Love Thy Neighbor As Thy Self

 Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:39, and Mark 12:31

Let me start off by saying that I am neither Christian nor any other Religion. I do not believe in any god out there. I believe that a truly Spiritual life involves a lifetime journey inside ones self to get in touch with the Creator that we all are.

And, I also grew up in these United States where the predominate religion is Christianity. And I was exposed to, and later studied, the christian bible for myself. And later on a whole bunch of "holy books" from other religions.

The hypocrisy that I could see being practiced daily by the "true believers" around me helped me, as much as many other things, to get to where I am with my spiritual beliefs. I am not trying to argue with anyone, or try to convince you that I am right or correct, or that you are wrong and incorrect, just explaining so that you understand where I am coming from. And if you are offended by what I say then ok. I really don't care, although I do understand.

And now, to the title statement. "Love thy neighbor as thyself". In every "holy book" that I have studied I have seen a variation of that statement. All of these religions seem to share the idea that if you adhere to this statement as best you can then the world will be a better place.

The website Sefaria  says in the introduction to the page on this, "Leviticus chapters 17-26 is known as the Holiness Code. It contains mainly commandments whose goals are to infuse holiness into the People of Israel, just as God is holy. These commandments, particularly in chapter 19, for the first time make it clear that holiness is not just a property of the relationship between humans and God, but also between human beings and other human beings." It goes on to show that in Judaism it explicitly states, "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself: I am the Lord." Not a lot of wiggle room there in my opinion.

According to the website Bible Gateway that the one in Leviticus is "part of a list of laws concerning relationships". It says that the verse states "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."

And no where in there do I see any restrictions on what your neighbor should look like, what they should dress like, what they should believe, or who they Love, etc. No "qualifiers" at all. It just says Love Your Neighbor As You Love Your Self. Period.

The Bible Gateway website that in Matthew 22:39 Yeshua of Nazareth, AKA Jesus Christ, "identifies the second greatest commandment as 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

And the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, AKA The Mormons, say "And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37–39). Whoever claims to truly love God, should also love their neighbor. Christians unanimously believe this to be a summary of the Ten Commandments: loving God and loving your neighbor."

Again, no exceptions. No only if..., nothing. Just Love Thy Neighbor.

And in Islam, in the "Holy Koran", Mohammed is quoted as saying, “None of you will have faith until he loves for his brother or his neighbor what he loves for himself.” Not quite Love thy Neighbor. And, wish for others all the goodness that one wishes to have. Is that not an act of Love?

And once more, no exceptions. None.

Now, disclaimer. Am I perfect at Loving my neighbor? Not even close. Some days I am better at it than others. Some days the best I am doing is just keeping my mouth shut and not hurting anyone by shear force of will. And I think that most people feel like that for themselves.

I am not coming at this from a Better Than place. I am not any better or worse than anyone else. Just to be clear.

And then we have the Human Beings who claim these religions. Flawed. As we all are. As I certainly am.

And what I think is the most deadly is that a lot of these folks who follow these religions are taking the worst aspects of them, the Anger, Hate, Xenophobia, the Othering of People, and running with that and totally forgetting the parts about Love, Inclusion, Equity, etc.

As Human Beings we find it much easier to Love those who Look like us, Sound like us, Believe like us, and basically conform to the life that we are comfortable with. And very easy to Hate those who do not conform to the life we are comfortable with. Once people get outside these our comfort zoned it gets more and more difficult for us to Love our Neighbor.

Throughout History there are plenty of examples of this. Religious wars between different religions. Religious wars within religions. Different types of belief just hating on other belief systems in and outside the umbrella of the overall religion.

Like different sects of Judaism in the old days of Israel. Reference the Jewish peoples hate for the Samaritans for example.

The split between Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox Christians. Things like Arianism where the focus was on the Humanity of the Christ and denial of his Divinity. Then the various splits like the Albigensian "Heresy" for example. There are so many. And they all had Christians denying the faith of other Christians and, in many more cases than not, fellow Christians killing each other in the name of the Christ.

And let us not even get into the wars that came out of the Protestant "Reformation". Again, Christians killing Christians, in large numbers.

