Dear Editor:

In the United States there are 20 organized religions which share the golden rule -- love your neighbor as yourself. A Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life report in 2015 concluded that the U.S. population of Muslim adults is 2.6 million -- 0.6 percent of the total population -- placing them third most popular organized religion in the U.S. after Christianity (71 percent) and Judaism (0.9 percent).

Ethics of Reciprocity is another phrase for the golden rule. Almost all organized religions, philosophical systems, and secular systems of morality include this ethic. It applies to the entire human race. Some refer to the golden role as “Common Ground Spirituality.” If you think about it, large numbers of our neighbors value the golden rule, but few have ever walked in their neighbor’s shoes because they remain fixed within the narrow confines of their own belief systems.

We accept and aim to improve lives, yet we hold back walking with our neighbors and rarely walk in their shoes to experience wisdom and compassion. We are quick to anger and fear and slow to compassion, even when we seek answers.

Ron Paul (author, physician, federal politician) once said: "Maybe we ought to consider a Golden Rule in foreign policy: Don't do to other nations what we don't want happening to us. We endlessly bomb these countries and then we wonder why they get upset with us."

Other teachings discover that when we walk in our neighbor’s shoes we share in their fears, pain, love, and concerns to get to the heart of wisdom and morality.

We were taught fear of other religious beliefs, including fear of other practicing Christians.

We go to the doctor to share intimate details of our pain and suffering. To become a doctor one must learn to listen, research symptoms and medicinal solutions by walking through centuries of human anatomical facts. Why do we limit these essential skills to medicine? Each one of us can listen and walk in our neighbors shoes to enable peaceful solutions to blossom in compassion. If we are in trouble wouldn’t we want a good Samaritan to help us?

Jarryl Larson

Edgecomb