The Golden Rule

GOLDEN RULE
REV. DAVID ROBINS
OCTOBER 5, 2008
 
        The golden rule is an ethical guideline that is found in almost every religion and culture in the world. Some of those examples can be found in the order of service insert. Possibly the oldest golden rule from Hinduism over 5000 years ago:
“One should always treat others as they themselves wish to be treated.”
        Hippocrates may have given the most concise sentiment in three words :”Do no harm.”
There are a huge variety of variations on the golden rule, most of them invented in the twentieth century:
Gloria Steinem, speaking from a feminist perspective said:”Treat yourself as well as you treat others.”
Saul Alinsky said from the perspective of a community organizer: “Never do for others what they can do for themselves.”
The platinum rule popularized by business consultant Tony Alessandra reads: Do unto others as they’d like done to them.”
The television show Survivor, has given fresh legs to the perspective of the aggressive loner: “do unto others before they do unto you.”
The golden rule for the self-help movement might read:
And the brass rule: “What have you done for me lately.”
        The neuroscientist, Donald Pfaff thinks that the golden rule is hard-wired into the human brain. He writes in his book, The Neuroscience of Fair Play: Why we Usually Follow The golden Rule, that brain chemicals lead us to make moral decisions and that certain brain signals cause one to consider our actions toward others as if they were actions toward ourselves. He calls it being “wired for reciprocal altruism.”
        The golden rule is the easiest to practice when it is practiced within ones own tribe or clan. There is a certain level of trust and knowing one another in one’s tribe or clan that allows for “reciprocal altruism.” After all, how could others who do not know us be trusted to treat us as we want to be treated? Because the golden rule is built upon trust, without a certain level of trust, the circle of people toward whom the golden rule applies becomes smaller and smaller.
        The elections every four years is a kind of inter-tribal contest between two parties who distrust each other to the degree that some of them refuse to use the golden rule toward each other. Every four years, the politicians raise enough money to run ads that try to destroy candidate’s political lives.
        The broadest ethical application of the golden rule rests upon a universal trust. Yet those who practice a universal trust often appear to others as unrealistic. Even when disappointed, they return to a universal practice of the golden rule, treating others as they would like to be treated: with trust, love, and fairness.
        I can’t help but think about how Jesus treated most people with a universal golden rule and trust. In the end, others treated him in ways that he would not have treated them. Seeing the dangers of unconditional golden rule, the UU minister Paul Carnes turned the golden rule on its head, restating it as “do not let others treat you as you would not treat them.”
        Several years ago, I went to a lecture by the paleo-biologist, Stephen Jay Gould. Speaking at a Methodist college to mostly religious people he systematically dismantled religion and god. At the end of his talk, as if suddenly looking for a crumb of religious truth to share, or some kind of non-supernatural grounding for human behavior, he commented in an offhand way that people ought to live by the golden rule.
        His comment reminded me of two things; One, that the golden rule comes out of both religious and non-religious traditions. Two, that in Gould’s academic environment, people are expected to treat each other’s ideas with the greatest criticism possible. In the academic life, the culture can be more of “Do unto other’s ideas as they do unto your ideas.” 
        The religious congregation is not the academic world. It is not the business world. It is not the sports world. It is an odd world all to itself that tries to nurture and equip people to follow the golden rule. My children did not receive the golden rule in their vaccines, nor in their one a day vitamins. If they got the golden rule at all, it was from their parents and from their Unitarian Universalist religious education program. A UU who is an elementary school teacher once emailed me that 37% of her students had never heard of the golden rule. Please, I beg of you, never assume that our congregation’s children know enough about the golden rule. Never assume that I know enough about the golden rule and how it should be practiced. My neuron-hard-wiring came incomplete and is a patched together affair that is continually shorting out. My basis for the golden rule comes not from a supernatural source, but from covenant and community, from mutuality.
I view the golden rule as a growth opportunity for my soul.
        The author, Karen Armstrong describes it this way in her memoir, The Spiral Staircase.
“Back in 1984, when I started to research my book, A History of God, religion was still essentially about belief. Because I did not accept the orthodox doctrines I considered myself an agnostic, even an atheist. But by unwittingly focusing on two of the essential principles of religion, (love and justice) I had already, without realizing it, embarked on a spiritual quest. First, I had set off by myself on my own path. Second, I had at last been able to acknowledge my own pain and feel it fully. I was gradually, imperceptively being transformed.
“All the world faiths put suffering at the top of their agenda, because it is an inescapable fact of human life, and unless you see things as they really are, you cannot live correctly. But even more important, if we deny our own pain, it is all too easy to dismiss the suffering of others. Every single one of the religious traditions…teaches a spirituality of empathy by means of which you relate your own suffering to that of others. Hillel’s golden rule tells me to look into my own heart, find out what distresses me, and refrain from inflicting similar pain on other people. That, Hillel insisted, was the Torah, and everything else was commentary. This, I was to discover, was the essence of the religious life. The golden rule requires that every time I am tempted to say or do something unpleasant about a rival, an annoying colleague, or another group, I should ask myself how I would like this said or done to myself, and refrain. In that moment, I would transcend the frightened egotism that often needs to wound or destroy others in order to shore up my sense of self. If I lived in such a way on a daily basis, I would have no time to worry about whether there was a ‘god’ out there, I would achieve constant ecstasy because I would be ceaselessly going beyond myself, my selfishness. If our leaders took the golden rule seriously, the world would be a safer place.”
        An argument could be made that the golden rule also applies to other species and the environment. Our UU 7th principle asks us to respect the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part. Our Green Sanctuary project is a congregational commitment to applying the golden rule to the environment.

        The golden rule, and its many variations, has been a religious and ethical touchstone for many of us.

I learned it as a child---
I was encouraged by my parents to practice it---
I have come to understand that it is based upon trust---
The golden rule has helped me to understand the dangers of my own egocentrism, and my own pain and fears, and how they control me---
        Our religious education program is focused this year on compassion, empathy and non-violent communication, for our children and the adults. The golden rule is possibly the best summing up of all we have to learn about empathy and compassion and non-violent communication. The golden rule is possibly the best object of discussion this year as we contemplate how to grow our souls, and nurture a better world.