GETTING IT RIGHT

Failures of the institutional church are not indications of failure of Christianity.  Of all the guidelines for living responsibly in community, the Christian Gospel makes the most sense when emphasis is on the neighbor in relationship with the self.  Considering our essential wish for personal justice in our dealings with other people, what could possibly make more sense than “Treat your neighbor the way you want to be treated.” Besides Jesus’ saying it, virtually all of the world’s major religions emphasize essentially the same thing.  The Jews have Leviticus 19:18: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  In what is called the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:1) when Jesus said, “All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” He was restating what was known to Jews of his time as the Great Commandment.  

In the Analects of Confucius (12:2) we read, “Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state.”  The Buddhist Udana-Varga (5,1) says, “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”  Hinduism’s Mahabharata (5,1517 puts it this way: “This is the sum of duty; do nothing to others that you would not have them do to you.”  Islam’s Sunnah: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. Modern Judaism: Talmud (Shabbat 3id) “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman.  This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.”  Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.” Tai Shang Kan Ying P’ien.  Zoroastrianism: “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for oneself.” Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5.

So the maxim which urges us to live justly with all people obviously has been making good sense for as long as people have been writing down what they have learned about  getting along with others.  Do justice... don’t just recite it, do it.  

Perhaps a small step toward peace might happen if the world’s religious leaders, all of them, could agree to set aside all other doctrinal beliefs and teachings for a determined period of time and focus their teaching and preaching on the one maxim that all of them share. Whenever and wherever a cease fire can be negotiated between warring parties, the road to peace might be possible if both sides could agree to live according to the Golden Rule.  Perhaps someone should pass along the simple suggestion to Israel and Hamas in Palestine that rather than throwing rockets back and forth between their communities, they might try the Golden Rule. If that can’t be managed, from where then can hope for mankind come?