Smith Wigglesworth, a well-known healing evangelist of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, wrote these words of truth: "If I read the newspaper, I come out dirtier than I went in. If I read my Bible, I come out cleaner than I went in, and I like being clean."
The news of today and the past several days causes me to wonder if many in our society (including some Christians) have forgotten the Golden Rule, which states, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (See Matthew 7:12.).
Those are powerful words that have found expression in most of the religions of the world. They stem from basic human respect. Which of the following is the best approach toward others?
I'm not OK; you're OK.
I'm OK; you're not OK.
I'm not OK; you're not OK, or
I'm OK; you're OK.
Even in news reports related to the Olympic Games in London we see people being disrespectful toward one another. If a person is from a religion, political party, or ethnic group that is different from our own, he or she still deserves basic respect simply because he or she is a fellow human being.
Certainly recent mass murders reveal a lack of respect and far worse. The killers most likely subscribe to the I'm-not-OK; you're-not-OK approach or the I'm-OK; you're not OK stance.
Far too often we try to punish differences among people. The news is filled with far too many instances of this. Westboro Baptist Church. Mass killings in Norway and at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. Child sexual abuse perpetrated by priests, assistant coaches, and others. A mass killing in a movie theater and on and on.
This news causes me to wonder if we, as a society, have forgotten the Golden Rule and how to practice it. This lack of respect causes me to be concerned about the future for our children and grandchildren, who need to see respect and love lived out in front of them.
Hence, I have stopped my subscription to the newspaper. I agree with what Smith Wigglesworth had to say about that, and I also agree with these words of Oswald Chambers: "If human love does not carry a man beyond himself, it is not love. If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculation, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. It may be affection, it may be warmth of feeling, but it has not the true nature of love in it."
Let's do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
