WHAT ARE YOUR POLITICS?
CLARA SCHRADER STREETER
From the March 1936 issue of The Christian Science Journal
READERS of Mrs. Eddy’s writings are aware of her keen insight into national and international affairs, and of her clear interpretation of them according to the teachings of Christian Science. Her interesting and always reasonable attitude towards current events elicited many inquiries regarding her personal views as to politics. In reply to one of these requests Mrs. Eddy said (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,p. 276): “I am asked, ‘What are your politics?’ I have none, in reality, other than to help support a righteous government; to love God supremely, and my neighbor as myself.”
Some of the problems intertwined with present-day politics were pointed out by Mrs. Eddy in an article entitled “Insufficient Freedom,” published in the New York World, December, 1900, and later included in “The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany” (p. 266), in which she mentions “the most imminent dangers confronting the coming [twentieth] century” as “the robbing of people of life and liberty under the warrant of the Scriptures; the claims of politics and of human power, industrial slavery, and insufficient freedom of honest competition; and ritual, creed, and trusts in place of the Golden Rule, ‘Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.’ “
In its genuine meaning, politics is “the science of civil government,” but in a lower import it refers to artful party intrigues in political affairs; or, to one’s political sentiments. Mrs. Eddy had a very comprehensive knowledge of the Science of true government, and her political sentiments were of the highest excellence, as may be seen in her strong appeals for justice, equality, fair play, and for the individual’s inalienable rights as a citizen of his country.
The cold selfishness of partisanship, the emoluments of office, the intrigues and costly paraphernalia of party politics, found no place in Mrs. Eddy’s answer to the question, “What are your politics?” Reared with puritanic respect for rightly constituted authority, Mrs. Eddy had profound veneration for God’s law and gave willing obedience to the laws of the land. As a citizen of a nation whose ideals of government were founded upon those righteous precepts which are embodied in the moral law and the Sermon on the Mount, Mrs. Eddy maintained that not only was it a just obligation, but a privilege and a precious trust to help support the high standard of justice and equality, such as is vested in the Constitution of the United States, which represents the nation’s authority and power. In her spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures, she has presented the concept of “righteous government” in a new light, and Christian Science demonstrates its adaptability to human needs by uncovering and correcting false impressions of government, and in healing disease, poverty, strife, and iniquity of every kind, all of which are hindrances to righteous living.
The support of “a righteous government” begins in the family, where lessons in obedience, respect for law and authority are taught and practiced in the small affairs of daily life. Thus it grows in individual consciousness through education, moral and spiritual development, and in the application of God’s law in politics, or “the science of civil government.” In writing of the promised Messiah, “The Prince of Peace,” Isaiah said, “The government shall be upon his shoulder.”
The responsibility is ours, through the exercise of Christ’s Christianity, to establish the spiritual concept of government, as the unfoldment of God’s divine laws among men and nations. Christianity, as understood by the primitive Christians, meant putting into practice the gospel of Christ Jesus, not relegating it to creeds and dogmas, deifying the human Jesus, or merely dating it as a new era in the world’s historical progress. Jesus was the Way-shower to lead men and nations into true self-government, through an understanding of the Christ, Truth.
The foundational aspects of true politics are still further observed in the second point of Mrs. Eddy’s statement of her political views—”to ‘ love God supremely.” The jurisprudence of some Christian nations rests in part upon the Mosaic law. But on one occasion when asked, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” And to “love God supremely” men must have an intelligent understanding of such characteristics of the infinite Being as come within the range of human comprehension and application, among which may be mentioned justice, wisdom, mercy, goodness, and loving-kindness. Learning to know God as incorporeal, as infinite Mind, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, men will love Him aright, and nations will seek divine guidance and find peace and progress under the government of the one Mind. True government is bound up in God’s supremacy, and the right concept of politics uplifts experience through demonstration of God’s law.
The third point, which completes Mrs. Eddy’s answer to the question, “What are your politics?” is to love “my neighbor as myself.” The Apostle James says, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well.” This should be to us a “royal law” in the Christianly scientific application of divine law in matters of government. If Mrs. Eddy’s political ideal could be incorporated in party platforms today and engrafted in individual consciousness, what righteous governments we should have, and what loving, industrious, happy peoples!
Some of the problems intertwined with present-day politics were pointed out by Mrs. Eddy in an article entitled “Insufficient Freedom,” published in the New York World, December, 1900, and later included in “The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany” (p. 266), in which she mentions “the most imminent dangers confronting the coming [twentieth] century” as “the robbing of people of life and liberty under the warrant of the Scriptures; the claims of politics and of human power, industrial slavery, and insufficient freedom of honest competition; and ritual, creed, and trusts in place of the Golden Rule, ‘Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.’ ”
Apparently the world is in the very midst of these “imminent dangers.” What are “the claims of politics and of human power” but the reverse of pure ideals based upon righteousness and consideration of the rights and privileges of all? Should not each individual ask himself the question, “What are your politics?” and examine his motives and aims to see that no selfish desire, emolument of office, laxity of interest in country, home, and family creep into his true estimate of politics? If, in the light of Christian Science, each one will take Mrs. Eddy’s threefold answer to this important question and strive to apply it in his daily life, many of these “imminent dangers” will vanish before the irradiance of Truth and Love understood and demonstrated. Christian Science teaches that “righteousness exalteth a nation,” as it exalts the individual thinking which supports “a righteous government.”
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