Why do so many who are not active Christian Scientists appreciate The Christian Science Monitor? One reason certainly is that the Monitor has such high standards of journalism. But there is a deeper reason. This unique newspaper is an integral part of the Church of Christ, Scientist.
Every activity Mrs. Eddy included in her Church is there to heal. Healing in Science is far more than a physical change from sickness to health. Spiritual healing involves a mental change from belief in matter to an understanding of Spirit's allness. This gradual mental shift away from the belief that matter is real and final unfolds a clearer understanding that only God and His spiritual creation are real and final.
Only the Christ, Truth, the manifestation of God, can bring this change. There is only one Christ, and it has always existed. Jesus understood and taught the Christ, and with his living of it he healed. Christ is wonderful beyond words. When this Truth is lived and loved, it gives evidence that God is good and All and that man in reality is His perfect, eternal idea.
The universal Christ, Truth, is active to some degree in every human consciousness, though many people have not yet recognized it. The expression of the Christ in The Christian Science Monitor is the deeper reason so many readers cherish the paper. It may also be the reason some, who do not know how to defend themselves against the carnal mind, occasionally feel hostility about the Monitor. The Monitor appeals deeply to the Christly qualities that each one already has. Because it is a newspaper, the Monitor can bless many with a touch of the Christ—people who perhaps would not just now let themselves reach out for the Bible or the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. This certainly is one way the Monitor fulfills its purpose as a healing part of the Church of Christ, Scientist.
But each of us needs to appreciate the Monitor as a healing periodical and to watch that we are not made to think of it as a semisecular part of our church. Mrs. Eddy, the founder of the Monitor, was certainly clear about the mission of her paper. She assigned a specific purpose to each Christian Science periodical. She wrote that the Monitor was "to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent. The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind."1
In order to fulfill its healing purpose as a religious periodical, the Monitor's articles, editorials, and features need to express Christly qualities—such as spiritually enlightened reason, patience, and compassion—which destroy mortal qualities such as passion, fear, and selfishness. In this way the Monitor helps readers to recognize that Spirit, God, alone is real. Monitor news does not emphasize evil, although it may well indicate where evil is being exposed and stirred up—in effect being ripened for destruction. News is good news only to the degree that it is a sign of the Christ having an effect on human consciousness. If stability within some country, for example, is the result of repression and fear, that is bad news and needs to be exposed and dealt with scientifically through prayer. But never is evil actually real, though everyone must be awakened from a belief that it is. The Monitor aids in this awakening. Evil in every form is exposed and destroyed only by the truth of perfect God and perfect man as revealed fully in divine Science. To the degree the Christ is present in the work of the Monitor, the paper is fulfilling a deep purpose.
For journalism to heal, as well as to inform and reform, is a unique and challenging mission. Christian Scientists, including Monitor workers, will be among the first to admit that they have a lot to learn about how to fulfill this mission better. Fortunately, healing influence and authority do not necessarily depend on circulation or numbers of supporters. But intelligence, alertness, obedience, and other spiritual and moral qualities count a great deal, when they are wisely and meekly expressed. Gideon proved this in Old Testament times (see Judges 7), and we can prove it again in these times.
Those who work for the paper—from The Christian Science Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees of The Christian Science Publishing Society to the newest member of the junior staff—can pray for inspired insight. Whether the Monitor continues to win hearts as well as awards does appear to lie largely in their hands. But they put it in God's hands when they keep a clear view of perfect God and man and of the Monitor's healing purpose, even though dealing each day with current events.
What may not be as widely seen by Scientists is that the same degree of alertness and devotion to the Christ, Truth, on behalf of the Monitor is needed by every member of The Mother Church. Every member is responsible for the newspaper's mission. Its success (along with that of all the other healing activities of the movement) relates largely to the success of all church members in keeping their perception of these activities spiritualized. The Christly love in our hearts lifts up the world, more than words in ink. They only say love. As a result of our meek, scientific prayer, readers are helped to perceive God's power, the power of Love and Life that underlies the words.
In a very important way every member of The Mother Church publishes The Christian Science Monitor. The words of the Psalmist that are chiseled in the fascia of the Christian Science Publishing House remind us: "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it."2 Mrs. Eddy writes, "The silent prayers of our churches, resounding through the dim corridors of time, go forth in waves of sound, a diapason of heart-beats, vibrating from one pulpit to another and from one heart to another, till truth and love, commingling in one righteous prayer, shall encircle and cement the human race."3
Anyone who has struggled to keep his thought pure knows it is more easily said than done. The habit of holding bad thoughts sometimes seems more deeply ingrained than the habit of overeating or even of smoking and drinking. The evil to be dealt with is the carnal mind. Although not a real mind, it would appear to be real and to oppose the Christ. The carnal mind or, in other words, animal magnetism often manipulates people so they ignore or reject that which reveals the perfection of God and man. This false sense of mind would oppose the mission of the paper and promote cynicism about finding the kinds of solutions to human problems that the Monitor stands for.
This suppositional evil mind sometimes suggests to members of The Mother Church that they should destructively criticize Monitor staff or policies rather than meekly pray to God so that all can gain a higher idealism. Worst of all, evil attacks Mrs. Eddy's mission to mankind by suggesting that the Monitor—and by implication all of Mrs. Eddy's work— is just another secular, human endeavor and not divinely inspired. But the fact is that Mrs. Eddy's establishment of all the periodicals was intended to share with the world her discovery of Love's complete and perfect system of Christian healing. Every activity she founded, including the Monitor, was inspired by God as necessary to fulfill this purpose. Hence the Monitor has without question a metaphysical role. As Christian Scientists remain spiritually alert, they will fulfill their part in supporting The Christian Science Monitor, as well as all of God's other means for uplifting humanity.
