Are you tempted to groan at the thought of yet another article on women? Some men I know might ask, What about an article on men for a change? And the quick retort to that is, You've been reading about women for 25 years—but we've been man-focused for 5,000 years, plus or minus a few.
Let's not focus on "evening the score" but on working together.
This article isn't about "evening the score," though, nor is it really about women and men, or women versus men. When one talks about human rights, about equality for women, ending racism, changing a patriarchal system, eliminating discrimination of all kinds—one is actually addressing a highly significant spiritual issue that has been at the heart of Christianity from the beginning.
The Apostle Paul set the standard in his letter to the Galatians. "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Gal. 3:26-28.
Paul stated that everyone is embraced by Christ—by the Love of God, the identity-defining Love that recognizes all men and women as the children of the Highest. Anyone in whom the spirit of Christ is active and living is a child of God and participates equally in God's kingdom. Race, gender, social status, and so on, are irrelevant. To believe in or understand Christ, Paul contended, is to share fully in the new life and identity that Christ bestows.
The radical breakthrough in Paul's statement can be appreciated when one considers that before, as a strictly observant Jewish male, he would have thanked God every morning that he wasn't born a Gentile, a slave, or a woman—and that hence no restriction was placed on his service to God. But then Christianity erased these distinctions. Those who are newborn of Spirit awake to their relation to God, he realized, and material distinctions cease to exist.
How Paul's statement about Gentiles, slaves, and women must have resonated in the ears of those listening to his letter! Unfortunately, however, Christian practice has been, and still is, often at odds with Paul's message, but his words are still a leaven, a potent spiritual force, that remains at work deep in human consciousness.
Contrary to some popular views, all people share equally in the gifts of divine intelligence and ability, regardless of gender. All can serve God on an equal footing. God's love animates, inspires, directs, supports, supplies, all of God's ideas impartially. God imparts wisdom, understanding, goodness, health, love, purity, in full measure to all.
Does being "all one in Christ Jesus" mean that we lose our individuality? No. Consider these two important points made by Mary Baker Eddy. The first is from Science and Health: "God has countless ideas, and they all have one Principle and parentage."Science and Health, p. 517. The second, referring to man generically, meaning man and woman, is from her pamphlet, No and Yes: "Man has perpetual individuality; and God's laws, and their intelligent and harmonious action, constitute his individuality in the Science of Soul."No and Yes, p. 11.
Man and woman are one in quality, one in their relation to God, one in their God-given ability to express divine Truth and Love. They are created and sustained by one Principle. The infinitude of God is reflected in infinite diversity. This diversity represents the full spectrum of divinity. And because it reflects the nature of God, each individual expression—whether it's called man or woman—manifests fully the qualities of divinity.
Mrs. Eddy gives a fuller explanation of this in an article that originally appeared in the Boston Herald newspaper, "Look high enough, and you see the heart of humanity warming and winning. Look long enough, and you see male and female one—sex or gender eliminated; you see the designation man meaning woman as well, and you see the whole universe included in one infinite Mind and reflected in the intelligent compound idea, image or likeness, called man, showing forth the infinite divine Principle, Love, called God,—man wedded to the Lamb, pledged to innocence, purity, perfection."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 268-269.
Doesn't this make it possible to see that oneness means something different from the masculinization of woman or the feminization of man? The spiritualization of one's thoughts of man and woman is very different from their homogenization. Doesn't it also help one see that the empowerment of woman does not go hand in hand with the emasculation of man? Or vice versa?
For centuries, groups of people have asserted their identity as a form of superiority over others. True Christianity does not work this way. Christianity embraces the nature of each individual as found in Christ. This was expressed consistently by Jesus. He rebuked the constant striving to be greatest and calmly, steadfastly, strove to bring out the Christliness of everyone, whether they be men or women. To be in Christ is to participate in his spiritual way of life.
Resistance to woman's equality still appears great, and as long as equality is pursued solely from a legalistic and educational basis, the resistance and conflict will continue. But there is an irresistible spiritual force at work in the world, and it is compelling change. More people are beginning to see that progress is not simply an issue of adjusting human attitudes, laws, and practices, but of uncovering the underlying spiritual fact that needs to be understood and accepted.
The prospect for this is good. There is a growing willingness today to embrace God as Mother and Father. This is essential to human progress. It's the key to understanding Paul's point that all are "one in Christ Jesus." To be aware of the oneness of man and woman in the sight of God brings one into the realm of equal opportunity and equal rights. Today, even though her lifework is often unacknowledged, Mary Baker Eddy still stands at the forefront of this movement. Her discovery, Christian Science, presents with clarity and divine logic the ideal of spiritual oneness in Christ. Her work, Science and Health, shows every reader how to prove this oneness. There is no need to wait for society to change in order to experience equality in one's own life, however. God has already given each of us divine rights, and people are feeling and obtaining the benefit of these rights now. The battle lines of opposition are crumbling away as our oneness in Christ is more clearly understood and accepted. And there is reassuring evidence today that this advancement is doing no harm to men or to their role in church or society.
Church and society are actually being strengthened by this spiritual development, and men and women are finding that they are more effective in their lives and work as a result. Everyone who accepts the fact that woman and man are one in Christ gains an enhanced sense of their oneness with God, their oneness with divine Love. This is preparing the way for the world to value the contribution of womanhood as fully as Jesus did when he commissioned the faithful Mary to be the first to spread the news of his glorious resurrection, and as divine Love did through its revelation of Christian Science to Mary Baker Eddy.
Oneness signifies equality, equal rights, equal resources, equal ability to serve and express God. Society mistakenly tries to obtain this through homogenization. Divine Science shows a different path. It directs us to appreciate each individual as "in Christ," fully endowed and fully empowered by God.
