Monthly Archives: August 2022

The Golden Rule, in Christianity

"The Sermon on the Mount" - The central panel on the pulpit of St Stephen's Church, Bournemouth, as carved by Nathaniel Hitch.

Matthew 7:12 is the twelfth verse of the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount. This well known verse presents what has become known as the Golden Rule.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

The Novum Testamentum Graece text is:

This verse is considered to be a summation of the entire sermon. Some editions append it to the end of Matthew 7:7-11, and the rule does seem to be an expansion on the teaching about prayer in that section. However, the word therefore and the mention of the law and the prophets implies that this is a more far reaching teaching. Davies and Allison note that this is indicated by the mention of the law and the prophets, which links the verse back to Matthew 5:17, the start of the teaching on ethics. The verse is most closely linked with the teaching to "love thy enemies" in Matthew 5:44.[1] In Luke 6:31 the Rule is present just after the teaching about enemies, making the link even more explicit. Luz notes that as well as summarizing the sermon, this rule also adapts it to normal life. While verses like Matthew 5:29 seem incompatible with reality, the teachings in this verse can reasonably be attempted by all.[2]

Richard Thomas France notes that the negative form of the Golden Rule, or the "Silver Rule" as it is sometimes called: 'don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you', appears in several works of Greek philosophy and also in earlier Jewish writings. It also appears in other traditions such as Buddhism and Confucianism.

When Jesus spoke to the Sadducees, his words would have been most familiar to them. In the Torah, Moses gives The Shema to his people in the book of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the most important of all Jewish prayers. It is a declaration of faith and a pledge of allegiance to God. Twice daily, recitation of the Shema Israel is a mitzvah for the Jewish peopleit is said upon rising in the morning and going to sleep at night. It is said when praising God and when petitioning him. The Shema Israel is the first prayer taught to Jewish children and it is the last words a Jew says before death. The Shema is recited in preparation for the reading of the Torah on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays and at the end of the holiest day, Yom Kippur. Judaism teaches that the name of God is not read aloud in the Shema; it is replaced with Adonai ("my Lord")

As Reginald H. Fuller says in his Preaching the New Lectionary:

"The summary of the law is not original with Jesus. Its two parts represent a combination of Dt 6:5 and Lev 19:18. Nor is the combination itself original to Jesus, for it is found in at least one earlier Jewish work, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, an amalgam of wisdom and apocalyptic materials.

"Jesus thought was similarly cast in both molds, wisdom and apocalyptic, and the summary of the Law represents the wisdom facet of his teaching. Jesus undoubtedly appeared not only as the final apocalyptic preacher but also as the authoritative declarer of God's wisdom.

"In the Jewish parallels, the two commandments stand side by side, as a convenient summary. Jesus understands the interlocking of the two commandments in a new and quite radical way.

"You cannot have one without the other. Without the love of neighbor, the love of God remains a barren emotion; and without the love of God, love of neighbor is but a refined form of self-love."[3]

Luz notes that some scholars see the positive version as being very important because it instructs all disciples to work actively for the good of others, not simply to desist passively from doing harm. However, Luz notes that in actual implementation there is not a great deal of difference between the two formulations. He ascribes much of the efforts to divide the two ideas to anti-Judaic prejudices of many Biblical scholars. Early Christian writers saw little difference between the two versions, and several paraphrased this verse with the negative form.[2]

The good end does not justify the evil means. The Golden Rule may not be perverted to justify an evil means. St. Augustine noticed this problem and commented on how many redactors rephrased this verse as "whatsoever good you desire"[2]

The concluding phrase indicates that Jesus is here presenting the Golden Rule as a valid summary for the entirety of moral law. It might also be a reference to Hillel, whose negative formulation of the Golden Rule ended with a similar statement that it represented the totality of Biblical teachings. The author of Matthew presents a second summation of religious law at Matthew 22:40, where Jesus tells his followers there are but two laws: to love God and to love neighbour. While phrased differently, these two basic laws are essentially the same.[4]

Augustine: Firmness and strength of walking by the way of wisdom in good habits is thus set before us, by which men are brought to purity and simplicity of heart; concerning which having spoken a long time, He thus concludes, All things whatsoever ye would, &c. For there is no man who would that another should act towards him with a double heart.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Otherwise; He had above commanded us in order to sanctify our prayers that men should not judge those who sin against them. Then breaking the thread of his discourse He had introduced various other matters, wherefore now when He returns to the command with which He had begun, He says, All things whatsoever ye would, &c. That is; I not only command that ye judge not, but All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye unto them; and then you will be able to pray so as to obtain.

