Values in common

[Elijah John]

Here's a challenge, and hopefully a thought provoking exercise. Please list the shared common values and ethics of the above named groups.

[onewithhim]

Here's a challenge, and hopefully a thought provoking exercise. Please list the shared common values and ethics of the above named groups.

On paper all the groups have quite a few things in common:

Love for fellowman
Love of God
Desire for peace
Desire to help others less fortunate

But, alas, when we look at what these groups actually DO, then we run into problems in harmonizing them all together.

"Love for fellowman" and "Desire for peace" are just pleasant words to most in the above named groups. Catholics, Evangelicals and Muslims all go to war against their fellowman, and often even some of their own faith. JWs are the odd-balls here. They don't kill anybody.

"Love of God?" Here we have to ask: Which God? Here we get into the reality of it that each group serves a different God. Catholics and Evangelicals worship a Triune God, but there are differences even within that belief set, depending on where in the world Catholics are worshipping. In some places pagan gods are worshipped right along with the Trinity. Muslims believe in one God, but this God is hard to identify. They call him "Allah," but that is just a TITLE that means "God." Who is this God? They say that he is the God of the Bible as well as the Quran, but the ideas of those two sacred books actually conflict. The Muslim God is not the same as the Catholic God(s) or the Evangelical God or the God that JWs worship. JWs worship YHWH, the God of the Holy Bible, whose name appears 7,000 times as the Tetragrammaton. None of the other groups worship him.

Well, that just touches the surface. Much more could be said.

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 2 by onewithhim]

I have to agree. You would think that

Love your neighbour

would be a most basic common thread for all these religions but I remember on conversation I had on this forum about what Jesus meant and (s)he was clear it was easy until I asked what happens when some human leader declares war, then even the direction to love, even love your fellowbelievers become "complicated" "difficult to understand" "hard to say what Jesus meant", the person (a "christian") even went so far as to question whether Jesus had thought the idea all the way through.

In short, on paper (and in song) they all claim love of others is their commonality but in PRACTISE even that is "too complicated to understand", a "mystery".

That was the moment I realized if that basic command cannot be "understood" what good discussing the meaning of the book of Revelation or how to interpret messianic prophecy?

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 1 by Elijah John]

It'll be interesting to see how many share the common value of claiming to be the only religion that worships the only true god. We've got one of those so far.

Beyond that, it is odd that you picked three branches of Christianity, which of course gives the practitioners of certain of those branches the opportunity to blame the other branches for the evil Christianity has practiced, and lumped Muslims into one group.

To be fair, all the branches of Christianity would have to admit they are all part of the same religion. There are obvious reasons they won't desire to do that. Either that, or you'd have to break Islam into it's different branches.

[Elijah John]

[Replying to post 1 by Elijah John]

It'll be interesting to see how many share the common value of claiming to be the only religion that worships the only true god. We've got one of those so far.

Beyond that, it is odd that you picked three branches of Christianity, which of course gives the practitioners of certain of those branches the opportunity to blame the other branches for the evil Christianity has practiced, and lumped Muslims into one group.

To be fair, all the branches of Christianity would have to admit they are all part of the same religion. There are obvious reasons they won't desire to do that. Either that, or you'd have to break Islam into it's different branches.

There are two main branches of Islam. Not sure if Sufi's are their own banch or could be a part of Shi'ite or Sunni.

But what may appear an odd grouping with the Christian groups mentioned, here is what I was thinking.

-They all embrace the Golden Rule, in one form or another.
-They all teach love of God and neighbor.
-They are all pro-life and anti-abortion.
-They all support traditional marraige.
-They all worship the God of Abraham.

One could probably include Orthodox Judaism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity in to the grouping as well.

Anyone think of anyting else the groups listed have in common? Or is there any group I may be missing that could be added to the list?

Let's focus on the commonality, for the time being. Some of the differences are obvious.

[Elijah John]

Here's a challenge, and hopefully a thought provoking exercise. Please list the shared common values and ethics of the above named groups.

On paper all the groups have quite a few things in common:

Love for fellowman
Love of God
Desire for peace
Desire to help others less fortunate

But, alas, when we look at what these groups actually DO, then we run into problems in harmonizing them all together.

Instead of the "doing" for this OP, let's focus on the professing, the ideals, the common teachings. But I think you are right with this list of commonalities.

Also, the groups listed, unlike some liberal Protestant and Jewish groups, are also all pro-life/anti-abortion, and all support traditional marraige.

[2timothy316]

I think the only thing that all of these groups have in common in full is that there is the belief that there exists a higher being. Other than that, its mud when comparing the details in values.

I agree with the others that have posted here that anyone can say they believe in certain values but actions show what values are truly upheld. So when a person says they believe Jesus Christ is their king but don't follow 80% of his commandments, their actions show it is not one of their actual values.