Do you believe in the sanctity of life? If everyone is created in my image that gives them intrinsic worth. How do you treat people who are created in my image? But not everyone professes the sanctity of life, and more importantly, not everyone lives in such a way to regard their fellow man or even themselves with dignity. The Golden Rule applies here. You may be able to treat people better than they regard themselves. In so doing you heap coals of fire on their heads, and provide a visible manifestation of a God they are alienated from.

Do you prefer to judge yourself and your friends by your beliefs, and others by their behavior? This makes it easy for you, but it is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Intellectual and spiritual rigor demands that you use the same criteria for both. Since you aren’t likely to agree on doctrine, conduct becomes the default means of comparison for all. Do you avoid such a comparison? Every faith tradition produces some bad examples, but comparing the worst with the worst will not give valid results. You should evaluate the influence of faith practices on the group as a whole.

Mass shootings are big stories that generate outrage. This is an appropriate response to the death of innocent people. How could someone be so alienated from humanity to take the lives of strangers? Yet more people die by suicide, and this does not generate such a strong response. How could someone be so alienated from humanity as to take their own life? These questions are more similar than different. No organ can survive apart from the body that gives it life, and the same principle applies to people that I describe as members of a body.

Everyone who seeks the truth hears my voice, and he who seeks will find. Do you know people who seem to be honestly seeking something, even if they don’t know what it is? Let your light shine before them to help them to see the truth. Someone else’s path may be different from yours, and this is OK. You don’t have to force them on a path that is not theirs. Based on the promises above you can be confident that their search will lead to me. Does this seem like a strong statement for a universal rule? But I have powerful forces at my disposal to guide honest seekers to me.