Supposedly Jesus came up with the phrase “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” but it can be found in Islam, Hinduism, Ancient Greece, Taoism, and Judaism. And if you give her the chance, my mother will say she came up with it. But The Golden Rule is one that good Christians are supposed to follow. So how come they so readily ignore it when you throw it back in their faces to counter their anti-gay beliefs?
In a new study York University psychologist Oth Vilaythong Tran finds “such reminders of the golden rule are utterly ineffective at changing minds or hearts,” summarizes Miller-McCune. “And if you emphasize the universality of this message of tolerance by quoting the leader of a different religion, anti-gay attitudes actually harden.”
To begin the experiment, the participants filled in missing words from a series of quotations. For one-third of of the participants, two of the five quotes were variations on the golden rule, which were attributed to Jesus. Another third were presented with the same golden rule-related quotations, only in their case, the sayings were attributed to the Buddah. The final third filled in words from unrelated quotes.
Their explicit and implicit attitudes toward gay people were then measured in a series of tests. In addition, they reported their political ideology and level of religiosity. “We predicted that priming the golden rule would decrease negativity toward gay people, especially when it was attributed to the leader of one’s own religion,” the researchers write. “Instead, the golden rule priming had no effect when communicated by one’s own religions reader.
“However, when the golden rule messages were attributed to the Buddha, Christians self-reported being more explicitly negative toward gay people and more likely to believe that homosexuality is a choice,” they add. “The results suggest that when a tolerant message comes from a religious out-group figure, it does not increase, but may decrease tolerance toward another out-group.”
Conclusion? Human beings are narrow-minded hypocrites no matter whom they pray to.
Or, according to the researchers, “An out-group member’s message of tolerance may be perceived as a negative judgment of the perceiver’s present moral status, rather than as a universal message of compassion. Perceivers might be especially sensitive to an implied moral criticism when an out-group member delivers a moral message.”
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So, then, what happens when you tell a bigoted atheist that Jesus wishes gays well? My head hurts.
Wonka
Two places you can find broken people,,,, Crack dens and place’s of worship.
Samuel
Regretfully, the economy has changed this rule to read; “Do unto others before you find yourself undone.”
B
QUEERTY: “So, then, what happens when you tell a bigoted atheist that Jesus wishes gays well?”
Nothing – the atheist will tune out the rest of the sentence after hearing “Jesus”.
The “Golden Rule” is a sensitive topic for Christians. In one case, centuries ago, some preacher was trying to convert a local Indian tribe. The chief thanked him and said they would think about what he said, adding that they understood that the preacher was also preaching to people living in town and that if they proved less likely to cheat the Indians as a result of his preaching, they would like to hear more. The chief then tried to shake hands with the preacher, who refused because there can be no friendship with the devil (or something like that). Just think of the nerve these Indians had – asking for empirical proof before believing what the preacher had to say! Religious fanatics never like that one bit!
Dan
Deep down, straight people realize that Jesus was gay, so they don’t like being reminded with pithy quotes like the Golden Rule. Remember straight people kill off other straight people at staggering rates these days. In the USA, accidents and homocide are the leading causes of death among 15-24, for instance, with suicide coming in third. Major religions all say straight people were cursed and kicked out of paradise by God himself, and that’s because they are inherently violent towards each other, much less anyone else. Ask yourself why places like Saudi Arabia – which kills off Christians, let alone homosexuals – is allowed to exist if heteros actually gave a crap about other heteros.
Michael Ejercito
@Dan:
Do not forget what would happen if one were to travel to Mecca and yell through a megaphone that Mohammed was gay.
Queer Supremacist
@Dan: After all, the Bible does call heterosexual sex “original sin”.
@Michael Ejercito: That would come as quite a shock (and probably a relief) to Aisha, his child bride.
B
No. 5 · Michael Ejercito wrote, “@Dan: Do not forget what would happen if one were to travel to Mecca and yell through a megaphone that Mohammed was gay.”
Try yelling through a megaphone that “Jesus was gay” in a small town in Mississippi and see what happens – it’s basically the same experiment but your travel budget will be less (plus, they don’t let non-Muslims into Mecca).
A few years ago I saw the Kinsey Sicks Christmas program. One joke was, “30 years old, never married, hung out with 12 guys, was friends with a (female) prostitute but never had sex with her ……………………………… bottom.” All serious Christians in the audience (including gay ones) were offended. Everyone else either laughed or rolled their eyes.
The only thing saving one in the U.S. is the 1st Amendment (which resulted in the cultural custom of treating religion/non-religious nuts who try to offend people the same way as snake-oil salesmen – people best ignored). Don’t count on that protecting you in a small town inhabited by yahoos.
Dan
B wrote, “The only thing saving one in the U.S. is the 1st Amendment (which resulted in the cultural custom of treating religion/non-religious nuts who try to offend people the same way as snake-oil salesmen – people best ignored). Don’t count on that protecting you in a small town inhabited by yahoos.”
True, that’s why the 1st Amendment was followed by the well-placed 2nd Amendment (no doubt quietly nicknamed the “save yourself from yahoos” amendment). The country was, after all, founded by folks trying to escape religious nutballs dictating everything to everyone about life, liberty and happiness.
Shaun Azzopardi
@Queer Supremacist: It calls heterosexual sex original sin? Really? Where?
And here I thought original sin was the sin of disobedience of Adam and Eve.
merkin
I have a Masters degree and I dont understand what that test proved. Also, looking at the Golden Rule and how it applies to religious people is useless–the “faithful” want all of us heathens to be saved. They would want to be saved as well, so in their eyes theyre doing for us (i.e. saving us from hell) what they would hope someone would do for them. The Golden Rule isnt about live and let live, necessarily.
Mike in Asheville
@ No. 10 Merkin
It seems to me to be a fascinating study. It shows that those who claim to be followers of a particular religion will only (actually much more likely) bide by a tenet of their religion when the authority of the tenet is sanctioned by one of their religious leaders. When the very same tenet is cited by an authority of a different religion, those same followers disregard the tenet.
There is powerful information to be garnered from analysis. The LGBT community, with out 5% of the population, has an on-going upstream battle for equality. This study shows us the importance of grass-roots efforts working hard is required over-and-above what Gay, Inc. can accomplish. It shows us that instead of building barriers and cliques between grass-roots and Gay, Inc. is a waste of mutual energy and that all effort need pursuing.
While Gay, Inc. efforts are broad-based, also meaning water-down and lower (not necessarily lowest) common denominator, they will really only be effective among the general population willing to bide from the same authority the notion of “live and let live.” To get more and more of the general public to move toward equality, we must demonstrate, population subgroup by population subgroup, authorities that also lead toward “live and let live” equality.
Listening Gay, Inc. and grass-rooters? Use this information to help guide your efforts and cease the ridiculous and wasteful intra-LGBT fighting.
NOM’s successes are earned through manipulation of social science analysis of how best to inflict their message; i.e. “think of the children” mantra. Sure its full of lies, innuendo, and hypocritical (all those children left out of a family because the gays don’t count as family); but look at how effective their smear campaign is at getting voters to support their hatred.
Studies like this one are tools to be part of our counter arsenal.