Glossa Ordinaria: Otherwise; The Holy Spirit is the distributor of all spiritual goods, that the deeds of charity may be fulfilled; whence He adds, All things therefore &c.

Chrysostom: Otherwise; The Lord desires to teach that men ought to seek aid from above, but at the same time to contribute what lays in their power; wherefore when He had said, Ask, seek, and knock, He proceeds to teach openly that men should be at pains for themselves, adding, Whatsoever ye would &c.

Augustine: Otherwise; The Lord had promised that He would give good things to them that ask Him. But that He may own his petitioners, let us also own ours. For they that beg are in everything, save having of substance, equal to those of whom they beg. What face can you have of making request to your God, when you do not acknowledge your equal? This is that is said in Proverbs, Whoso stoppeth his ear to the cry of the poor, he shall cry and shall not be heard. (Prov. 21:13.) What we ought to bestow on our neighbour when he asks of us, that we ourselves may be heard of God, we may judge by what we would have others bestow upon us; therefore He says, All things whatsoever ye would.

Chrysostom: He says not, All things whatsoever, simply, but All things therefore, as though He should say, If ye will be heard, besides those things which I have now said to you, do this also. And He said not, Whatsoever you would have done for you by God, do that for your neighbour; lest you should say, But how can I? but He says, Whatsoever you would have done to you by your fellow-servant, do that also to your neighbour.

Cyprian: Since the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ came to all men, He summed up all his commands in one precept, Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them; and adds, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: For whatsoever ever the Law and the Prophets contain up and down through the whole Scriptures, is embraced in this one compendious precept, as the innumerable branches of a tree spring from one root.

Gregory the Great: He that thinks he ought to do to another as he expects that others will do to him, considers verily how he may return good things for bad, and better things for good.

Chrysostom: Whence what we ought to do is clear, as in our own cases we all know what is proper, and so we cannot take refuge in our ignorance.

Augustine: This precept seems to refer to the love of our neighbour, not of God, as in another place He says, there are two commandments on which hang the Law and the Prophets. But as He says not here, The whole Law, as He speaks there, He reserves a place for the other commandment respecting the love of God.

Augustine: Otherwise; Scripture does not mention the love of God, where it says, All things whatsoever ye would; because he who loves his neighbour must consequently love Love itself above all things; but God is Love; therefore he loves God above all things.

See the article here:

Matthew 7:12 - Wikipedia

Chief Justice Paul Newby of the N.C. Supreme Court offered 10 suggestion of professional responsibility for attorneys when he spoke to members of the bar from the judicial district that includes Wilkes, Ashe, Alleghany and Yadkin counties at the Wilkes Heritage Museum on Aug. 25.

The topic of the gathering was professionalism in the sense of upholding sound ethics. While Newbys comments were directed to attorneys, it was sound advice for nearly anybody trying to weigh the rightness or wrongness of some matter. His 10 standards, going in reverse order, for making such a judgment are:

No. 10: Personally and professionally, live by the law. Sounds simple enough, but good people too often give way when tempted.

No. 9: Is your good reputation at stake with the decision a hand? A good reputation is still important, despite what popular culture seems to dictate;

No. 8: Does it pass the smell test? In other words, is it authentic, credible or ethical based on using your sense of propriety or common sense?

No. 7: How would you feel if whatever you are deciding to do appeared in the newspaper or on Facebook? If its something you wouldnt want others to know about, thats good sign to not do it.

