The Golden Rule in an Age of Terror

I've been pondering why Bush and the Republicans seem to be failing so miserably in foreign policy. And it seems to boil down to the moral failure to relate to other nations by using the Golden Rule. That's surprising, really. This is a president who claims the Bible as his favorite book and dismissively says he doesn't consult with his own father because he has a higher Father. Yet when it comes to conducting his policies in light of Jesus's teachings, Bush couldn't be more off base.

It's so familiar a precept that perhaps it is taken for granted: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Religions the world over seem to have a version of it, though with a subtle difference, emphasizing refraining from doing what you wouldn't want others to do to you. That it is so universal says something of central importance to human societies: it's the key to productive, cooperative, and friendly relationships on both an individual and national level. Of course, it's not humanly possible to do it perfectly, not with our families, our neighbors, or other nations. Christians as well as other people of faith are just called to do their best to follow it. When we do, we are living righteously, and doing our part to live in right relationship with others.

Yet Bush's policy, for the most part, could not be more diametrically opposed. Beginning with unilateral withdrawal from treaties the U.S. was party to (and to which previous Congressional approval had given the force of law), the administration set a tone of superiority and disrespect for the opinions of others, both that of Congress and the other nations signatory to those treaties. Long before the "pre-emptive" invasion of Iraq on a flimsy pretext that has now unraveled, the administration began leading the U.S. into a immoral morass. After 9/11. the administration decided the Geneva Conventions wouldn't apply to any possible terrorist suspect captured. Instead, they set up a system in which "enemy combatants" would have no access to lawyers, no hearings before judges, no right to hear the evidence against them (and challenge it), no checks and balances, no way to present evidence of innocence and get out. Presumed guilty, held indefinitely, incommunicado, without hope. The administration justified the use of torture by American troops and intelligence officers --a shocking development-- and assumed a right to go into foreign countries, even those of our allies, and spirit individuals away in a process called "extraordinary rendition" to other nations known to allow the use of torture.

"As you [do] it to the least of these, my brothers, you [do] it to me," Jesus said. Those who did kind acts of mercy would be welcomed by his Father, but those who mistreated the ill, poor, and the prisoner would be thrown into the fire and burned. Is the President, who claims the Bible as his favorite book, unfamiliar with this prominent passage from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25?

When one looks for fruits of the spirit in the President, the sure signs of being a Christian, one fails to see them: peace, joy, love, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, self-control. Instead Bush manifests a disturbed spirit, angry, critical, impatient, and domineering. It seems evident he has failed to be obedient in following Jesus's teachings. If he had, he would be conformed to the likeness of Christ more and more as time goes by, and would increasingly manifest love to all.

By going his own way, rather than Christ's, Bush pushed people of other nations away from himself, by demanding, bullying, and manipulating. Never once did Christ manipulate or bully or demand. He lived as he taught us to live, doing good to everyone because it was right and was the way he wanted to be treated.

When 9/11 first occurred, my reaction was as visceral and primal as most Americans. I wanted to fight back and hurt someone just as the terrorists had hurt the victims of the plane hijackings and their families. But simultaneously I felt a great longing for a call from my pastor or national leaders to repent and seek God and his ways. No one uttered that call, either at church or nationally but that feeling didn't subside. You see, I knew the President's explanation that those who'd attacked us were jealous of our freedoms was, at best, barely a factor. No, there were real and significant grievances against the United States, beginning with the coup orchestrated by the CIA's predecessor, the OSS, in Iran against their democratically elected leader Mossadeq after he decided to nationalize Iranian oil. After undermining Mossadeq, the OSS maneuvered the Shah of Iran into power. The Shah's brutal reign was much like that of Saddam Hussein's, leading to the disappearance and death of tens of thousands of his countrymen. But the American multinationals were happy, because their oil profits were secure.

Accounts reported in the foreign press abound of American power used to benefit American multinationals at the expense of native peoples in lands targeted for economic profiteering. Rarely do they make it into our mainstream media outlets. The connection between our multinationals' history of exploitation to the anger and hatred directed at the United States that motivate the terrorists is not widely known here at home, although Americans living abroad often are much better informed.

We are ignorant of evil done by those multinationals and our government and so we don't repent. We are blind to our sins, seeing only those of the other side. But we all sin. No reconciliation is possible without true repentance for our own sins and seeking to change and do better. That's part of doing unto others as we want others to do unto us. If we repent, it opens the possibility that they will repent. If we harden our hearts and refuse to see any sin but theirs, likewise they harden their hearts and see only our sin. But we Christians are called to be ambassadors of reconciliation. As a "Christian nation" with a Christian president surely those of us who ask ourselves, "What would Jesus do?" surely we know (or ought to) it would not involve anything but the Golden Rule.

"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." May it be so.