The Be Golden Book

Justin Taylor Hughes was born in San Angelo, Texas in 1986. At age 7, he and his family moved to a small Texas hill country town called Bulverde. Growing up, Justin was a three-sport letterman and a captain on the football and basketball teams.

After graduating high school, he went to Angelo State University to study business. It was there that he and his cousins formed the rock band “Seventh Addition.” After graduating with his bachelor’s in business administration, Justin started his career in the corporate retail industry.

In the summer of 2020, right at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Justin was diagnosed with an unclassified kidney cancer. This is when the idea for Be Golden began to take shape. As Justin spent much of his time alone in hospitals and cancer centers due to the COVID pandemic, he spent a lot of time watching the news and lamenting the hate and division that was ripping our country apart.

At the same time, he and his family witnessed an exceptionally diverse community come together and help them through awful circumstances. Hughes noticed how it was the community’s commitment to the Golden Rule—treating him and his family the way they would want to be treated—that made the unity possible. This was the inspiration that led him to work with editor Nathan Barnes, PhD, to write the Creed Party’s first book: Be Golden: A Path to Unity.

Alberto J. Raggio

Made my wife cry with happiness and compassion

Be Golden, I can tell you that everybody who has a soul needs to read this book. The depths of the emotional connection that you will have when you read this book will change you, it will change your perspective, it will enlighten you, and make your spirit happy. Thank you so very much for this beautiful book, Justin. I recommend the entire world to read it, I read it three times, we need it now more than ever. Made my wife cry with happiness and compassion.

Alejandro Llobet

Love makes all possible!!

Amazing and touching history. I have the pleasure of knowing Justin and follow him through his journey and all I can see is love from him and all around him, starting with his beautiful family: Berphy, Hudson, Eli and Blake Lorenza. God bless always! Love you so much!

When I was 34 years old, I was diagnosed with advanced stage cancer. That was in June of 2020, at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. I had five major surgeries and struggled through all kinds of treatments before God led me to Immunocine Dendritic Cell Treatments.

While battling the illness, Andy Reese and Jennifer Barnett’s Freedom Prayer Ministry helped me work through some of the toughest adversity imaginable. While recovering from surgeries, I spent much of my time alone in the hospital while visitation restrictions were enforced during the pandemic. During this time, I noticed that America was going through a similar process of illness and isolation; we were hit hard by the global pandemic and all its devastating effects. How we respond to that evil sets the stage for the post-COVID-19 age.

In the summer of 2023, God called my wife and I to give financially to Freedom Prayer Ministry and Immunocine, the two organizations that got us through the cancer battle. We were in the middle of the cancer battle when He called us to give to these organizations, and money was very tight. Our family and community rallied around us and held all kinds of fundraisers to help us navigate through the battle. It was a great example of how a community has the power to come together and help each other through the roughest of times.

At this unique point in life, my wife and I knew we were going to have to generate new income if we were going to give to these organizations. God’s call for us to give was the inspiration behind us forming The United Creed , LLC, which intends to be the vehicle that brings morality back into American culture.

The United Creed ’s mission is to encourage people to follow the Golden Rule. The heart of the Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one would expect to be treated themselves. Various expressions of this rule can be found in most religions and moral philosophies. The Golden Rule has inspired Americans to confront awful cultural realities like slavery, war, and social injustice. The Golden Rule has the power to reunite our politically divided country. Because of its power to unite Americans, our slogan is Be Golden.

We believe political division is distracting Americans from genuinely embracing the Golden Rule. The United Creed will confront political division and issue an invitation for unity. The United Creed logo (our best friend, a Golden Retriever we named Zeke) will be a reminder for Americans to honor others. We should not treat others with respect only when they share our point of view; The Golden Rule invites us to treat others well even when we disagree. When we take a stand for this simple principle, we can restore morality in America and heal its broken culture.

Beginning in the early 1960’s, America began to lose its national conscience, morality, and virtue. We lost our collective understanding of what we should do (the honorable thing), and what we shouldn’t do (the dishonorable thing). In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled in Engel v. Vitale that government organizations (especially the public education system) do not have the constitutional right to teach spiritual or religious curriculum. Prior to this court ruling, American culture was characterized by constitutional rights (what we are entitled to), laws (what we are allowed to do), and morality (what we ought to do). After Engel v. Vitale, American culture was minimized to only include what we are entitled to and what we can get away with. We lost sight of the principle that inspires us to honor one another.

Since 1962, America has become an extremely divided nation, consumed with hateful rhetoric from both major political parties and their media outlets. The United Creed believes cultural healing in America requires our population to shift our focus away from the hateful rhetoric generated by traditional political parties. We believe it is urgent for our population to come together and give ourselves and our children access to what generates the inner wellness, morality, and virtue that we need to heal our toxic culture: The Golden Rule.

Unfortunately, both the Republican and Democratic parties are deeply entrenched in the far-right and far-left ends of the political spectrum. It is impossible to solve our country’s serious issues from the far-left and far-right. The only place problems get solved is in the middle, where the two extremes come together; the middle is where resolution can occur. The Republican and Democratic parties use explosive rhetoric to divide the population and win votes. Both parties produce hateful language designed to demonize their opponents. They both have a history of turning their backs on the best interests of the American people and pledging their allegiance to the billionaires who fund their campaigns.

The United Creed invites the American people to come together in the middle of the political spectrum, the space where problems get solved. The United Creed believes that following the Golden Rule will clear a path to unity. Politics will change when culture changes, and culture will change when we take responsibility for adherence to the Golden Rule.