No. 6: Dont do it if it requires having to search for a rule or some rationalization;

No. 5: Dont rely on our memory if you arent sure about the rightness or wrongness of something. Make sure;

No. 4: Be aware of the ring, as in the ring that tempted nearly everybody in the Lord of the Ring stories. Greed is a dangerous thing;

No. 3: When in doubt about the rightness of doing something, dont do it. Its almost always better to err on the side of caution;

No. 2: Would your mother understand and agree with what you did?

No. 1: Follow the Golden Rule. Treat others as you would want to be treated.

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10 ways to stay out of trouble | Opinion | journalpatriot.com - Wilkes Journal Patriot

By David DArcy

Imprinted: Illustrating Race and Kadir Nelsons In Our Lifetime: Paintings from the Pandemic at the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, through October 30.

Norman Rockwell was troubled about race relations in American society, and he let his public know that.

Sometimes that meant simply depicting more than one race, which led to misgivings at his mainstay, The Saturday Evening Post. The magazine was wary of printing the 1961 cover, The Golden Rule, which showed a global range of faces. The publications policy, Rockwell said in a later interview, was to depict African-Americans only in servile roles.

Leaving the Saturday Evening Post after 47 years, Rockwell painted scenes for Look magazine covers that dealt with a country forced to live up to its principles. A memorable image from 1964 was of a six-year-old Black girl in a white dress, Ruby Bridges, being escorted to the school in New Orleans that she was integrating in 1960 by four massive US marshals so large that they extend beyond Rockwells frame. Rockwells caption was The Problem We All Live With.

In a wrenching scene that Rockwell painted for Look in 1965, Murder in Mississippi, a young white man holds a wounded Black man while another white man lies motionless on the ground. Shadows of armed figures extend over the picture from the right. The murder victims were Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. They had been registering Black voters in Philadelphia, Mississippi. (The killings loosely inspired the 1988 film Mississippi Burning).

The exhibition Imprinted: Illustrating Race, 150 works and objects at the Norman Rockwell Museum, explores a vast subject, the politics of race in popular American print culture. The presentation is more of a sampling than a systematic survey, more history than art. A selection of work by African-American illustrators, many unseen by the white readership, is counterpoised to the demeaning treatment of race in the illustrated press.

Visitors will find some familiar names Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Charles White, and Faith Ringgold. There are also contributions from artists whom many wont know. The show tracks the evolution away from degrading caricatures of Black Americans and the rise of new images made by African-Americans themselves.

Dont expect a place known as a family museum to display the harshest extremes of printed racism. Or to show the most extreme African-American responses. Yet there are some surprises here.

Looking over the museums website will help prepare visitors for the range of images. So will an exhibition in the same galleries, In Our Lifetime: Paintings from the Pandemic, of work by the painter and illustrator Kadir Nelson (b.1974).

Nelsons 2020 painting After the Storm, is a near-literal updating of the ensemble of faces from multiple races and origins that Rockwell assembled in The Golden Rule. It could be that his 2020 portrait of George Floyd, Say Their Names, a painted memorial to victims of police killings, is a grim commentary on Rockwells image. composed of what looks to be a group of victims of bodies. Rockwells ensemble of faces from throughout the world (and the US) suggested a community, or the makings of one. In Nelsons Say Their Names, a New Yorker cover of June 2020, the faces fill a mass grave

In Imprinted, bookended by works by Rockwell and Nelson, we see illustrations from an advertising campaign from the early 1900s in which stories and images of compliant Black servants were used to sell products to children. The product was Cream of Wheat, a cereal that a small firm introduced to the market in 1893. Unknown then in American homes, Cream of White was manufactured in Grand Forks, North Dakota. To sell the cereal to children, or to their parents, its managers devised a magazine campaign of images showing carefree kids attended by a Black cook holding what else? a bowl of Cream of Wheat. The standard Cream of Wheat picture was of mischievous blonde children calmed by that Black man with a white bowl.

