He is Sufficient » ethics http://heissufficient.com worshiping in a wilderness of words Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:31:50 +0000 en hourly 1 The relative Golden Rule? http://heissufficient.com/2008/10/28/the-relative-golden-rule/ http://heissufficient.com/2008/10/28/the-relative-golden-rule/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:41:10 +0000 ElShaddai Edwards http://heissufficient.com/?p=1302 I just completed three hours (!) of all-employee mandatory harassment training at work… there was one phrase that they kept repeating at the end of each session:

Remember, everyone has different comfort levels. Therefore, always treat people the way they want to be treated.

As Christians, we always like to quote “the Golden Rule” of ethical reciprocity as it’s stated in the Sermon on the Mount:

Always treat others as you would like them to treat you: that is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7.12)

which is derived from the Levitical commands to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19.18, cf. Lev 19.34).

My employer’s policy states that the ruler of expected conduct lies with my neighbor’s expectations, while the Bible states that the yardstick of expected conduct lies with my principles, which presumably are the same as the Bible’s moral code.

Is there a difference between the two maxims? Has the employer (intentionally or unintentionally) twisted the Golden Rule to be a relativistic statement, whereby any neighbor’s moral principles are the norm for expected actions rather than mine (the Bible’s)?

]]> http://heissufficient.com/2008/10/28/the-relative-golden-rule/feed/