Our Sermon Section
By Craig Cline - 5 Jan 2013
In Reference to: 30 December 2012 - What Are Our New Year’s Resolutions?
Dear Frank,
I am fairly sure that we humans never really wanted to apply the Golden Rule
to all the other animals, beginning when we first began to use them and eat
them and their "products." That is why I used the term "new and expanded,"
to seek to cause people to include animals within their application of the
GR, rather than to continue to exclude them. However, your saying that
humans "limit its application" is essentially the same thing. In order to
get people to consider NOT limiting the GR's application, though, we will
have to point-blank ASK them WHY they would choose to limit it; that is, why
do the vast majority of us humans not include animals within the scope of
the GR? If a Christian, for example, is really a proponent for peace and
non-violence, and a believer in the validity of the GR, then he/she should
accept that God (going back to Genesis' scripture especially) intended the
GR to have a universal application, and therefore encompass animals as well
as humans.
I am simply trying to urge people who are "religious" to themselves confront
and answer this question. Unless it is constantly asked, and until millions
of religious people actually change their behavior as a result, we will see
the same plodding progress that we have seen for several hundred years
(modern history). I really hope that you, as a religious leader, will take
this challenge to religious institutions across America, and across the
world for that matter. In the meantime, I greatly applaud you for what you
DO, and I thank you for it (as do billions of voiceless animals, the ones
that most humans choose not to hear nor see).
Craig
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