By
Rudy Barnes, Jr.
Christianity
and Islam share the common roots of Judaism and also a common word of faith from the Hebrew Bible. That common word is made up of two
commandments. The first is the Shema, or Jewish confession of faith: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord
is one. Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength. (see Mark 12:29-30, taken from Deuteronomy 6:4-5) And the second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. (see Mark 12:31, taken from
Leviticus 19:18)
Islamic
scholars have offered the greatest
commandment to Jews and Christians as a common word of faith. It is where the mystical and moral priorities
of our faith—to love God and to love others—come together. Islam means submission to God, and requires a submissive kind of love for God
similar to that of the Jewish Shema. Both Judaism and Islam define love for God as
obedience to God’s laws as set forth in their ancient scriptures, with God
rewarding the obedient and punishing the disobedient.
Ancient
holy laws have produced holy wars, whether those enforcing the ban in the Holy
Land, the Christian Crusades, or those of modern Jihadists who believe it is
God’s will to kill all infidels.
According to the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an, the love of God can have
hateful consequences for unbelievers. Beyond
making war, fundamentalist Christians and Muslims believe that God condemns unbelievers
to eternal damnation. How do you love a
God like that?
Jesus
answered that question by combining the two commandments of the greatest commandment into one: We
love God by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Like prophets before him, Jesus taught that God expects our mercy, not sacrifice (see Matthew
9:10-13, citing Hosea 6:6 and Amos 5:21; also Matthew 12:7). We show our love for God through loving acts
of mercy and compassion like forgiveness,
reconciliation and humble service
for our neighbors, not through religious rituals like blood sacrifices for a
jealous and vengeful god.
That
begs the question: Who is our neighbor? Jesus
answered that question with the story of
the good Samaritan, in which an apostate Samaritan stopped to help a
wounded Jew after several Jews passed him by.
To hear that a Samaritan was the good neighbor was shocking to Jews who hated
their neighboring Samaritans, whom they considered apostates. (Luke 10:29-37)
Jesus
told other stories that shocked his Jewish audience, like turning the other cheek and loving
your enemy, but they were rabbinic hyperbole and not intended to be practical
standards of legitimacy. Jesus was never
responsible for governing his people, as were Moses and Muhammad, so he never addressed
how to defend people from those who would do them harm. But the principles of sacrificial love taught
by Jesus do not allow us to turn the other cheek to those who would harm our
neighbors. Jesus taught and exemplified
that loving others came at great risk, and that there was no greater love than
to give one’s life for another. (John 15:13)
Today
we have issues relating to how we love our neighbors that were not addressed by
Moses, Jesus or Muhammad. They involve democracy,
human rights and the secular rule of law and are vital to the well-being of all
people, but there are major disagreements grounded in religious and cultural
differences. In Western democracies, an
emphasis on individual freedom can jeopardize providing for the common good, including
welfare for the poor, while in Eastern Islamic regimes, fundamental freedoms
such as the freedoms of religion and expression do not exist because of apostasy
and blasphemy laws that protect the sanctity of Islam from criticism.
The
future of democracy and human rights depends upon striking a balance between libertarian
individual rights and providing for the common good. Both are essential to political legitimacy,
but libertarian democracy is likely to fail in the West if it cannot balance individual
rights with providing for the common good, and democracy will never gain traction
in the Islamic East without the freedoms of religion and speech.
Even
though Moses, Jesus and Muhammad never addressed libertarian democracy and
human rights, the greatest commandment
is a common word of faith that requires us to share what we love most with our
neighbors—and our neighbors include those of other faiths. Every 4th of July we give thanks
for a rule of law that protects our freedoms of religion and speech and that protects
women and minorities from unlawful discrimination. Because we love these libertarian rights it is
a moral imperative of our faith that we share them with our neighbors around
the world.
Notes
and References to Resources:
This topic is related to the same
topic with commentary on the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad found in Lesson #
3 at pages 25-30 in the J&M Book.
On beliefs, rewards and
punishments under Islamic and Jewish (Mosaic) Law, see the Appendices to the J&MBook at pages 470-485 and pages 548-557.
See the story of the good Samaritan at page 223 of the J&M Book;
see the golden rule at page 124 of
the J&M Book.
On forgiveness, see page 113 of the J&M Book; on reconciliation, see anger and
reconciliation at page 93 of the J&M Book; on humble service, see humility:
leaders as servants at page 54 of the J&M Book.
On turning the other cheek, see page 102 of the J&M Book; on
loving your enemies, see page 104 of
the J&M Book.
On conflicting views of democracy
and human rights in the West and East, see Religion, Legitimacy and the Law at pages 7-8 and 10-17.
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