If you drive by my west Turlock home you'll find a sign positioned prominently in my front yard. I know, it’s election season, having a yard sign isn’t that unusual. Instead of displaying support for a candidate, however, my yard sign reads: “Do Unto Others” and then “Kindness.”
I got this yard sign after attending church earlier this month. Do Unto Others is a grassroots movement launched by Resurrection, a United Methodist Church in the Kansas City area, to encourage people to be intentional about treating one another with kindness, overcoming the polarization in our country through civility and respect.
According to Resurrection church, “Jesus taught that we should treat others as we want them to treat us – including those with whom we disagree. Known as The Golden Rule, a version of this teaching can be found in almost every religion in the world. This universal rule holds the power to bring people together again.”
Some of you reading this may say, “duh, I learned in kindergarten to treat others as I want to be treated.” That may be true, however, it’s my experience that people don’t actually follow that rule in real life. Sometimes the simplest and most obvious advice is also the most profound and hardest to follow.
There’s no better time to urge civility and respect than during election season.
I remember thinking during the 2016 presidential election season when Donald Trump faced off against Hillary Clinton that our country has never been so divided. I was wrong. We have been on a downward spiral of divisiveness and polarization where personal attacks are common place instead of debate over the issues.
James Carville, Bill Clinton’s political advisor famously said that when it came to elections it was “the economy, stupid.” Despite the derogatory address, I wish it was about the economy and not about the scandal of the week.
We cannot wait for political candidates to change their ways. We, as the people they represent, need to change the discourse.
“I think we can agree that the world has become a bit of a difficult place and I think it’s our job, as a Christian community, to share God’s love especially in this time,” said Dawn Mallory, Director of Christian Education at FUMC Turlock, when introducing the Do Unto Others campaign.
“…together we can ‘do unto others’ with kindness, ‘do unto others’ with love, ‘do unto others’ with respect, ‘do onto others’ with humility, and ‘do onto others’ with compassion.”
The colors of the campaign are intentional. There’s a heart with a red side, a blue side and the middle is purple.
This concept of disagreeing with civility and respect is actually possible, even with one of today’s hottest button issues — abortion. In the July 19, 2024 episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher” two guests with opposing political viewpoints had an over 5-minute lively discussion about abortion and not once did they call each other names or disparage the other one’s entire political party.
Choosing civility is not a new concept. Stanislaus County Superintendent of Schools Tom Changnon in 2010 started a Choose Civility community-wide campaign after hearing about the unruly behavior of parents and teachers attending school district budgetary meetings around the county at a time when state funding cutbacks due to the recession meant quite a few layoffs and program eliminations.
The Stanislaus County Office of Education convened a board of advisors made up of community leaders from around the county — including then Turlock Mayor John Lazar and Turlock Chamber of Commerce CEO Sharon Silva — with the goal of helping to guide the initiative.
The SCOE and board of advisors came up with a list of “Top 12 Principles” of civility. They included: listen, respect other people’s time, don’t shift responsibility and blame, accept and give praise, respect others’ opinions, acknowledge others, speak kindly, apologize sincerely, refrain from idle complaints, think the best, accept and give constructive criticism, and don’t speak ill.
As more purple signs pop up in Turlock yards this fall, I hope it helps candidates and voters remember The Golden Rule this election season.
