Each December, as lights trace rooftops and familiar carols fill public spaces, we are invited to celebrate and reflect. Christmas, rooted in the birth of Jesus Christ, carries a message deeper than custom or nostalgia. At its center, the season is an opportunity to embody the Golden Rule: treat others as you wish to be treated, the universal Law of Reciprocity. This simple but profound directive deserves renewed attention at a time when public life feels increasingly fractured.
The Golden Rule is not a seasonal nicety or a suggestion for polite company. It is moral bedrock. While Christianity clearly voices it, one of the most remarkable features of human civilization is the near-universal recognition of this principle across cultures, eras and belief systems.
Confucius urged his students not to impose on others what they would not accept themselves. Jewish tradition warns against doing to one’s neighbor what one finds hateful. Islam teaches that faith is incomplete unless a believer desires for others the same good things that they wish for themselves. Hindu sages cautioned against causing pain to another that one would not bear. Buddhism, Sikhism, Taoism, Jainism and Indigenous traditions echo the same truth: our own well-being is bound tightly to the well-being of those around us.
More than 140 world religions or moral systems express some form of the Golden Rule. That is not a coincidence, but evidence of a shared human understanding which transcends geography, language and doctrine, possibly a single source of all human creation.
So why revisit this principle at Christmas? Because the season encourages a recalibration of priorities. According to the Pew Research Center, 28.8 percent of the planet’s population is Christian, so for them, a profoundly simple prophetic utterance of the prophet Isaiah, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,” urges recalibration. The lights, the gatherings and the gift exchanges, while pleasant, are not the point. The birth of the Messiah, Jesus, calls us to look deep within and ask what endures, what guides a good life, strengthens communities and steadies institutions when they tremble under the weight of conflict or mistrust.
Our society and universities would do well to reflect and recalibrate. We live in a time marked by suspicion, anger and reducing one another to categories. The Golden Rule stands as one of the few moral principles universally recognized, even if not practiced. In my series of opinion pieces on 21st Century Higher Education, I note repeatedly that the rules that reach across cultures are not accidental. Mutual respect is not simply a religious ideal but a practical necessity for human flourishing.
Communities grow through daily acts of regard, often small and usually unnoticed, thrive. Listening before speaking. Granting patience when it would be easier to snap. Showing respect when it is not returned. These acts are essential to any organization, a university, a town or a family that hopes to value its people.
Christmas offers a yearly reminder of the role of rules in life. The Golden Rule need not be removed from its religious roots, quite the opposite. The birth of Christ is the incarnation of God’s love, humility, mercy, grace and generosity, which become expectations for living, not abstract ideals. The moral insight of the Christmas season resonates with people of many backgrounds because it points toward a way of living that strengthens communities and repairs fractures.
But the Golden Rule cannot function as a once-a-year performance. If so, it is a decoration, not a conviction. The Golden Rule is universal, woven into the wisdom of many traditions. Therefore, Christmas is more than a holiday; it is a time of recommitment for examining whether our actions match the values we claim to prize.
Consider what happens when the Golden Rule is ignored. Campuses become battlegrounds. Neighborhoods turn suspicious. Public discourse corrodes. Basic regard for others is not theoretical; it has practical and it has measurable consequences. Conversely, when people choose to see others as neighbors, imperfect, complex and worthy of dignity, institutions and people grow stronger, trust deepens and hope takes root. It begins with making daily choices, not sweeping policy changes or heroic gestures.
Christmas will end, decorations will come down, routines will resume, but the moral insight of the season does not have to fade with the lights. Christmas can inspire what we should carry into the year ahead: dignity for others, mutual respect and a recognition that our shared humanity is more powerful than the forces dividing us.
May we move forward holding the Christian story of the birth of Christ that gives Christmas its meaning and the universal human rule that calls us toward regard for others. These truths may form the foundation of any group that hopes to endure and a society worthy of the name of community.
Walter V. Wendler is the President of West Texas A&M University. His weekly columns are available at https://walterwendler.com/.
