Sunday, February 15, 2009. 10:10 AM
Why We Need the Golden Rule
The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith
The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host
Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III welcomes Karen Armstrong, renowned religious scholar, for a discussion about “Why We Need the Golden Rule.” Armstrong brings a “fresh, clarifying voice” to our understanding of religion, Lloyd says. In recent years her work has come to focus on compassion, which she finds as a cornerstone of all of the world’s major religions.
Compassion is “not some kind of mushy goodwill,” Armstrong stipulates. Five hundred years before Christ, Confucius made a statement somewhat like the Golden Rule. “When asked what was the central thread in all this teaching . . . he said, ‘Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you,’” according to Armstrong.
“In other words, look into your own heart, discover what it is that gives you pain, and then refuse, under any circumstances whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else,” she adds. Armstrong describes this teaching as the core of religion, the thing that would bring a believer into the presence of the Divine.
Many people today blame religion for all of the world’s wars and violence. In response, Armstrong is helping to draw up an interfaith “Charter for Compassion,” compatible with all of the world’s major faiths. The charter is intended to draw attention to religious requirements for compassion. Through it, religious people might find common ground. Religion might incur less blame for the world’s ills.
Armstrong asserts that faith must emphasize practice more than doctrine. Compassion is not a matter of feeling kindly disposed toward the less fortunate; compassion mandates deep understanding and nitty-gritty help. Similarly, Armstrong says, love, as used in Leviticus, was a technical and legal term. When two kings agreed to “love” each other, they were pledging to look out for each other, to offer loyalty and practical support. In English, the word “believe” is related to love. The Latin credo (“I believe”) is linked to giving the heart. Compassion and love demand much of the believer.
“Religious teaching only makes sense when you put it into action,” Armstrong contends. Thus an emphasis on compassion should spur acts of compassion by the followers of all major religions.
Karen Armstrong is a world renowned scholar of comparative religions, a bestselling author, and winner of a 2008 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) award for her interfaith “Charter of Compassion,” which encourages religious traditions to apply shared moral values in support of global understanding. Among her bestselling books are The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions and A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
About Karen Armstrong
Karen Armstrong is a world renowned scholar of comparative religions, a bestselling author, and winner of a 2008 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) award for her interfaith “Charter of Compassion,” which encourages religious traditions to apply shared moral values in support of global understanding. Among her bestselling books are The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions; The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam; A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.