To hear some of the media tell it, The Bible would seem to be nothing more than a collection bigotries and superstitions to be shed and overcome by a civilized society rather than a book of eternal wisdom for the ages.

It’s true that individual quotes can be plucked out of The Good Book, by both non-believers and believers, to create the impression of a faith that is judgmental, harsh and unreasonable, but I believe the truth is that it actually continues to provide the basis for both improving society as a whole and and ourselves as individuals.

I’m no theologian but here are 12 positive ideas from The New Testament that I would like to see the media resolve to put forth and promote in 2011. As values go, I think they beat snarkiness and edge by a wide margin. I know they are ideals I personally resolve to try and live up to.

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind.
Remembering this helps us to remember that there is something greater than ourselves. By loving and respecting God above all else, we human beings will avoid becoming laws unto ourselves and, ultimately, creating human laws that are harsher than anything God would wish upon us.

2. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus called these first two the greatest of all the commandments because all the others rest on them. So, it’s fair to say that if we love God and sincerely want the best for others and ourselves we will naturally tend to follow the 10 Commandments. Therefore, we get our priorities straight (as in putting no gods before God), use the name of God respectfully (and for honorable reasons), keep a day of rest (to keep ourselves healthy to better serve God, as well as the needs of others and ourselves) and honor our parents (and our ancestors on whose shoulders we stand, learning from their faith, trials and errors). We’ll also avoid killing, breaking promises, stealing, lying and jealousy.

3. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Taking a moment to sincerely attempt to see issues through the eyes of others would avoid a lot of unnecessary conflict and lead to solutions that meet everyone’s concerns. As the poem Desiderata puts it: Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull
and the ignorant; they too have their story.

4. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Thinking about certain behaviors and arriving at a prayerful conclusions about whether or not they are positive is called growing up. But we have no right to judge others regarding their choices or their relationship with God. As the passage goes on to say, we are best advised to consider the beam in our own eyes before going all holier than thou on others.

5. Remember that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound
mind.
God wants us to bravely confront life, not be afraid of pursuing the positive power of our dreams and to always remain sane. The Bible is about lifting people up and should never be used to put down ourselves or others.

6. Love.
This passage (Corinthians 13) says it all:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,
but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can
fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move
mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. but do not have love,
I gain nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my
body to hardship that I may boast,

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it
is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, always
trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the
truth.

Love never fails. But where
there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be
stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in
part disappears. When I was a
child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then
we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as
I am fully known.

 And now these three remain:
faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

7. Show mercy and help others when you can.
As The Parable of the Good Samaritan suggests we are truly Christians when we live out our beliefs in kind action. Actions do speak louder than words. Whatever the particular religion, politics or lifestyle of the Samaritan, what was important to God was that he showed compassion to an individual in need (whose religion, politics or lifestyle is also unimportant to the moral). 

8. Develop your talents and use your resources.
As The Parable of the Talents/Bags of Gold tells us, God wants us to develop and use what we have been given so that, through the Grace of God,  we may give back more than we have been given.

9. Extend and accept God’s infinite forgiveness.
The Bible offers numerous quotes on the importance of forgiving others who trespass against us. Forgiving others is a kindness to the transgressor but it also is a means of freeing ourselves from past hurts.

Also, if we are honest, we all have failed others — and failed God — at some point in our lives. We all need forgiveness. Fortunately, God’s mercy is limitless. There is absolutely nothing we can do and nowhere we can go to shake it. It is always there. We just need to acknowledge our need for it, ask for it and accept it. And, by the Grace of God, it is always within our ability to do so. I know I need it, ask for it and accept it and that it’s there for you too.

10. Exercise the Fruit of the Spirit.
That is, develop the attributes of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are the qualities that lead to freedom.

11. Encourage one another and build each other up.
And, on the flip side, let’s try to avoid discouraging each other and tearing each other down. This is one area where the media could make a major difference by simply not pitting us against each other.

12. Be Grateful.
As it says in Ephesians, speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and
make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

People of other faiths, of course, may use different words — but acknowledging that all the good things we have come from God is a good thing that, hopefully, brings us together in shared humility. None of is better than anyone else. We all owe everything we have to God.

These are some of the positive lessons I take from The Bible. I think they are good ones that a pluralistic society can benefit from. I believe they should be promoted not downgraded in our media and, particularly, our storytelling.

As an individual, I know that the closer I come to living up to these ideals, the better person I will be. I’m going to try.