I was listening to the humanist chaplain of Harvard give an interview on American Public Media’s Speaking of Faith.  In a discussion about whether or not humanism is a valid religious movement, the chaplain observed, “We just want to be treated like everybody else.”

As I listened, I began to think about those words.  Those words assume that “everybody else” is being treated better than you are.  This chaplain assumes that other religious groups, be they Christian or Jewish or Islamic, receive better treatment from society than humanists do.  I kind of find that an interesting observation, considering there are no shortage of these other groups that feel that they are mistreated, misrepresented, or misunderstood by society.  Christians have, over the years, complained about the loss of the voice of faith in the public forum and the unfair portrayal that society can have of religious people.  We just want to be treated like everybody else, because seemingly everybody else is treated better than us.

It is interesting that Jesus’ prescription for how to treat others is based on an assumption very different from the one we sometimes vocalize.  “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  In other words, the assumption that guides human interaction should not be an assumption that everyone else is treated better than you.  Instead, the assumption should be that everyone should be treated the way you would want to be treated.  Jesus never says that you will be treated the way you want to be treated; in fact, it was Jesus who said we were blessed when people reviled us and persecuted us (Matthew 5:11).  However, the way we are actually treated does not change the fact that we are called to treat others the way we would want to be treated.

I think when we say that we “want to be treated like everybody else”, we are flipping the Golden Rule:  Do unto me the way I think you do to everbody else.  The call of Christian faith is to share with the world the love of Christ that we have come to know and accept.  When we flip the Golden Rule, our priorities can become skewed.  We can become more concerned with being loved by the world than with loving the world with the life-changing love of Christ.  I think, as Baptists and Christians, we become more missional when we focus more on what and how we do unto others than what is done unto us.