judge of the souls:

An awful man sitting upon the throne to judge all creatures, and examining the righteous and the sinners. He being the first to die as martyr, God brought him hither [to the place of judgment in the nether world] to give judgment, while Enoch, the heavenly scribe, stands at his side writing down the sin and the righteousness of each. For God said: I shall not judge you, but each man shall be judged by man. Being descendants of the first man, they shall be judged by his son until the great and glorious appearance of the Lord, when they will be judged by the twelve tribes of Israel, and then the last judgment by the Lord Himself shall be perfect and unchangeable.

According to the Coptic Book of Adam and Eve (at 2:1-15), and the Syriac Cave of Treasures, Abel's body, after many days of mourning, was placed in the Cave of Treasures, before which Adam and Eve, and descendants, offered their prayers. In addition, the Sethite line of the Generations of Adam swear by Abel's blood to segregate themselves from the unrighteous.

Confrontation and consequences[link]

Cain, by Henri Vidal, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris

Bible[link]

⁹Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I know not," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
¹⁰Then He said, "What have you done? Your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground! ¹¹So now you are cursed [with alienation]^[36] from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood you have shed. ¹²If you work the land, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."
¹³But Cain answered the Lord, "My punishment^[37] is too great to bear! ¹⁴Since You are banishing me today from the soil, and I must hide myself from Your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me."
¹⁵Then the Lord replied to him, "Therefore,^[38] whosoever slayeth Cain vengeance will suffer vengeance seven times over. "^[39] And the Lord set a Mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. ¹⁶Then Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Qur'an and Sunnah[link]

The story with the motives and the aftermath of the killing is mentioned in Surat Al-Ma'ida Verse 27 - 32^{[citation needed]}:

27. Recite to them the truth of the story of the two sons of Adam. Behold! they each presented a sacrifice (to Allah): It was accepted from one, but not from the other. Said the latter: "Be sure I will slay thee." "Surely," said the former, "(Allah) doth accept of the sacrifice of those who are righteous.
28. "If thou dost stretch thy hand against me, to slay me, it is not for me to stretch my hand against thee to slay thee: for I do fear Allah, the cherisher of the worlds.
29. "For me, I intend to let thee draw on thyself my sin as well as thine, for thou wilt be among the companions of the fire, and that is the reward of those who do wrong."
30. The (selfish) soul of the other led him to the murder of his brother: he murdered him, and became (himself) one of the lost ones.
31. Then Allah sent a raven, who scratched the ground, to show him how to hide the shame of his brother. "Woe is me!" said he; "Was I not even able to be as this raven, and to hide the shame of my brother?" then he became full of regrets.
32. On that account: We ordained for the nation of Israel that if anyone killed a person not in retaliation of murder, or (and) to spread mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our apostles with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.

There is Hadith in Al-Bukari that tells of the consequences Qabil shall take because of slaying his brother:^[40]

Narrated by Sufian Athaouri, from Al-A'amash, from Abdullah ibn Murrah, from Masrouq, from Abdullah ibn Mas'oud, that Muhammad said:

No human being is killed unjustly, but a part of responsibility for the crime is laid on the first son of Adam who invented the tradition of killing (murdering) on the earth.

Mark of Cain[link]

Much has been written about the curse of Cain, and associated mark. The word translated as mark ('Oth, אות) could mean a sign, omen, warning, or remembrance.^[41] In the Bible, the same word is used to describe the stars as signs or omens,^[42] circumcision as a token of God's covenant with Abraham,^[43] and the signs performed by Moses before Pharaoh.^[44]

The word Ot (hard t) in Hebrew also means "a letter" (of the alphabet). Jewish mysticism, among other ancient lores, assigns spiritual ideas or powers to written letters and verses. The Mark of Cain may be a letter, a verse, a message, or a talisman.

The Bible makes reference on several occasions to Kenites, who, in the Hebrew, are referred to as Qayin, i.e. in a highly cognate manner to Cain (Qayin). Some therefore believe that the Mark of Cain referred originally to some very identifying mark of the Kenite tribe, such as red hair, or a ritual tattoo of some kind, which was transferred to Cain as the tribe's eponym. The mark is said to afford Cain some form of protection, in that harming Cain involved the harm being returned sevenfold. This is hence seen as some sort of protection that membership of the tribe offered, in a form such as the entire tribe attacking an individual who harms just one of their number.