The catalogue essay by Michele E. Bogart reads like a case history in sales promotion. Pale in color, Cream of White didnt look like much. A company executive (marketer was not a word used back then) came up with the idea of creating dramatic scenes of the cereal served to children (all white) by a Black man dressed as a chef. The effect that the company was seeking and selling was meant to be soothing and reassuring. In the ads, the chef was named Rastus, a name long associated with Black slaves and servants. A man named Frank White was used as the model for those pictures. In her essay, Bogart quotes the executive in charge of the decades-long campaign. He says that White was paid a few dollars about five dollars, other writers say. White then disappeared, Bogart writes. The campaign that sold the cereal with his face went on for decades.

Hiring some of the leading artists/illustrators of the time, Cream of Wheat exploited longstanding notions of a deferential, dutiful, gentle icon of otherness, in parallel with Aunt Jemima, launched around the same time in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Every marketing campaign needs to regenerate itself with fresh approaches, so Cream of Wheat turned to producing posters in a style that artists (fine artists) made in the early 1900s. In one scene, the children view a framed portrait of Rastus exhibited in an art museum. If the children that piled over each other in front of the portrait werent ready for art, the picture suggests, at least they were ready, via Rastus, for the nutritious (and civilizing?) appeal of Cream of Wheat.

Bogart notes that there are holes in the archival evidence that might tell us more about Cream of Wheats illustrated campaign. But the seductive sentimental gauziness of the images, which fill far more space than text in the posters, says a lot. They suggest that the pictures targeted children who would demand that their parents buy the cereal a winning strategy for any marketer.

The presence of art in the illustrations sacralize the product, Bogart argues. The presence of a loyal servant assures young children that they will be well fed and safe. Cream of Wheat did not retire Rastus until 2020, around the same time that Quaker Oats abandoned the branded character of Aunt Jemima also around the time that George Floyd was killed.

In Imprinted, a show curated by women, with catalogue essays written by women, there is also a rare focus on often-neglected Black women illustrators. One is Jackie Ormes (1911-85), whose plucky and witty characters (some looking a lot like self-portraits) were the protagonists of her work for close to twenty years.

First working out of Pittsburgh, Ormes created the character of Torchy Brown, a stylish adventurer who fought off villains and abusers. In this comic strip for the Pittsburgh Courier which, syndicated through other African-American newspapers, reached more than a million Black readers, Torchys political consciousness transcended the parameters of the funny pages. Ormes also drew eye-catching clothes for Torchy, which may have attracted more readers.

The strip, given that added fashion dimension, might have reached an even broader audience if major newspapers agreed to carry it.But, like so much else at the time, readership was segregated.

Ormess political edge was part of all the work that she did. So was her surprisingly forward-thinking interest in environmental justice, which barely figured at that time in American media. In her strip Heartbeats, an African-American nurse (also named Torchy) works with a Black doctor to treat patients threatened by toxic factory pollution in the American South. Bear in mind that these comics were published before the Civil Rights movement drew much attention from the mainstream press.

In 1945, Ormes began Patty-Jo n Ginger, a series of panel drawings, single drawings with captions. where the characters were Ginger, a stylish young woman, and her precociously irreverent five-year-old sister. Subjects ranged from wartime victory gardens (tended by the older fashionable Ginger in high heels and a short skirt) and a Halloween scene with a reference to witch hunts. Ormes was suspected of spreading un-American views and investigated for it. One look at the poverty of a Black family in a squalid room was too stiff a reminder of reality for any mainstream publication. That family wondered out loud how the H-bomb protected poor people like themselves.

The catalogue essay by Nancy Goldstein (who is also Ormess biographer) refers to a racially charged joke in a scene from 1955: Patty-Jo, speaking to Ginger, who hides a newspaper with shocking cover photos of murdered Emmett Till behind her back, says, I dont want to seem touchy on the subjectbut that new little white tea kettle just whistled at me. Mocking a white womans justification for Tills death in a comic strip? How many mainstream publications would have imagined running a cartoon like that at the time?

As investigators sought to intimidate her, Ormes was also entrepreneurial, developing a doll inspired by the wise-cracking Patty-Jo that was produced between 1947 and 1949. The artists life story cries out for a documentary or a scripted dramatization.

If Ormes knew how to weaponize humor, Emory Douglas weaponized anger, even though his cartoonish style could, like Ormess, just as easily convey warmth and laughs.

