1. All men and women are made in the image of God and have the law of God written on their hearts.

Dave Andrews

The first thing I could see clearly when I took the plank of self-righteousness out of my eye was:

 1. All men and women are made in the image of God and have the law of God written on their hearts.

God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.’ Genesis 1:27

‘They (other people) show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.’ Romans.2:15

In 1993, the Parliament of the World’s Religions was convened in Chicago, with 8,000 people from all over the world coming together to celebrate diversity and harmony and to explore religious responses to the critical issues, which confront us all. The representatives looked to see if they could find ‘the law of God written on their hearts’ that they could use as common multi-faith moral rule to address the issue of violence. And they found the famous Golden Rule. Not the new cynical version – ‘those with the gold rule.’ But the old spiritual version – ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’.

 The  Golden  RuleHinduism ‘Never do to others what would pain you’ Panchatantra 3.104Buddhism ‘Hurt not others with that which hurts your-self.’ Udana 5.18Zoroastrianism ‘Do not to others what is not well for oneself.’ Shayast-na-shayast 13.29
Jainism ‘One who neglects existence disregards their own existence’ MahaviraConfucianism ‘Do not impose on others what you do not yourself desire.’ Analects 12.2Taoism ‘Regard your neigh-bour’s loss or gain as your own loss or gain.’ Tai Shang Kan Ying PienBaha’I ‘Desire not for any-one the things you would not desire for yourself.’ Baha’Ullah 66
Judaism ‘What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbour.’ Talmud, Shabbat, 31aChristianity ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. Matthew 7.12Islam ‘Do unto all people as you would they should do to you.’ Mishkat-el-MasabihSikhism ‘Treat others as you would be treated yourself.’ Adi Granth

In Taoism the call is descriptive. ‘Regard your neighbour’s loss or gain as your own loss or gain.’ In Jainism the call is instructive. ‘One who neglects existence disregards their own existence’. In Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, Judaism and Baha’i the call is imperative and is framed in negative terms. ‘Never do to others what would pain you.’ ‘Hurt not others with that which hurts yourself.’ ‘What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbour.’ ‘Do not impose on others what you do not yourself desire’. ‘Desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for your-self.’ While In Christianity, Islam and Sikhism the call is imperative and is framed in positive terms. ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. ‘Do unto all people as you would they should do to you’. ‘Treat others as you would be treated yourself.

The great value of the Golden Rule is that it is acceptable not only to religious people, but also to secular philosophers like Peter Singer. ‘Reciprocity,’ says the Aussie philosopher ‘seems to be common to ethical systems everywhere.’ People of all religions – or none – all over the world know that – there are no short cuts; that there are no quick fixes; and that we cannot hope to develop community unless we ‘do unto others as we would have them do unto us’. [i]

We have found we have been able to work with people of all religions – or none – based on the simple, essential, universally-acknowledged, Golden Rule says we should ‘do unto others as we would have them do unto us.’


[i] Peter Singer One World Text Publishing Melbourne 2002

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