Baptist^{[citation needed]} and Catholic^{[citation needed]} groups both consider the idea of God cursing an individual to be out of character, and hence take a different stance. Catholics officially view the curse being brought through the ground itself refusing to yield to, not being in harmony with, Cain^{[citation needed]}, whereas some Baptists view the curse as Cain's own aggression, something already present that God merely pointed out rather than added. There are several theories; in the Catholic world one example has been put forth that rather this mark is one of grace, and that perhaps the mark is that of Abel's blood,^[45] by which God is saying, "This man is still mine. Vengeance is mine. I will repay. Hands off!" As the heart of God is always ready to show mercy. This view supports Abel as a Christ figure in paralleling Christ’s sacrifice; here a blood sacrifice which acknowledges guilt and counting himself as guilty seeks atonement (this is in contrast to Cain's sacrifice)^[46]

In Judaism, the mark is not a punishment but a sign of God's mercy. When Cain was sentenced to be a wanderer he did not dispute the punishment but only begged that the terms of his sentence be altered slightly^{[citation needed]}, protesting "Whoever meets me will kill me!" For unspecified reasons, God agrees to this request. He puts the mark on Cain as a sign to others that Cain should not be killed. Lamech, Cain's descendant, refers poetically to the "mark of Cain" in Genesis 4:19-24, in a passage which has been subject to several interpretations.

Wanderer[link]

As Abel's murderer, Cain was commanded to wander the earth in punishment, a tradition arose that this punishment was to be forever, in a similar manner to the (much later) legends of the Flying Dutchman or the Wandering Jew. According to some Islamic sources, such as al-Tabari, Ibn Kathir and al-Tha'labi, he migrated to Yemen.

Fernand-Anne Piestre Cormon's painting titled "Cain flying before Jehovah's Curse", c. 1880, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Though variations on these traditions were strong in medieval times, with several claims of sightings being reported, they have generally gone out of favour. Nevertheless, the Wandering Cain theme has appeared in Mormon folklore —a second-hand account relates that an early Mormon leader, David W. Patten, encountered a very tall, hairy, dark-skinned man in Tennessee who said that he was Cain. The account states that Cain had earnestly sought death but was denied it, and that his mission was to destroy the souls of men.^[47][48] The recollection of Patten's story is quoted in Spencer W. Kimball's The Miracle of Forgiveness, a popular book within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^[49] This widespread Mormon belief is further emphasized by an account from Salt Lake City in 1963 which stated that "One superstition is based on the old Mormon belief that Cain is a black man who wanders the earth begging people to kill him and take his curse upon themselves (M, 24, SLC, 1963)."^[50]

Despite these later traditional beliefs of perpetual wandering, according to the earlier Book of Jubilees (chapter 4) Cain settled down, marrying his sister, Awan, resulting in his first son, Enoch (considered to be different from the more famous Enoch), approximately 196 years after the creation of Adam. Cain then established the first city, naming it after his son, built a house, and lived there until it collapsed on him, killing him in the same year that Adam died.

A medieval legend used to say that at the end, Cain arrived at the Moon, where he eternally settled with a bundle of twigs. This was originated by popular fantasy interpreting the shadows on the Moon face. An example of this belief can be found in Dante Alighieri's Inferno (XX, 126^[51]) where the expression "Cain and the twigs" is used as a kenning for "moon".

Legacy and symbolism[link]

In medieval Christian art, particularly in 16th century Germany, Cain is depicted as a stereotypical ringleted, bearded Jew, who killed Abel the blonde, European gentile symbolizing Christ.^[52] This traditional depiction has continued for centuries in some form, such as James Tissot's 19th century Cain leads Abel to Death.