Douglas, who studied commercial art at City College of San Francisco, joined the Black Panther Party (BPP) in 1967. He took the title of Revolutionary Artist. He would later become the BPPs Minister of Culture. He was the art director, designer and principal illustrator for The Black Panther newspaper until it ceased publication in 1980. If his work had a dominant theme those days, it was self-defense, often in the form of a Black figure, usually a woman, with a rifle in her hand. His captions spat out an attitude, as in the defiant panel from 1971, Listen to Them Pigs Banging on My Door for Some Rent MoneyThey Should Be Paying My Rent. Another work on view by Douglas is a drawing of a Black man with a rifle and what looks like a broken chain on his wrist, 1970s Now the Pigs Will Say I Am a Criminal.

Tough words for the walls of the Norman Rockwell Museum.

For The Black Panther, Douglass audience, reaching up to 140,000 in 1970, was still mostly segregated (or self-selected) by race. The artists characters tended to be seen holding guns (although there is an occasional woman holding a rat). The depictions of armed citizens, African-Americans asserting their Second Amendment rights, alarmed authorities in California, who hesitated on gun rights when the arms were held by Blacks.

Douglass later work, sometimes less confrontational, includes a 1993 portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. which is on the cover of the Imprinted catalogue. King is shown with arms folded, against an array of yellow spokes on a red background. Its hard to tell what Douglas was suggesting with that composition, though The Black Panther was far to the political left of King.

In the YouTube video below Douglas talks about his decades as an illustrator and publisher. He doesnt sound as if hes softened much.

Among the artists in Imprinted, Douglas has seen his reputation revived, with the publication of a 2014 book on his career and the inclusion of his work in museum exhibitions. His illustrations are unabashedly polemical: these are not the usual kind of pictures found at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

All the more reason for Imprinted and its broad range of images. There are drawings by African-American illustrators that shed new light on the Harlem Renaissance. There are also personal pictures by artists working today, such as Noa Denmon, Andrea Pippins, Rachelle Baker, and Loveis Wise, that veer away from anything explicitly political.

Can we expect future Rockwell museum exhibitions on illustrating delicate subjects like gender or religion?

David DArcy lives in New York. For years, he was a programmer for the Haifa International Film Festival in Israel. He writes about art for many publications, including the Art Newspaper. He produced and co-wrote the documentary Portrait of Wally (2012), about the fight over a Nazi-looted painting found at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.

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Visual Arts Review: Illustrations of Race at The Norman Rockwell Museum - artsfuse.org

TAMPA, Fla.With nearly 2,000 reported cases of monkeypox in Florida, that puts the state third, behind California and New York for having the highest number of cases in the U.S.

A Tampa Bay area man who recently had monkeypox shared his experience living with the virus. He asked not to be identified because of the stigma associated with the disease.

As it started with one and then grew to five, we were looking up physical characteristics of monkeypox to kind of see what they would look like, said the man.

He called Dr. Bob Wallaces office in St. Petersburg to set up an appointment.

From there, you know, he looked at the lesions that I had on my body, and at the point, I quarantined myself at home.

He said symptoms included spots on the body, chills, fever, and body aches. Coincidentally, he received his first dose of the monkeypox vaccine just two days before noticing symptoms.

So, they believe that the vaccine actually helped it control the spread and help it heal faster. My lesions really did heal a lot quicker than most peoples, said the man.

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So, what is monkeypox, where did it come from and why are we seeing more cases now, locally?

Its not new. Its actually endemic in parts of Africa, said Dr. Sneed with USF Health.

Dr. Sneed said monkeypox was first discovered in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that the exact origin of the virus - despite its name - is still unknown.

According to the CDC, there have been more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox in the United States.

Dr. Sneed said we're seeing more cases of the virus among men who have sex with men and people of color.

Even though African Americans only make up between 12% and 13% of the population, right now theyre making up about 26% of all of the cases that we found in the United States, so far. And the very same thing for Hispanics. They make up about 19% of the population, but were finding that theyre 28% of the cases are out there, said Dr. Sneed.

