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The Other Side of The Golden Rule
It’s good to do no harm, but it’s better to make a positive impact
Growing up Christian, I understood the golden rule as one that cautioned against inflicting harm on others. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you meant “don’t hurt anyone.”
More precisely, I was raised Catholic, the religion of the half-full glass. The golden rule was a piece of cautionary advice to keep one from sinning, not as a way to channel enlightenment of any sort. In other words, good behavior meant NOT doing something sinful. You didn’t get extra credit for going above and beyond.
The golden rule is easy to follow when people refrain from doing their worst. But it’s not as useful when people merely fall short of doing their best.
The Ten Commandments is a list of things that will tarnish your soul if you don’t follow the rules. Moses brought these tenets down from the mountain and shared them with the Israelites. There’s nothing positive here, in fact, they’re almost all pretty scary, although as children in Sunday school classes, we learned all ten and kept them in the back of mind for future use.