Another view is taken in Latter-day Saint theology, where Cain is considered to be the quintessential Son of Perdition, the father of secret combinations (i.e. secret societies and organized crime), as well as the first to hold the title Master Mahan meaning master of [the] great secret, that [he] may murder and get gain.^[53]

The treatise on Christian Hermeticism, Meditations on the Tarot: A journey into Christian Hermeticism, describes the Biblical account of Cain and Abel as a myth, i.e. it expresses, in a form narrated for a particular case, an "eternal" idea. It shows us how brothers can become mortal enemies through the very fact that they worship the same God in the same way. According to the author, the source of religious wars is revealed. It is not the difference in dogma or ritual which is the cause, but the "pretention to equality" or "the negation of hierarchy".^[54]

Literature[link]

As the first murderer and first murder victim in the Bible, Cain and Abel have often formed the basis of tragic drama. Lord Byron rewrote and dramatized the story in the poem "Cain", viewing Cain as symbolic of a sanguinary temperament, provoked by Abel's hypocrisy and sanctimony.^[52] In Dante's Purgatory Cain is remembered by the souls in Purgatory in Canto XIV (14) on page 153, verse 133 saying "I shall be slain by all who find me!", Cain is facing the punishment that God has visited upon him for the sin of Envy, which is a similar play on the words in Genesis 4:13-14 where he says, "I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden retells the Cain and Abel story in the setting of the late 19th and early 20th century western migration towards California. Also, his novelette Of Mice and Men draws elements from the story. Baudelaire is more sympathetic to Cain in his poem "Abel et Caïn" in the collection Les Fleurs du mal, where he depicts Cain as representing all the downtrodden people of the world. The poem's last lines exhort, "Race de Caïn, au ciel monte/Et sur la terre jette Dieu!" (In English: "Race of Cain, storm up the sky / And cast God down to Earth!") Miguel de Unamuno's Abel Sánchez (1917) is a study on envy. Abel receives everything undeservingly, while his friend Joaquín is despised by God and society and envies him. In Thornton Wilder's play The Skin Of Our Teeth (1942), it is stated that Henry Antrobus' real name is Cain and he accidentally killed his brother Abel with a stone. Kane and Abel is a modern adaptation, a 1979 novel by British author Jeffrey Archer. In 1985, it was made into a CBS television miniseries titled Kane & Abel, starring Peter Strauss as Rosnovski and Sam Neill as Kane. In A Time for Everything (2004) by Karl Ove Knausgård, the story of Cain and Abel is retold with a focus on Cain - an introvert and troubled man who gets the reader's sympathy. In this version, God's favouring of Abel is simultaneously a curse for sneaking into Eden past the Cherubs guarding the gate. It is suggested that Abel in fact wants Cain to kill him, or at least this is what Cain believes - though he later regrets his act, and takes his punishment willingly.

Hermann Hesse briefly discussed the story of Cain and Abel from a non-orthodox point of view in his novel Demian where he also referred to the gnostic group called the Cainites. In Ishmael, Daniel Quinn puts forth the idea of the story of Cain and Abel being an allegory describing the conflict between agricultural and pastoral peoples in the Fertile Crescent.

The author of Dracula, Bram Stoker, revisits the biblical tragedy in his story "The return of Abel Behena" about a fraternal friendship gone awry.

Some form of legacy or curse of the name is often seen in literature: the monster Grendel in Beowulf is a descendant of Cain. In the epilogue to Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None, the author refers to the Mark of Cain in laying out the clues. There is a Stephen King short story titled Cain Rose Up, in which a college student goes on a killing spree while ruminating on the story of Cain and Abel. In the DC Comics (Vertigo division) universe, Cain and Abel are a pair of fictional characters based on the Biblical Cain and Abel. Cain is constantly killing off his brother, despite the fact they are both immortals.

In White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade RPG, an altered version of Cain's story, sees Cain(e) visited by three angels on separate occasions while wandering the earth, each of whom ask that he repent for his sins, and each of whom curses him (and all his Progeny) when he refuses. Those curses being: weakness to fire and sunlight, a need to drink of the blood of man, and an inner beast to forever torment him from within, thus making him the Progenitor of all Vampire kind, known among themselves as Cainites.^[55]

Cain was traditionally considered to have red hair; the expression "Cain-coloured beard" is used in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.^[52] In addition, Shakespeare also references Cain and Abel in Act III Scene iii of Hamlet when Claudius says, "It hath the primal eldest curse upon't/ A brother's murder!" (Lines 40-41).

Their names are often used in works of fiction simply as a reference, also. In Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, the character of Estragon tries to guess the names of two other characters. He guesses Abel and Cain. One of Jason Bourne's many names in The Bourne Identity and its sequels was Cain, an operative name in the Treadstone 71 program.

