Thoughts on the Golden Rule

Looking for hope in a hopeless world

Trying to find love in these hateful times

Try to stay strong but my mind is weak

Looking for hope in a hopeless world 

Churches are full, but the prayers are not heard

Saturday's child don't want to to go to Sunday school

Whatever happened to the golden rule

It takes hope in a hopeless world

From the song, "Hope in a Hopeless World," by Widespread Panic

"Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets." Matthew 7:12

Don't you love it when a secular rock band nails us with a prophetic message that hits the target? "Churches are full, but the prayers are not heard," harkens to the prophets in the Old Testament who warned the Jews about bringing burnt offerings when their hearts were far from God. This song charted at #13 in 1997 - twenty years ago - and already, in the success of larger churches packed with rock and roll worshipers, there was a noticeable disconnect - an absence of the kind of behavior from Christians that Jesus championed in the red letters. In fact, the "Golden Rule" is probably one of the most widely known, least followed, examples of the red letters even unbelievers know about.  

Jesus called this "the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets." Don't you think that would make this extremely important? It's very much the same as "love your neighbor as yourself." That little "as yourself" is the simple measuring stick of the rule. You don't have to know all the law and the prophets, you only need to know how you would want to be treated. Unsure of what to do around the homeless? What would you want if you were homeless? This is what it means to empathize with someone - to climb into their shoes. 

If you were hungry with no money in the bank, would you want someone to drop off a bag of cheap canned goods they would never have on their own shelves? When Marti headed up dinners at the women's shelter, she laid out five course meals - dinners you would have if you had guests in your own home. If you had an attraction to the same sex, and you weren't sure how that happened, would you wanted to be treated like a leper? If you were a single mother attending church for the first time, would you want to endure looks like "Welcome to our church. (Just stay away from my husband.)"

I talked to a laicized Catholic priest last night who told me a story of bringing breakfast to a homeless man and sitting down and eating with him. He and this man are good friends now.

"Trying to find love in these hateful times," identifies the problem. These are hateful times and examples of love are few and far between. I don't think someone would say this if the millions of proclaimed Christians in this country were treating their neighbors as they would themselves. We have a job to do, people, and it's all in the red letters.

John Fischer