Monday, June 16, 2014

Golden Rule Gone Awry

I submit that it is dangerous to equate the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." with what Jesus meant when he is reported to have said, "Love God with your heart soul and mind, and you neighbor as you do yourself." I have had too many friends and family live and die by this misinterpretation to stay silent on the subject.

I believe that Jesus came to earth expressly to give us a new view of "God," based not on Abraham's interpretation, but on the need to "get right with our earth" as the only way to "get right with God." Jesus's greatest ridicule, we are told, was toward those who believed otherwise. This says to me that Jesus expected humans to see The Sacred Spirit inside themselves and in others around them, like him. He also expected us to honor The Sacred in ourselves enough not to do ourselves or our children harm. He, and his earthly family and friends, exemplified how to do this.

In interpreting his great commandment as The Golden Rule, we allow ourselves to deny The Sacred Spirit alive in all who embrace it in ourselves and in others. Addicts share their substance and sex induced bliss with each other. Those who deny control over their own actions take their children, and the children of others, under their wings of lust and greed. Doing unto others as we would have them do unto us, without a higher purpose than lust fulfillment for our lives on earth, is fraught with the danger of destroying all that is sacred about our physical time on earth.

What we sow, not only do we reap, but all on earth reap what we have sown, both good and bad for many generations that follow our physical manifestations on earth. This is what we each should remember as we pretend to have the keys to heaven in hands that harm and/or hoard all that is holy right here on our shared earth. We must first acknowledge The Sacred in many manifestations on earth, then share only, and all, which is sacred with others. For this ideal many martyrs, including Jesus, have given their lives and have died. Most of us are only asked to give our lives over to the effort.