In Masami Kurumada's comic book Saint Seiya Next Dimension, characters inspired in the biblical story have been recently introduced: The Gemini Gold Saints in the 18th century are named Cain and Abel, both representing good and evil, respectively.

In 2009, Portuguese writer José Saramago wrote a novel entitled Cain, which tells an alternative version of the murder of Abel and the life of Cain afterwards.

Echo, a self-published comic-book series by Terry Moore following the Phi-project, features as an early antagonist a character who claims to be the original, biblical Cain. He spends much of his time speaking to God and frequently screams biblical and religious-themed quotations in his interactions with other characters. After his death, the character Ivy Raven had one of his fingers sent to a laboratory for carbon dating which revealed that he was approximately 25,000 years old, offering the first substantive proof to support the character's claims. Ivy later performs further research on the history of the story of Cain and Abel, and at one point visits Wikipedia; this portion of the comic includes verbatim quotations from this page.

Fantasy author Karl Edward Wagner wrote a series of novels and stories about an immortal red-bearded warrior named Kane, who is clearly modeled on the biblical Cain. In Wagner's story there is a moral inversion where God is an evil ancient astronaut performing genetic experiments on early humans. Kane's brother accepts God's authority, but Kane rises up in heroic defiance, murders his brother, and rejects God. He is cursed with blue eyes that seem to literally glow with hatred and insanity. The Kane stories mostly take place in a fantasy age of Earth's past and are made distinctive by the presence of both magic and alien technology. Wagner wrote several stories that bring the immortal character into the 20th century and which imply that at some point he succeeded in his quest to kill God.

The character Kwai Chang Caine in the television series Kung Fu, is modeled after the character Cain. After killing, Caine is forced to wander the Earth, remorse torn but unrepentant because of his sense of social justice.

There is a song on Marilyn Manson's 2012 album Born Villain titled Children of Cain, which references the biblical character.

See also[link]

• Bible
• Torah
• Qur'an
• Sumer
• The First Mourning
• Balbira & Kalmana

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up fratricide in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Torah, Genesis, Chapters 1-6
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • Bible (Free) / Genesis 4
  • Book of Moses, Chapter 5
  • Cain
  • Abel
• King James Version
• Story of Cain and Abel in Sura The Table (Al Ma'ida)
• Qaheen / Cain and Hevel / Abel
• Parallel voweled Hebrew and King James Version
• Rashi on Genesis, Chapter 4, by Rashi
• Baudelaire's poem in French with English translations underneath

</ref>

Jeremiah Wright
White House Prayer Breakfast, 1998
Born	Jeremiah Alvesta Wright, Jr. (1941-09-22) September 22, 1941 (age 70) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Jeremiah Alvesta Wright, Jr., (born September 22, 1941) is Pastor Emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), in Chicago with a congregation exceeding 6,000.^[1] In early 2008, Wright retired after 36 years as the Senior Pastor and no longer has daily responsibilities at the church.^[2][3]

Following retirement, Wright's beliefs and preaching were scrutinized when segments of his sermons were publicized in connection with the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, including his contention that the [[attacks of September 11, 2001, were proof that "America's chickens are coming home to roost" and such statements as "...not God Bless America. God damn America."^[4] Obama responded to the Wright controversy in a speech entitled "A More Perfect Union."^[5]

On April 27, 2008, Wright defended his record in a speech before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), saying he was not "divisive" but "descriptive" and that the black church experience, like black culture, was "different" but not "deficient".^[6]

Early years[link]

Wright was born and raised in a racially mixed section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania called Germantown.^[7] His parents are The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sr. (1909–2001), a Baptist minister who pastored Grace Baptist Church in Germantown, Philadelphia, from 1938 to 1980,^[8] and Dr. Mary Elizabeth Henderson Wright, a school teacher who was the first black person to teach an academic subject at Roosevelt Junior High. She went on to be the first black person to teach at Germantown High and Girls High, where she became the school's first black vice principal.

Wright graduated from the Central High School of Philadelphia in 1959, among the best schools in the area at the time.^[7] At the time, the school was around 90 percent white.^[9] The 211th class yearbook described Wright as a respected member of the class. "Always ready with a kind word, Jerry is one of the most congenial members of the 211," the yearbook said. "His record in Central is a model for lower class [younger] members to emulate."^[7]

Education and military service[link]