One reason that many people chooose to ignore Christianity is that they can’t see what all the fuss is about. Wasn’t Jesus just another religious teacher with the same basic message as all the others? In particular, lots of people have hit on “the golden rule” as being the main idea at the heart of most religions. Check out the sample below:
Confucius: never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself
Hinduism: one should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self
Mohammed: hurt no one so that no one may hurt you
Buddhism: putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill
Jesus: do to others as you would have them do to you
But to reduce the teaching of Jesus or of the whole Bible or of any religion for that matter to one pithy statement is inevitably going to distort that religion. And finding a kernel of common teaching (and are they really the same anyway?) is hardly the Eureka moment that some seem to think!
The fact is that the major world religions have far more that distinguishes them from each other than unites them and dumbing them all down to the lowest common denominator is really just another way of seeking “tolerance” at the expense of truth.
If Christianity were to have a slogan, it would more likely be the very exclusive and intolerant claim of Jesus himself and of the early church: “Jesus is Lord”. No-one & no-thing else – not even “the golden rule”!
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