And the fights within Islam over the Sunni and Shia split. They have spent just as much time killing each other as they have "unbelievers" throughout the centuries. And all in the name of their Prophet Mohammed and their God. Who, even though he is the same God as their fellow "followers of the Book", IE Jews and Christians, is somehow different and so they must persecute and kill these fellow believers.

And we do not even need to go to History. Let us look at the present day.

In Israel the Government is performing Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide in the West Bank and, most especially, in the Gaza Strip. People who believe in the same "God" as they do, have many of the same Prophets, and they are committing Heinous Crimes Against Humanity against them. Killing in the name of this shared god.

Look to our own country. We have a large chunk of the population that is supporting the Kidnapping and Human Trafficking of their Neighbors to Concentration Camps. They are expressing Hatred, Fear, and Disdain for their neighbors who disagree with them Politically, Love differently, have different Skin Tones, Believe differently, and otherwise check off the boxes of Being Other.

And a whole lot of them do this in the name of their so called savior Yeshua of Nazareth, AKA Jesus the Christ. They have been lead to believe that their savior has become the direct antithesis of what their "Holy Book" says he was, a man of hatred and violence, when their book says he was a man of Peace, Love, and Redemption. And they are in Love with a con man who is a convicted criminal who has also been adjudicated as a sex criminal and is strongly suspected of being a child rapist. And he has been sold to them as a savior.

I wonder what their savior of their "Holy Book" would call him.

And then we look to the Middle East outside of Israel. The followers of Islam. And again, violence in the name of this god. And shared with the people they are killing. They are killing other Muslims because they believe the words of the prophet Mohammed slightly differently. They are killing fellow believers of the book, IE Jews and Christians, because they believe differently from each other in their shared god.

All of these "faiths" proclaim to share the same god. They admit, when cornered, that they have many, many, beliefs in common. That they do, in fact, have more in common than not. Yet they still kill each other and those outside in the name of that shared god for believing in that god slightly differently

As Spock would say, Fascinating.

Now, another disclaimer, there are also large chunks of people in these religions who do want to practice the D.E.I. aspects of their religion. I also see that they are constrained by the doctrine of their belief. A belief that denies one of the most important tenets of their "faith". That to Love their god they must Love their neighbors. Including their neighbors who do not look like them, believe like them, Love like them, speak like them, etc.

And the "leaders" of these "faiths" wonder why young people are increasingly turning away from them. Young people are rejecting these religions and going of on spiritual journeys that do not include religion in ever greater numbers.

And I think that it has to do with the increasing amount of rigidity that "faith" leaders are demanding. They are getting more and more rigid and less and less inclusive. And they make up the loudest segments of the communities of "faith".

So folks, whether you are religious, like a chunk of my family is, or if you believe in something that does not involve religion, like another chunk of my family is, or you believe in no god out there at all, like me, I ask that we all do our best to Love Our Neighbors As Ourselves.

And, again, I freely admit, I do not do this anywhere near perfectly. Like every other Human Being on the planet, I am better some days than  am on other days. I still strive for the ideal.

I also know that it is in the striving, the doing one's best knowing that one will never hit that ideal, in the journey towards that ideal while travelling the road of life, that is the thing that all of these religions were originally trying to get people to.

For, as I have heard stated, and believe to be true for myself, The Joy Is In The Journey.

It is in the journey, the striving, the doing one's best, the falling down and getting back up, the practice of the Principle of Love when one does not want to, it is this that true growth of a Human happens.

For in this journey we learn to be Human, Vulnerable, Humble, Joyous, Loving, Empathic, and Human Centered.

So, my Dear Reader, a few questions:

• Are you constrained by the limits of your beliefs?
• Are you willing to go beyond those limits?
• Will you Love people who do not fit into your comfort zone?
• Are you willing to transcend your own limits?

As a person who wrestles with those questions every day I can tell you this, it is worth it.

This journey that I am asking you to take is a life long journey. One will never get to the "destination". One will fall over and over again. One will have to get up over and over again. One will face resistance from the people around you who are scared of one's growth.

And, one will find it the most rewarding thing that they have ever done.

This I know is true.

For, in the end, there only two "commandments" that matter:

"Love is the only Rational Act." And "We must all Love each other or die"

Namaste