INTERNATIONAL GOLDEN RULE DAY

It’s International Golden Rule Day. I have to confess, I didn't know anything about this until today. Although the so-called Golden Rule is a staple for those involved in inter faith work or with an interest in comparative religion, I had no idea that a day had been marked for its annual celebration.

Here's how this recent addition to the calendar of United Nations observances and international days came about: in 2009 (International Year of Reconciliation) religious leaders in Ethiopia proclaimed 5 April to be Golden Rule Day. Ambassador Mussie Hailu (Chairman of the Interfaith Peace-building Initiative and representative of the United Religions  to the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa) had Golden Rule Day endorsed by the United Nations  (though I don’t know what that means, since it doesn't appear in the list of current United Nations Observances). It is now recognized by numerous organisations around the world. I'm not aware of anything being done to mark it in this country. So it's fitting that it find a place in in this blog.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the Golden Rule, it is generally regarded as a kind of moral constant, expressed in a verity of forms, different yet similar, across cultures and throughout history. It is to be found in the teachings of most, if not all, religions, faiths and belief systems and in many forms of philosophy, as can be seen in the examples below:

“And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself.” (Bahá'í: The Hidden Words)

"Hurt not others with that which pains yourself." (Buddhism: Udanavarga 5:18)

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Christianity: Matthew 7:12)

"What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." (Confucianism: Analects 15:23)

"This is the sum of duty. Do not unto others that which would cause you pain if done to you." Hinduism: Mahabharata 5:1517)

“Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.” (Islam: from the prohpoet Muhammad’s Final Sermon)

"One should treat all beings as he himself would be treated." (Jainism: Agamas, Sutrakrtanga 1.10, 1-3)

"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Judaism: Leviticus 19:18)

"We obtain salvation by loving our fellow man and God." (Sikhism: Guru Granth Sahib, Japji XXI)

"Do not do to others that which would anger you if others did it to you." (Socrates)

"Regard your neighbour's gain as your gain and your neighbour's loss as your loss." (Taoism: Tai-shang Kang-ying P'ien, c. 500 BCE)

"Whatever is disagreeable to yourself, do not do unto others." (Zoroastrianism: Shast-na-shayast 13:29)

Clearly, this is just a modest selection of such quotations. You can find many more, faithful reader, by the normal means online.

Religions should not compete for power

The Guardian's Comment is Free - belief website runs a weekly feature called The Question, posing one at the start of the week, then publishing commissioend responses on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday following (along with the facility for readers to post responses of their own). This week's question is, "Should Religions compete?" Here's today's response, from Maggi Dawn, a fellow and chaplain of Robinson College, Cambridge.

Religions should not compete for power

The call for peace at the heart of most religions contrasts with the way they behave as competing communities

The question: Should Religions Compete?

Throughout history religious factions have competed with each other, and their reasons are often dressed up as being for the good of the people, or for the honour of God. In truth, though, competition is usually about gaining or maintaining power for the purpose of the survival and growth of a community. Religions have therefore competed for land, for money, for sacred sites, for political power, and for the loyalty of their communities.

If you take their ideals and doctrines at face value, though, most of the world's religions call their followers to live in peace, to love God and love one another. So for one religion to compete against another, or for any religious adherent to use force or bullying tactics to persuade others into their particular kingdom, would seem anathema to what the religion itself stands for. Some form of the Golden Rule appears in a number of different religions, as does a call to hospitality for the stranger, so to indulge in any kind of pressure that dehumanises the other cannot be said to be the practice of true religion.

At heart the Christian gospel in its earliest form was the precise opposite of a bid for power: its central message was one of laying down power for the benefit of the other. Christ himself represented this ideal; St Paul wrote that Christ voluntarily laid down his right to equality with God in order to assume humanity, for the purpose of being the servant of the human race. Christ's acts of self-giving were the model for his followers, and the Golden Rule as it appears in Christianity is a call to Christians to lay down their own lives for one another, as Jesus had done for them. So although common sense suggests that a group that doesn't fight for its own survival may die out, when a religious group does begin to compete for power, it begins to compromise the heart of its own message.

Even in the twenty first century there's a surprising number of genuinely good people who, for the love of God, really do lay down their own interests to serve others (not, of course, that you have to be religious to be good, but for some it is a central motivation). Such ordinary saints rarely make the headlines, and when religion hits the news its usually because of its failures, not its virtues. By contrast, the kind of religious infighting that is visible in the public sphere seems to have little to do with true religion, and it often seems that the world would be a better place without it.

On balance, then, it seems to me that you can only follow a religion if you lay down the wish to compete for power. But that doesn't mean becoming a doormat, or giving up any discussion or disagreement on opinion, doctrine or ethics. Aiming to live in a self-giving way doesn't mean becoming passive and opinion-free, and to dismiss religious difference by saying that all religions are basically the same is to ignore the fact that they really are not the same at all. Their histories, their doctrines and scriptures, and their ways of reading and interpreting the world are profoundly different from each other. The most rewarding religious conversation occurs when people of different traditions listen with genuine respect to another's views, to learn what it means, standing in someone else's shoes, to be human.

I must say I'm disappointed that the three published responses to this question are two Christian and one Muslim, even if in one of these responses (Alan Race's, of course) inter faith issues are foregrounded). I also find it disappointing that there's little talk about cooperation instead of competition. I should put my money where my mouth is and chip in my own comment then!