I was listening to one of the Ahdio shows, and Mazarati's "100 MPH" was in it. I noticed that the word "rule" was reversed.

That’s why I gotta get on my own way
That’s the new golden rule

I mean, was he so religious at that point, that even referencing the golden rule (which is not a thing in the Bible, by the way, it's a man-made thing) was sacrilege?

Okay, I'd noticed that before, but never really thought about it. I guess I sort of assumed it was a glitch somehow, but I just listened and it doesn't sound like a glitch. That's weird. The tune's pleasant enough, but it's almost like he's included this little bit for the sole purpose of repudiating it.

As to the idea that the so-called Golden Rule is a "man-made thing" and "not a thing in the Bible"--well, it is in the Bible (Matthew 7:12, for example). Now, very similar formulations exist from other traditions (and even from within Jewish tradition in the century or so before Jesus), and I tend to think of everything in the Bible as "man-made," honestly--but the Golden Rule is Biblical. For whatever that's worth, and in Prince's mind it was worth quite a bit, as we all know.

So--why censor the reference in the song? Probably because just "getting on [one's] own way" is not, in his mind, still an acceptable thing to claim is a "new golden rule." I am not quite sure what that first line is meant to mean anyway, but clearly by 2001 Prince had moved to a point where he was no longer comfortable with setting up any other philosophical or behavioral guide as a replacement for or even the equivalent of a Biblical idea. He could reference it, sure--but not in this "it's been superseded" way.

Yeah, it's definitely not a glitch. There was a concert snip from the 1986 tour in one of the shows. He edited "P-U-S-S-Y" out of "New Position" in the same way. He also put that stupid disclaimer at the beginning of "Horny Pony" when it was released on NPGMC (and it sounded like it was ripped from an old cassette left on the dashboard of a Ford Taurus).