The Golden Rule is meant to be shared

Cover the religious landscape for any time and it’s obvious that belief runs too deeply to suggest one group of believers found and embraced the real truth, while the rest are just lost souls, floundering in falsehood.

Lawn Griffiths on Spiritual Life

That’s why I find real hope in the ecumenical and interfaith efforts — those of faith with courage to learn from each other without any obligation or intention to abandon their own core beliefs. They welcome chances to discover the beauty and integrity of other faith systems. They find awe in the common ground. They celebrate that some from other faiths truly seek to live out their beliefs authentically no matter how radically they may differ from their own. They don’t judge, and they don’t feel that consorting with other kinds of seekers will dishonor their own religions. In their own ways, they strive to understand the mysteries of God. They balance teachings of their formal traditions with their own line of reasoning and free agency. It’s called a “faith journey.” They work cooperatively to share their best for peace and understanding.

Clearly some religions encourage open-mindedness and stretching so that a follower truly owns and embraces what unfolds and evolves in their own distinct experiences.

Other faiths, however, are far more strict and legalistic, insisting that adherents absorb their solid, historic teachings and not stray. They are warned of the dangers of what might seep into their minds from the “outside.” Orthodoxy now, orthodoxy forever.

Being “born again” is foreign to my 62-year faith journey. “You must be born again” is a phrase that hits me cold. I respect those who bask in having had their moment of radical remake. I stand in megachurches with joyous praise music and foggers, and I acknowledge there is jubilation all around me. Admittedly my jaw aches at the endless repetition to choruses on the big screens. Up to a point, I enjoy the relaxed style of the kids in the praise bands and how earnest, even fresh, is their appeal to souls not yet reached.

I value people having transforming experiences that impel them to abandon bad habits, destructive behavior, self-centeredness, greed, hostility ... In truly loving Jesus, for example, they can honestly say they are new people, a new creation. I distrust, however, those so mesmerized by charismatic teachings that they cede away critical thinking.

So much of the whole discussion falls into just two areas — 1) escaping the pain and struggles of life on earth for life everlasting salvation; or 2) the social gospel that calls on the believer to love, to work for justice and to bring comfort to the poor and disenfranchised. All week, the words of theologian Brian McLaren, as expressed May 10 in this Spiritual Life section, have resonated with me. He talked about the difference between mercy and justice. We can strive to provide relief from the pain of the moment or we can make systemic changes to end injustice so that changes made for good actually last. McLaren said unjust systems keep throwing people into misery, and “mercy brings us to relieve some of their misery, but until we confront the unjust systems by doing justice we’re never going to make a change ... I think what churches in America, especially evangelical churches, are just waking up to is the way we have to deal with systemic injustice, not just charitable giving to people in misery.”

Three weeks ago, I was among 10 people and some organizations that the Arizona InterFaith Movement honored at Phoenix Convention Center with Golden Rule Awards. (www.interfaitharizona.com). The fourth annual award recipients included Arizona Cardinal Kurt Warner and his wife, Brenda (Courage in Sports award); the dean of Valley rabbis, Rabbi Albert Plotkin (religion award); and Rep. Mark Anderson, R-Mesa (government award). I won in the media category. More than 900 folks, representing a wide range of faiths, turned out. It was fascinating to watch six-minute videos on the recipients and see authentic ways people have devoted their lives trying to bring light to the darkness.

When AFM’s executive director, the Rev. Paul Eppinger, notified me of the award in February, my immediate reaction was one of unworthiness and a realization that we media types have a too-easy opportunity to be Golden Rule-esque in simply showcasing the great good. And I realized Arizona has a shortage of media people focused on spirituality and faith and the honor may have come my way because of the small pool of media folks dealing with faith.

Then I quickly remembered the late Darl Andersen, the Mesa man who worked tirelessly to promote living the Golden Rule, giving away bumper stickers touting it and seeking religious understanding. He belonged to several interfaith groups and was famous for taking clergy of many faiths to lunch to help them understand his faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He’d invite his dinner companions to educate him on theirs.

I wrote several features on Andersen, including one when he died in 2000. Andersen and I talked over lunch four or five times across a dozen years, and the one-time Mesa Unified School District governing board president was always effective in making his point and just being a smiling bundle of love made flesh.

He never lived to see the annual Golden Rule banquet with more than 900 attendees from dozens of diverse religions, nor the new Golden Rule specialized Arizona license plate, nor Arizona being declared, in 2003, the nation’s first “Golden Rule State” with a program through the Secretary of State’s office to recognize people for “good deeds and acts of kindness.”

It is appropriate that one of the awards given was the Darl Andersen Award, presented by his son Wilfred Andersen, one-time Arizona spokesman for the LDS Church. This year, it went to Dennis Barney, who combined charity and civic and church duty with successful development work and family life.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s so simple. It’s a universal message that is said many ways in all the languages and religious creeds. If we would really live it and believe in it, justice and peace could follow.