I think it’s important to keep the diversity of Christian belief in mind—it’s an exaggeration to say there are about 2.4 billion Christianities because there are about 2.4 billion Christians, but there’s a kernel of truth there.
The New Testament writers chose to communicate more in parable, narrative, and epistle than in tightly-reasoned philosophical treatise. They wrote in ways that would be legible to a first-century audience, and tended to focus on issues that would be salient to that audience. Extracting the precise moral lessons from the text is, to some extent, a task left for the reader and the believing interpretative community (i.e., the church).
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always thought the Golden Rule extended to all living people, and I’ve never had any reason to change my view on that. So I would answer on my own reading and belief that a significant degree of impartiality is clearly implied by New Testament moral teachings. But that’s simply a data point. Some Christians will think that; others probably won’t.
Perhaps the most that can be safely said is that the Christian tradition provides ample resources with which one can arrive at a fairly strong position of impartiality (at least among living human beings), even if certain aspects of impartiality aren’t really a focus of either the New Testament text or many elements of the Christian tradition.
I think it’s important to keep the diversity of Christian belief in mind—it’s an exaggeration to say there are about 2.4 billion Christianities because there are about 2.4 billion Christians, but there’s a kernel of truth there.
The New Testament writers chose to communicate more in parable, narrative, and epistle than in tightly-reasoned philosophical treatise. They wrote in ways that would be legible to a first-century audience, and tended to focus on issues that would be salient to that audience. Extracting the precise moral lessons from the text is, to some extent, a task left for the reader and the believing interpretative community (i.e., the church).
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always thought the Golden Rule extended to all living people, and I’ve never had any reason to change my view on that. So I would answer on my own reading and belief that a significant degree of impartiality is clearly implied by New Testament moral teachings. But that’s simply a data point. Some Christians will think that; others probably won’t.
Perhaps the most that can be safely said is that the Christian tradition provides ample resources with which one can arrive at a fairly strong position of impartiality (at least among living human beings), even if certain aspects of impartiality aren’t really a focus of either the New Testament text or many elements of the Christian tradition.