The Golden Rule?
President Obama made this statement yesterday at the Nobel Peace Prize Awards Ceremony: "For the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Adhering to this law of love has always been the core struggle of human nature, for we are fallible, we make mistakes, and fall victim to the temptations of pride and power and sometimes evil."
Sounds nice, doesn't it? Does anyone else think these are some of the most fallacious statements ever made?
I would challenge the President's speech writers to check their facts. What Obama calls the "one rule" and "law of love" are central to Christian theology alone, since we are taught by Jesus to " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,' " a moral teaching that Jesus went on to make inclusive of loving our enemies.
I've heard the Golden Rule re-worded like this: "Do unto others BEFORE they do unto you." The core struggle of human nature has always been and remains self-preservation. Taking care of "number one", seeking the power, the money, the comforts that secure you and your family. If the community or society you live in aids in that then certainly you seek their preservation as well, though not at the expense of your own. And to say otherwise is an attempt to re-write history and reality. Jesus taught love in a way that no other religion teaches it. The love taught by our Savior and seen in His followers is not the norm, and not at the heart of human nature. That love is at the heart of God's nature.
I encourage you all to carefully listen to and challenge this and other sweet-sounding rhetoric from our President. In my opinion, President Obama is looking towards a future when our world is united under One Government. His world will be a world of peace but not of freedom. And the only religion that today teaches the principles he talked about in his speech will not be the One Religion of that One Government.
Sounds nice, doesn't it? Does anyone else think these are some of the most fallacious statements ever made?
I would challenge the President's speech writers to check their facts. What Obama calls the "one rule" and "law of love" are central to Christian theology alone, since we are taught by Jesus to " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,' " a moral teaching that Jesus went on to make inclusive of loving our enemies.
I've heard the Golden Rule re-worded like this: "Do unto others BEFORE they do unto you." The core struggle of human nature has always been and remains self-preservation. Taking care of "number one", seeking the power, the money, the comforts that secure you and your family. If the community or society you live in aids in that then certainly you seek their preservation as well, though not at the expense of your own. And to say otherwise is an attempt to re-write history and reality. Jesus taught love in a way that no other religion teaches it. The love taught by our Savior and seen in His followers is not the norm, and not at the heart of human nature. That love is at the heart of God's nature.
I encourage you all to carefully listen to and challenge this and other sweet-sounding rhetoric from our President. In my opinion, President Obama is looking towards a future when our world is united under One Government. His world will be a world of peace but not of freedom. And the only religion that today teaches the principles he talked about in his speech will not be the One Religion of that One Government.
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