By the Way: What do we owe each other?

By Rev. Nancy Cocks on October 26, 2024.

Last Sunday at church we discussed the virtues we were raised to practice. Folks had been encouraged to be friendly and polite, honest and helpful, resilient and responsible, generous and kind to others.

Someone mentioned ‘the Golden Rule’ – “Treat others the way you would like them to treat you”, Jesus’ words I learned by heart in Sunday School.

Then last Wednesday I attended a meeting about how our community responds to newcomers in our midst, and how newcomers cope with the stresses of living in a new country with many different cultural expectations.

It was good to hear that newcomers from other countries mostly find Canadians and Hatters practice the virtues we discussed at church. I hope Medicine Hat will always be a welcoming community to new neighbours.

Yet in our church discussion, we recognized that those virtues we were taught to honour are shifting these days. We worried about the extremes we hear in expressing opinions and how acting out extreme opinions shows little regard for their impact on others.

Newcomers I met on Wednesday described how hurtful it is when the bad action of one member of their cultural group colours public views of their whole community. It feels to me like the “Golden Rule” is a bit tarnished these days.

Yet Jesus’ teaching can be found in the wisdom of many spiritual traditions. Jesus put it positively: Treat people the way you would like to be treated.

Other wisdom offers it in a cautionary way: Do not treat others in a way you would not like to be treated. Either way, this virtue can guide our relationships with neighbours and strangers, newcomers or long timers.

Let’s keep our community welcoming by considering how our actions and opinions have an impact on others.

Let’s remember how we would feel if we were in their shoes.

Rev. Nancy Cocks is a retired Presbyterian minister

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