A soldier who had seen enemy soldiers kill her friends could not accept the idea that all humankind are the children of God. Are the teachings of Jesus really applicable in this world? Intellectually I agree with the golden rule that if I were part of an army bent on conquest, raping, killing, and reducing cities to rubble, then if I could be stopped in no other way, I want to be killed. But intuitively war is a gross violation of the golden rule.
Off the battlefield, it is good to extend a measure of trust. If I’m in a situation where I feeling insecure and ambivalent about how treat others, for example, if I am an immigrant in a country where I am regarded with suspicion and resentment, it can make all the difference to meet a strong, positive, beneficent person whose ministry banishes fear and destroys anxiety. Treating people with positive expectations has proven benefits. Yes, wise trust grows gradually. And real love includes being alert, strong, and ready to speak up when serious error is spoken or evil done. But God-knowing persons trust now that eventually divine love will rule this world, and we can embrace wise love and an intelligent application of the golden rule now to help bring closer the future era of peace and liberty. We can treat all persons as who they truly are.
Credits: By IbRasmussen – Detail from Image:Vor Frue Kirke Copenhagen altar.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1859520
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Here is my take. War is not the only arena where applying the Golden Rule raises challenges. These challenges appear in the social, political, economic, even the religious arenas of life.
It is helpful to remember that there are several levels of interpretation of the Golden Rule, and these interpretations follow the evolutionary levels of society. While it is true, that there are individuals living in society who embrace the higher levels of interpretation of the Golden Rule, there are many who do not.
The Golden Rule like the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man applies to personal relationships, not corporate relationships. If you happen to be a soldier as I was for seven years, the Golden Rule was of necessity interpreted at a lower level. Here the Golden Rule was interpreted to apply to our forces and not the enemy, though when the enemy became a prisoner of war, then the Golden Rule interpretation was elevated to a higher level. As a soldier you are duty bound to carry out the functions associated with being a soldier, even though this may mean killing another human being who stands in the way of you carrying our your mission.
Here it is helpful to remember that a soldier acts in a corporate capacity and not a personal one. As has been stated in another setting, you may well be friends with a previous enemy sharing a beer, but that is because the relationship has changed from a corporate one to personal one. A teacher may give a student a failing grade because he failed to reach the minimum requirement for passing. But that does not mean the teacher has ill will towards the student. In his personal dealings he could very well wish the student good will.
But to those who wish to live the highest interpretation of the Golden Rule, there is no conflict between the spiritual mandates of brotherhood and the requirements of the purely material functions, since one is spiritual, a matter of spiritual values, and the other material. Render to Caesar the things of Caesar, and to God the things of God. He just has to remember what capacity he is functioning in. Whether an act is correct or not is determined by its motive.
Dr. Perry