Golden Rule

Jesus teaches us, “In everything do unto others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 6:12)  We know this today as the Golden Rule.  It seems basic, but to actually follow the Golden Rule takes work. You have to ask yourself, “Would I want this to happen to me?” Then you have to be prepared to act accordingly.

The burning of copies of the Quran by NATO troops in Afghanistan this week is another on a long list of high-profile examples of not caring about the other.

The holy books were among religious and other materials that had been removed from a library at a detention facility “because of extremist inscriptions, and because of an appearance that these documents were being used to facilitate extremist communications,” according to a CNN report.

Afghan religious scholar Anayatullah Baligh said it best.

“I can’t tell you whether Americans intentionally burned the copies of the holy Quran to make Muslims angry or if they did it mistakenly,” he said, but said their “carelessness” was “a crime they have committed against the holiest book of two billion Muslims around the world.”

The Golden ball is being dropped all over the place.  Weeks ago it was the deliberate offense of desecrating soldiers’ dead bodies .  Here it is simply not being mindful and thereby being insenstive to religious others. It’s time for us to pick the ball up and start playing the game by the one Rule that matters.

Walk the Talk

People of faith, including me, need to strive to literally practice what we preach.    It isn’t always easy, but it is important.  All people need to behave with integrity; and, since they are such role models, this is especially important for entertainers.

That is perhaps what bothers me the most about the recent controversy involving rapper Too $hort.  Last week XXLmag.com posted a video interview in which the rapper allegedly gave some rather offensive instructions to young men as to how to get women to have sex with them.  I did not see the video myself.  It was removed from the magazine’s website once the editor-in-chief learned of its content.  I did read some quotes from the interview.

Then I saw the magazine’s apology, which included a statement from the rapper.  In the statement, he claimed that he “was in Too $hort mode”, implying that his hip hop character is a separate identity.  He went on to say, “I would never advise a child or young man to do these things, it’s not how I get down.”  His statement concluded with these words of wisdom.  “If you’re a young man or a kid who looks up to me, don’t get caught up in the pimp, player, gangster hip-hop personas. Just be yourself.”

I understand that an entertainer may be called upon to “play a role” in public, but it cannot be an excuse for such bad behavior.  I will not fall for “it wasn’t me”.  If Too $hort really wants to give back to the community and help young people, as he claims, he might want to live his own advice.

My Other Cheek

I have to admit, I had a little problem with JCPenney hiring Ellen DeGeneres to be their new spokesperson. Fifteen years ago, she came out as gay in real life and on her sitcom, and JCPenney was one of several advertisers who pulled out of the show.  I am pretty good at holding a grudge, and I have not shopped at JC Penney ever since.  So when I first heard about this new partnership, I needed a little time to adjust to it.

Now, the only reason I knew about this was because a group called One Million Moms (which is a ministry of the American Family Association) had started a campaign to get JCPenney to drop Ellen, and the responses to that campaign were showing up repeatedly in my Facebook news feed.  So I did a little nosing around.

On their Facebook page, OMM states their mission as, “Where Christian moms stand up for their children. Let your voice be heard!”  More specifically, their website purports that OMM is “the most powerful tool you have to stand against the immorality, violence, vulgarity and profanity the entertainment media is throwing at your children.”  Alright.  But what does that have to do with Ellen?  Well, they point out that she is an “open homosexual” and does not represent “traditional families”.

Newsflash: She’s not trying to.  She is representing JCPenney.

In her response to her detractors, Ellen listed her own values as “honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people how you want to be treated, and helping those in need”.  The last time I checked, those were pretty traditional values.  Practically every sermon, Sunday School lesson, and Bible study I have heard has highlighted at least one of those.

As I make my way through seminary, and prepare for life of ministry, I try to let values like these inform my actions.  I would like to add one more to the list.  Forgiveness.  I have managed to work up a little of that for JCPenney for their previous transgression against the gay community.

Hey, One Million Moms, what are you teaching your children?

 

All God’s Children

 

Poor Umka. Umka has a birth defect that affects her hips and knees. She needs $8,000 worth of medical procedures, and will never walk normally. Her mother is suing for expenses, and for pain and suffering. There’s only one hitch. Umka is a dog.

 

Umka’s mom and her lawyer suspect that Umka came from a puppy mill, and that conditions there led to her ailments.  So the real goal of this case is to shut down the puppy mills.

 

In order to make her case, the lawyer will have to prove that Umka has a soul thereby establishing “humanity” for the dog.  Without one, she is categorized as a possession, merely a consumer product, which is worth less.

 

The thing is, if dogs were human, would they get treated any better? We have seen so many atrocities committed against animals for sport, for entertainment, for greed; often we cite our alleged superiority over them as our defense. We, the people, can be just as bad to each other.

 

Our politics pit us against one another. Our beliefs place us in judgement of one another. We are constantly dividing along color lines, into economic classes, or by citizenship status. We tend to forget that we are all part of Creation. The same life force flows through all of us. To paraphrase 1 Corinthians 12, what happens to one of us, happens to all of us. When we put another person down or deny help to a person in need, we are ultimately doing it to ourselves.

 

I hope we can start to remember that as we go about our lives, because if all dogs really do go to Heaven, are they going to let us in?

Hello world!

Stay tuned for many thoughts as I explore the ways in which religion is used to draw us together and rip us apart.