Many Christians I have met believe that Jesus invented the Golden Rule. This is not true. The Golden Rule has been adopted by ever major religion in the world. It has been around for many hundreds of years prior to the life of Jesus. Jesus certainly embraced the concept of the golden rule, however:
Do to others as you would have them do to you. —Luke 6:31
Whatever you want people to do for you, do the same for them. —Matthew 7:12
We now know that If Jesus showed up to urge South Carolina Republicans to love their enemies, he’d be booed off the stage. Maybe he’d even be dragged into a back alley and gotten beat up. What else can you conclude from this stunning exchange involving Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul?
An excellent analysis is offered at a new site titled Bible Funmentionables, in an article titled “Boo! Unto Others.”
The attitude expressed by the audience is unfortunately very christian, at least in a historical sense. Just one example—read the writings of Martin Luther with regards to the Jews. He begins as the epitome of tolerance, but by the end of his life he hated them. Why? Because they hadn’t become christians! His tolerance was predicated on the idea that if christians treated the Jews nice, then they’d be more willing to convert. When they still refused to convert, his tolerance evaporated until he was one of the staunchest of anti-semites, a defender of Us vs Them thinking.
Christian tolerance IN PRACTICE more often than not is a quid pro quo proposition—I’ll respect you as long as eventually you agree with me.
From Reader Supported News:
http://www.readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/9754-focus-obama-jesus-would-tax-the-rich