Was Jesus a Socialist? by Lawrence W. Reed

Author:Lawrence W. Reed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Published: 2020-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

6

The Golden Rule

For three hours, the famous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” riveted the country’s attention. Alabama governor George Wallace blocked the entrance to Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. His intent was to prevent two students from registering for classes. Why?

It had nothing to do with the content of their character and everything to do with the color of their skin. The students were African American.

On that tense day, June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy watched the scene on a black-and-white television in the White House. He had dispatched federal marshals and the deputy attorney general to ask Wallace to stand aside. When the governor refused, Kennedy issued an executive order to federalize the Alabama National Guard. Finally, Wallace backed down.

Relieved that the incident ended without violence, President Kennedy made a snap decision to speak to the nation about civil rights that very evening. Here’s part of what he said:

The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who will represent him; if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?

The president had invoked what philosophers call the “ethic of reciprocity,” a moral principle—an ideal, actually—so universal that you can find it manifested in virtually every culture, religion, and ethical tradition. In Christianity it is known as the “Golden Rule.” It’s a concept that just about everybody everywhere will tell you they admire even when they don’t live up to it.

The Golden Rule as an Ideal

Jesus himself spoke the Golden Rule, recorded in Luke 6:31 and Matthew 7:12: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” He expressed it another way in Mark 12:28–34 when asked what the most important of all the commandments were. Second only to loving God, he said, was the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Human beings are not God, so we’re far from perfect. We break commandments, as well as our own word. By our behavior, we sometimes make it difficult for other mortals to love us. Among us are a great many who lie, cheat, steal, and even assault the innocent. No significant faith or tradition suggests we are to ignore these evils or deny ourselves the right of self-defense against them. So again, think of the Golden Rule as an ideal—a lofty precept we should set our minds to.

The last six of the Ten Commandments are all extensions of the Golden Rule. These

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