Religion:
Geoff re "Do Unto Others"

The Golden Rule is the eminently practical touch-stone of the Christian faith. Taken in the context of the rest of Jesus' ministry, its application becomes clearer. "Blessed," says Jesus, "are the poor in spirit." To the poor, the application of this requires very little moral imagination (which is a beautiful turn of phrase, and I'm not dismissing or disrespecting it). If my neighbor's children are hungry, I should feed them if I have food to share. If my neighbor is being harmed, I should help (which is not to say I should foolishly intefere; the rule assumes some judgement). If my neighbor is facing injustice, I should be a witness for the truth.

Poverty lives close to the bone, not in the realm of the hypothetical, and so far Jesus' claim that we would always have the poor with continues to stand.

To take the Golden Rule out of the context of Jesus' ministry, and to take that ministry out of the context of the Law and the Prohets (which are emminantly concerned with social justice) makes it a bit of philosophical ephemera which we can torture into irrelevance. The Golden Rule gains the most traction when we are poor in spirit, living in the moment and vividly aware of our neediness.

(To gain a better picture of what poverty is, and the uwritten rules that allow human beings to fuction in generational poverty, see Ruby Payne's "A Framework for Understanding Poverty." To gain a broader undertanding of the moral context of the Golden Rule, see the book of Matthew, chapters 5-7, the Sermon of the Mount.)

I am a little disturbed by the title "Golden Rule" because that turns the saying into a rule, which it isn't. It is a guideline, a way of thinking about others as if they are as valuable as yourself, rather than a law that must be obeyed at the expense of other principles, such as love, compassion, kindess, and peace. The Bible does not call the phrase "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" a rule, and to treat it as such does much to pervert the moral imagination. Most of the time, your gut will tell you how to do this, and most of the time you'll be right. Most of the missteps in applying this rule come from inappropriate positions of condescension or judgement.

—Geoff Nelson
December 2005

I'm with you on whether it's a "rule" or not. Other than that, I don't understand what you're saying clearly enough to know whether I agree or disagree. I'm posting your response here in case others find it valuable.

—JoT

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