We humans tend to get our messages all mixed up. Just think of some Bible verse you have memorized and then look it up. It might surprise you that it doesn’t say exactly what you think it says, and sometimes, it therefore doesn’t mean exactly what you think it meant.
For example, most people think the Golden Rule in the Bible says: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” What it actually says in Matthew 7, verse 12 is this: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” The nuance is subtle but clear. This is the law to which our Hebrew forebears in faith were accountable. It wasn’t an idea to be considered. Rather it was a rule to be followed that protected community and ensured that everyone was treated justly. The Golden rule exemplifies a way of life to be lived in everything we do, with everyone we meet.
To treat others the way we want to be treated, to love our neighbor as we care for our own self changes everything about how we behave. To keep Jesus’ commandment means letting go of any thought, feeling or action which would hurt us if someone did it or said it about us.
I come from a long line of Christian folk, so it’s taken a minute as an adult to figure out what comes from mama and what comes from Jesus. In our household, mama didn’t abide critical talk about anybody. As a child I would have sworn that her mantra, “If you don’t have anything nice to say about somebody, don’t say anything at all”, was in the Bible. It isn’t. But I rather think that was her version of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
The quote is actually from Charles Caleb Colton, an eccentric English writer. The original version, “if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all”, has now become folk lore and wisdom not just from my mother, but likely yours as well. However, the quote is best known from Thumper, the fictional rabbit character from the first 1942 Disney animated Bambi film, when Thumper’s mother caught him saying something critical about another creature.
After watching the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention, it occurs to me that we have more power than we think to turn the culture of mean around. The hit and run, cancel culture, mean clubs will be utterly devoid of members the moment we step out of the arcade and decline to play. It’s that simple.
The chaos monsters only grow when they feed them. So quit the house and give a little love to some other person you don’t know very well, or don’t much like. Do something, anything, that you would want someone to do for you, whether that person reciprocates or not. Then watch the world change.
God’s grace, mercy and peace be with you,
Rev. Dr. Anna V. Copeland
Senior Minister, The Community Church of Vero Beach, Florida
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