Kirsten Shaw, age 14, of McAllen, Texas, for his question:

CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE GOLDEN RULE?

The Golden Rule is a commandment or direction given as a rule of action or the conduct of altruistic behavior. Altruistic means unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others. The Golden Rule states that people should do to others as they would have others do to them.

Along with the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule serves as a proverbial guideline of conduct of Christians, Jews and others.

The Golden Rule is derived in its modern form from Jewish and Christian sources.

The negative form of the rule was stated in Jewish literature, as in the Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha: "And what you hate, do not do to anyone."

The Golden Rule was also stated negatively by Confucious and other teachers of ethics.

The Christian rule, which posits a fraternal ethic from the practical basis of personal realism, is taken from two New Testament passages: Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31.