Mrs. Eddy provided for the world, in The Christian Science Monitor, a tool that utilizes two of mankind's most powerful rights—freedom of the press and freedom of religion. When it is seen that these rights are basically God-derived, they take on a healing power sorely needed by mankind. The Monitor's establishment, sixty-seven years ago, was the fruit of Mrs. Eddy's developing vision of God's all-presence, all-power, and all-knowledge, before which evil fades as unreal. To live up to this heritage, then, the Monitor's hallmark must be spiritual intelligence, which destroys evil, wakens men from a merely corporeal sense of life to the humane and spiritual, and establishes God's government in both small and more consequential affairs.
In considering the role of the Monitor, it is helpful to examine what Mrs. Eddy says about human rights. In Science and Health she quotes with approval that portion of the American Declaration of Independence that acknowledges God as the source of men's individual rights.See Science and Health,p.161; Elsewhere she says, "Religious liberty and individual rights under the Constitution of our nation are rapidly advancing, avowing and consolidating the genius of Christian Science." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 200
Mrs. Eddy writes incisively about the importance of freedom of the press and also about abuse of that freedom.See Miscellaneous Writings, p.274 In her own day, the press was unwittingly, as well as sometimes maliciously, used by a few people's efforts to impede the progress of Christian Science. This trend underscored the need for a moral perspective, for more honesty and alertness in media—factors which characterized the Monitor from the beginning. Mrs. Eddy wrote of her sense of Christian Science journalism, "The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind."Miscellany, p. 353
She evidently expected deep reform in laws and in the practices of the world's communicators. She writes, "It is the pulpit and press, clerical robes and the prohibiting of free speech, that cradles and covers the sins of the world,—all unmitigated systems of crime; and it requires the enlightenment of these worthies, through civil and religious reform, to blot out all inhuman codes." Mis., p. 246 Such a task is inspiring but formidable. It requires the recognition of God's laws in demonstration of spiritual unity throughout the world. Stiff resistance to this work can be seen every day in the unrest and unhappiness of these times.
The spiritual mission, however, is nurtured and sheltered in wise, God-inspired laws and human rights enjoyed in much of the world. These rights need protecting. The need for just laws continues. We can support their enactment and protection by knowing that whatever is good and just derives from divine Truth, is empowered and authorized by Truth, and hence can be part of everyone's experience right now.
A study of the history of freedom of religion and of the development of a free press opens thought to an important fact: The truths of Christianity, when understood, do not float around in thought abstractly, but are expressed in individual lives in better morals and health—and in better laws and mores in society. This goal, in fact, is the twofold purpose of the Monitor: to help individuals as well as society as a whole to spiritualize thought. Such work broadens the love and deepens the healing effectiveness of each writer, editor, and reader. Press freedom and religious freedom are human rights that need to be protected as bulwarks of mankind's highest rights — to know and prove their sonship with God.
The Monitor helps to establish God's government in human affairs through the support it gives to freedom of conscience. It does not willfully proselytize. Rather, it supports the achievements of justice and humanity that are needed as the very fabric of society: sound morals, regard for individuals, the rule of law (and not of powerful men and institutions), religious freedom, progress of deprived classes and minority groups, honesty in business and government, consideration for the religious and political views of all, as well as prosperity and peace.
In bringing to our attention world problems such as poverty and unemployment, the Monitor alerts us to the need for scientific prayer to heal these ills. Christian Science identifies substance as Spirit and shows that poverty is perpetuated basically by materialism. Human methods do not of themselves uplift the race, because human reason, unenlightened by revelation, accepts matter, which is finite belief, as its basis. Finiteness or limitation can never successfully meet human demands. But spiritually enlightened thought finds ever-renewable forms of supply.
The Monitor, through utilization of the truths of Christian Science, can do much also to heal the sometimes bitter split between liberal and conservative political views. All men, according to Science, are in truth the sons of God. While each idea of God is complete and reflects Him infinitely, God requires an infinitude of ideas to reflect Him fully, all living in harmony and spiritual abundance. It is highly important to realize that God is the source of all good and that mankind must seek spiritual rather than material blessings. The responsibility to do so rests on each one of us.
But individual freedom must not be used selfishly. An honest person uses his understanding in ways that ennoble him and enable others to progress. Ultimate solutions to problems need to be spiritually based. Viewing things spiritually helps us support intelligent and progressive laws and policies that will be effective on a continuing basis. In this battle the Monitor can be a powerful tool for providing an objectivity in the news that is based on spiritual insight and true humanity.
In the world, differing ideas and ideals clash head on. But the God-given rights of all men can and must emerge more clearly on the human scene. One evidence of this will be stable government that can be trusted. Achievement of this requires faith in something higher than human institutions. What is needed is a vision of God's goodness in control of the lives of men and women collectively as well as individually. In this way only will organized evil be put down, along with the destructive cynicism it engenders.
The Monitor deals with the world's problems and needs, and it contributes to resolving these difficulties by helping us to recognize the specific spiritual facts and moral values that counteract them. Prayer that is based on spiritual facts and the acknowledgment of God's omnipotence helps bring to light constructive human concepts and activities that meet everyday needs in practical and satisfying ways. Monitor journalism aims to apply scientific metaphysics, to bring out the relevance of the divine to human problems. The very existence of freedom in religion and journalism proves this is not an abstract process.
After Peter identified Christ Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus blessed the disciple for his spiritual insight and said, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt. 16:18 Journalism that heals uses the same kind of perceptive spiritual insight as Peter. It acknowledges and helps reinforce the central message of the Bible — the powerlessness and unreality of evil, the supremacy and reality of good.
