Find inspiration in the latest issue

With International Women’s Day around the corner, I’ve been thinking about its hashtag, #BalanceforBetter. It’s a call for a gender-balanced world where women and men have equal value. What a great time for The Christian Science Journal to run pieces on the God-given equality we all share. 

This month’s editorial has the intriguing title of “Replacing Eve.” It brings out that the model we choose to represent women—whether the spiritual likeness of God or the allegorical Eve—has a lot to do with progress toward equality. 

There are some powerful examples in this month’s Journal of women who brought more gender equality to the workplace, dropped a stereotyped self-image, or experienced physical healings of a broken arm, loss of hearing, skin conditions, or other illnesses. 

These improvements didn’t come from personal effort. They came from knowing God as the source of our identity, which includes qualities that may be more generally associated with men or women but actually belong to everyone, such as intuition, gentleness, strength, and confidence. 

That’s the message of “Completeness: The union of masculine and feminine qualities.” This author overcame insecurity when she saw that she, and everyone, could express all the spiritual qualities that belong to God’s likeness. 

And as the article “Womanhood and the march of divine Truth” says: “Both men and women deserve to be liberated from false, limiting labels imposed by materiality. How we identify ourselves and our neighbors is of vital importance. What is our starting point? Is it matter-bound or spiritually inspired?” 

Thanks to the Journal authors for helping us think through this important question of identity. And thanks to you, our readers, for your interest and prayer on this most timely topic of equality. 

Susan Stark
Managing Editor