Basic Human Decency

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We all know society needs certain rules to function well. Some of these rules and guidelines seem universal in nature, and have been adapted into the doctrine of many major world religions. It seems to me that if a person strays from such a guideline, they risk being reproached as un-whatever (fill in presumed religion here); this can cause unnecessary feelings of confusion, frustration, shame, or even anger. Wouldn't it be better as a whole to think of such guidelines as the precepts of basic human decency? After all, pretty much everyone in the world that's relatively sane agrees that it's not nice to steal, kill, sexually abuse others, or do similarly hurtful things. Thinking in terms of basic human decency could also help remove religious misunderstandings and persecution and temper "holier-than-thou" attitudes, since virtually anyone of virtually any religion can abide by such guidelines without worrying about "denying" their faith (yet another problem area for some people--many wars are fought to "prove" one faith's supposed superiority over another). It seems to me that shifting our perception of social and/or religious guidelines to that of basic human decency might help avoid many of these problems.