God's first rule: Love one another

To the editor:

I was horrified at the tragedy on our Gulf Coast this past week. I believe our nation has been moving in the wrong direction for some years now.

It is easy to find, or make up, rules to live by. I think a lot of people now believe our relationship with God depends on our obedience to the rules. This mistaken attitude shows in our behavior toward each other.

Many of us are holding ourselves separate from others. There is a pervasive holier-than-thou mentality growing, and it divides us.

But God is love. When we separate ourselves from others with a false morality, we are destroying the very fabric of Christianity. Christianity is not about rules. It is about unconditional love of people -- not things, not rules, but people. We cannot love God without a deep-seated respect for wholeness. We are embedded in the whole of humanity and all of creation.

True morality comes from a loving heart. We need love in our society, and we also need loving rules, but it is vitally important that we get these two elements in the right order. When unconditional love takes a back seat to anything else, the message of Jesus is perverted and Christianity has lost its legitimacy.

God cares most not how right we are, but how well we treat each other.

NEAL O. ZEILINGER, Cape Girardeau