Editorial October 6, 1917 Issue

Government not Politics

William P. McKenzie

The problem usually set for a country or a community is to bring out a social order wherein there will be justice primarily. Christian Science sets a higher ideal than this, indicating the order of things wherein love will be the animating force in government, and justice not an end in itself but a definite means to a good end. Mrs. Eddy shows clearly that character must be developed by a thorough cleansing from love of sin. She says, "Escape from punishment is not in accordance with God's government, since justice is the handmaid of mercy" (Science and Health, p. 36). What is wrong in present conditions is the misinterpretation of justice due to a masculine conception of it, whereby it takes the nature of revenge against the wrongdoer. Prison systems which have wholly the intention of punishment illustrate this. For one error the whole man is made to suffer, while the right way is to use the resources of the whole man to abolish any error.

What raises more resentment than anything else in children is injustice, and as criminals are usually undeveloped they too often have a passionate sense of resentment when they feel that the strong arm of the law is guided by cruelty and that compassion is never considered. It is worth while to ponder the saying, "Thou shalt judge with the mind of twelve men and the heart of one woman." The author who wrote that recognized that in every woman there is the motherly element which would bring out love, whereas there might need to be discussion and argument with a dozen men, that is a jury, in order to bring out an adequate sense of justice. Christian Science forwards this view of the case and takes it out of the personal sense to establish it in Principle, because it shows how both men and women when guided by Principle bring out balanced humanity and rise into the equableness of divinity, even according to the example of Christ Jesus, who could say, "I and my Father are one,"—whose life, words, and deeds illustrated the fact that Mind is both Father and Mother God.

Now without the completer elements of Mind there can be no true government or development of order for the nation in a way similar to the development of order for the welfare of the family: The politician, for example, is one who schemes and plans to use powers and processes of government for personal advantage and local ends. He is one of a group that is against other groups. He is working for one party which is striving to defeat another party. Generally money is a sort of god to him; at least he measures success by the amount of it he can divert from the service of those he is against to the use of those whom he favors. As his basis for asking the support of the voters in a community he makes the claim that he diverted the resources of the whole country to the local community. Often this money is spent for pulic buildings not needed, or canals never used, or barracks not inhabited, but the plea is made that the money for those needless things was at least spent in that community. He forgets that others will do the same thing and misuse the taxes in similar wasteful political projects, so that in the end everybody will be cheated.

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