Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Christians and the Golden Rule

As usual, Francis Porretto knocks one out of the ballpark.

A short excerpt:
1. "Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You."

This is one of the most important things Jesus said during His time on Earth. It's also the most inaccurately applied.

How is Smith to know how Jones would like Smith to treat him? Is he to proceed solely from Jones's words, or is there "a more reliable authority?"

I would go by Jones's actions. An honest man's words and deeds will run in concert. A dishonest man will lie with his lips but speak truth with his hands. When words and actions disagree, the better course is to trust the actions.

For some years, the actions of the Left have been entirely aggressive and venal. Leftists are uninterested in rational discourse; they want power and will do whatever it takes to get it. Since the opposed movement of the Right is founded on rational discourse, they silence us when they can and shout us down when they can't. Since we're taught to respect the established "rules of the game," they seek to write the rules in a fashion that will predetermine our defeat. When that's not possible, they position themselves as enforcers, but with a blind eye toward offenses by their own camp and an infinite readiness to assume the worst about ours. When one of ours becomes prominent, and starts to win the admiration of the body politic, their jackals swarm around him and nip at his flanks until loss of blood should bring him down.

That's the way they treat us. Why not use the Golden Rule's inferential power? Why not conclude that it's how they'd like us to treat them?


This all started with a post about how to respond to the savaging of Sarah Palin.

It's not about vengeance; it's about the well-verified history of bullies. If you don't respond, they don't think "WOW! A Christian acts in this gentle way - I know, I'll do the same."

Instead, the bully thinks "WOW! A patsy! I can do anything, and they won't defend themselves or others." And then, the bully proceeds to beat up on everyone in sight.

Until someone hits back. The bully then whines "you HIT me! I can't believe that a Christian would HIT someone! You're not a real Christian! You don't follow the Golden Rule."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually, this reading of the Golden Rule is incorrect and totally flawed. The golden rule doesn't ask us to consider the motives of another ("How is Smith to know how Jones would like Smith to treat him?") The rule states that Smith treats EVERYONE as he himself would like to be treated, regardless of others' immorality. Nowhere does the rule say Smith needs to interpret Jone's beliefs. This is so simple I'm surprised it needs to be pointed out.

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