As a religious liberty advocate with a brief exposure to Christian Science, I have found The First Church of Christ, Scientist's religious rights objectives and inclusive rights objectives and inclusive theology intriguing, and in concert with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s and Mohandas K. Gandhi's focus on humanity's interrelatedness in the face of injustice. Both King's and Gandhi's historic acts were galvanized by a profound understanding of humanity's unity. They asserted that "the existence of injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." John J. Ansbro, Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nonviolent Strategies and Tactics for Social Change (Lanham, Maryland: Madison Books, 2000), p. 34. As a result, within the religious liberty context, an infringement on religious rights negatively affects all of humanity.
When I first encountered the Church's mission statement, I was struck by the inclusiveness and power of its final focus: "Advancing and preserving religious rights for all." Instead of solely focusing on Christian Scientists' rights, this point portends active protection of religious liberty for all of humanity. This inclusive embrace of religious rights echoes Mary Baker Eddy's definition of humanity as not being "isolated" or "solitary," but as representing "infinite Mind, the sum of all substance." Science and Health, p. 259.
By defining humanity as the antithesis of isolation or solitude, Mrs. Eddy denotes a humanity charged with the image—and power—of a greater whole, the infinite, the divine. As part of infinite Mind, it follows that all of humanity is inextricably linked in an infinite web where we, as the sum of all, eternally affect each other. So, the Church's participation in preserving religious rights for all does not retreat to a finite sense of humanity and freedom, but to a divine one, where all religious rights are pertinent—where all are included in "the sum of all substance."
