Not a victim of bullying

There’s so much bullying of thought going on in today’s world. People seem to want to tell you what’s best for you—they want you to conform to their way of thinking, impose their will on you, be in control of your experience. This happens in families, in the workplace, in politics, on a national, and even an international scale.

I know what bullying is like, seeing I experienced it almost every day that I spent in junior high school. I was a chubby little kid from the country whose dad found employment in a rather large city. I ended up in what might be called an “inner-city” school. Most of the kids in the school were pretty street-savvy, having grown up in an urban environment. In the country, kids were more likely to have experienced farm life and values. I knew nothing about surviving in the streets. Each day was misery. Each school day consisted of taunts, being made fun of, being made to look foolish in front of other students and even the teachers. I dreaded going to school.

One day, getting off the school bus, I was bullied and badly beaten up. When I got home my dad realized just how bad the situation had become, and being a “man’s man,” he decided I needed to learn how to defend myself. So our evenings became training sessions in the art of self-defense. In the basement, after supper, I learned jujitsu (taken from a training book on that martial art that my dad had purchased numerous years ago), took up weight-lifting, learned something from my father about boxing, and I enrolled in a karate course at the local YMCA. After graduating from high school I joined the Marines. The idea was to toughen up—to be able to take care of myself and, if necessary, defend others. I really wanted to know how to avoid getting picked on or harassed, how to stand up to the bullying mentality.

Well, it worked. I did get toughened up. To the point where I would almost dare somebody to pick on me or try to push me around. That was many years ago. Since then, I’m so grateful to have discovered a much more effective way to “fight back,” to stand up. It has nothing to do with physical prowess and ability. It has to do with thought—with spiritual consciousness.

In searching out ways to understand more about truth, I learned about Christian Science. I also learned that the way one stands up to the attempt to dominate and control is mental—spiritual in nature. I learned that “the weapons of our warfare” are indeed “not carnal” (II Cor. 10:4)—that obedience and expression of the synonyms for God as given in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy are the most powerful effective weapons one could ever employ in the defense of oneself or others. Divine, infinite Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love are the “weapons” that we take into battle in the defense of all that is good. Properly employed and understood, they ensure true victory.

I now have a different take on bullies or enemies. The real enemy is “no enemy.” God is all. The carnal mind is nothing—has no power.

Bullying, intimidation, the imposition of will or the desire to control actually has its roots in matter-based thinking. It is the effort of matter-based thinking to impose its desires and requirements on a given situation. But the attempt of one individual to bully or control another—or the attempt of a group of people, an organization, a corrupt government, or a disease to bully us into compliance can’t really go anywhere. Mary Baker Eddy, writing in Science and Health, said, “Any human error is its own enemy, and works against itself; it does nothing in the right direction and much in the wrong” (p. 401).

You and I don’t have to fear attempts at intimidation or the imposition of a will not in accord with what we feel to be right. We don’t have to be controlled or dominated. A strong stand with and for truth and in alignment with God, Truth itself, will result in powerful healing results. Mary Baker Eddy brought this out when she wrote, “Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the most effectual manner” (Science and Health, p. 11).

The confidence inspired by the fact that God is All, that—in the end His will must be done—assures us that those who are suffering or oppressed will experience their God-given freedom because they are truly free now. This will become increasingly apparent as Christian Science brings its healing, saving knowledge of God to a world starved for peace and freedom from oppression of any kind.

Bill Dawley
Editor