Health experts believe we may be seeing this disparity because of a lack of access to the vaccine or to vaccine hesitancy, essentially people unwilling to get inoculated.

One of the things we know about, there is a treatment and we know that there are actually 17 million doses available for treatment for monkeypox if that should become necessary, said Dr. Bob Wallace in conversation with a colleague.

Dr. Wallace runs the Love the Golden Rule clinic in St. Petersburg and said monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease and anyone can get it.

We certainly dont want to label this as an LGBTQ disease. Its something that we know that the majority of cases have been men who have sex with men, but we know that anyone can get this, said Dr. Wallace.

He said the virus is usually transmitted from skin-to-skin contact. This means you should not share towels at the pool or beach. Getting vaccinated can offer a level of protection.

So, we want people not to be afraid, but at the same time to be cautious, said Dr. Wallace.

As for our interview subject, he recently received his second and last dose of the vaccine and is doing well.

Make sure that youre washing your hands. Cleaning any surfaces that mightve touched anybodys body. Like, just making sure that youre taking care of yourself and making sure youre being cleanly and just being ahead of it, he advised others.

If you are interested in getting vaccinated against monkeypox, you can visit the the Florida Department of Health's website or call 850-245-4444.

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In-depth: Monkeypox and the impact it's having on Floridians - ABC Action News Tampa Bay

If youre looking for a Carrigans Club, hit up the downtown location. (Jacob Blankenship / Bham Now)

While the restaurant industry in Birmingham evolves, more and more restaurants are finding themselves looking for another adventure or have no option but to close their doors. Here are four Birmingham businesses that have closed this month, including Carrigans Mountain Brook.

After the Pelham and Helena locations closed in earlier 2022 due to effects of COVID-19, were saddened to report that the Trussville location of Golden Rule BBQ has closed its doors. Located across from the newly developed Trussville Entertainment District, the location was presented with unique challenges as they continued to find ways to draw customers in.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to support us on our last day. We have enjoyed serving you over the years and will miss everyone of you.

Another Bessemer staple has turned off their lights for good. Smokin Hot Sports Grill, a family owned and operated restaurant, closed on August 14 due to staffing shortages after five years in business.

Menu items included breakfast, lunch and dinner, with menu favorites like Nacho Tots, Brisket Quesadillas and the Grits, Greens and Pork plate.

There were a LOT of tears shed today and a lot of beautiful smiling faces to say farewell. We can not thank each and every single one of you enough for coming these past few days to share stories, hugs and support. We can not even put into words how special each one of you are to us and how much we will miss you.

Beloved Birmingham spot Carrigans announced the closing of their Mountain Brook location which had been open since 2019. Serving signature cocktails, upscale bar foods and healthy options, Carrigans Mountain Brook was a Mountain Brook Village staple.

While the menu looks a tad different than the Mountain Brook location, the downtown pub and the beer garden are here to welcome you with open arms.

There was no official closing statement from Carrigans Mountain Brook.

While The OG Ghost Train on 3rd Ave. officially announced that they will be leaving their location and moving all production to their First Ave. facility, there is hope on the horizon for this building. Head brewer at Ferus Ales, Nate Darnell is excited to bring his new concept, Uproot Brewing, to Birmingham.

We have some big news to share. Since 2016, 2616 3rd Ave S. has been our home. While our first home will always have a special place in our heart, we are thrilled to help another local brewery find their first home at 3rd Ave. We love to support the growth of local craft beer and could not be more excited to pass the torch to our good friend Nate Darnell, owner of Uproot Brewing Company!

As Nate moves into 3rd Ave, we will be moving all of our production, operations, and events, to our new location at 3501 1st Ave SUproot Brewing will officially be moving in and bringing Birmingham some incredible brews starting in early Fall 2022. We want to thank you for your continued support throughout the years and hope youll join us in this exciting new chapter for Ghost Train.

Which other closings are you sad to say goodbye to, Birmingham? Let us know on our Facebook and Instagram.

Link:

Carrigan's Mountain Brook + 3 other businesses that have closed this month - Bham Now