"The Monitor and Politics"

[Editorial in The Christian Science Monitor, August 12, 1936]

Frequently The Christian Science Monitor is asked about its politics. This same question was asked of its Founder, and the reply which Mary Baker Eddy gave then is the guide and definition of the Monitor's policy today. Mrs. Eddy said (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany p. 276): "I have none, in reality, other than to help support a righteous government; to love God supremely, and my neighbor as myself."

This statement governs the Monitor's editorial policy in matters of politics, not merely for American presidential campaigns, but for all countries in all circumstances. This does not mean that the Monitor is unconcerned with government. This does not mean that the Monitor will refrain from expressing its own convictions both on broad principles and on specific issues. It does mean that this newspaper is not a party organ. It does mean that this newspaper will support that which it deems right, or nearest right, whenever and by whomever it is advanced.

In giving practical daily effect to this policy the following considerations are uppermost:

(1) The Christian Science Monitor is independent and nonpartisan. It expresses neither animosity nor attachment to party or personality.

(2) The Monitor records the news as it happens in the perspective of its importance. The Monitor does not make the news nor choose the news to suit its own tastes or opinions. The function of the news columns of the Monitor is to record and explain the news. The function of the editorial page is to assess the news and to comment constructively. The Monitor many times may publish news which it does not approve or with which it does not agree. It publishes this news in order that its readers may have sufficient information with which to form their own opinions. The editorial page alone expresses the Monitor's views.

(3) The Monitor believes in democratic self-government. It believes that the individual citizen cannot and should not abdicate the responsibility of thinking for himself by delegating that function to another. The Monitor does not assume to dictate the opinions of its readers. The need for individual thinking and individual thinkers was never greater. There are therefore three main objectives of Monitor editorials: (a) to promote that atmosphere of poised and intelligent discussion which enables democratic government to function best; (b) to illuminate fairly and frankly the alternatives of policy with respect to which citizens must choose; (c) to express candid and considered judgment on specific issues.

(4) The Monitor, while neither pro-Democratic nor pro-Republican, is pro-good government, and in seeking good government it reasons from spiritual facts rather than from material appearances. It recognizes that laws are no better than the thinking behind them. Good government must be achieved first in individual consciousness illumined by an improved understanding of God's government, in order that the most enlightened human government may pattern the divine.

(5) By way of illustrating the Monitor's approach to political problems, let us cite the basis of the Monitor's view point on two important American questions:

(A) The Monitor recognizes that there are many acute social and political conditions, the rectification of which will require the action of both state and federal governments, but in appraising needful measures the Monitor never loses sight of the fact that spiritual individualism is the essence of Christian teaching, that man's reliance must first of all be upon God and man's reflected ability and only secondarily upon government, and that man is impelled to what is right spiritually, not merely to what is advantageous materially.

Any trend of government, it has seemed to the Monitor, should be not from private monopolies to state monopolies, not from private regimentation to state regimentation, but toward a freer economy in which citizens are protected from the regimentation of monopolistic business, even as they should be protected from the regimentation of excessive bureaucracy.

(B) The Monitor unreservedly supports the constitutional form of American government. In 1787, for the first time in history, the liberties of the governed and the power to govern were set down in a written democratic constitution. The Monitor upholds the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court and as amended in a constitutional manner. This Constitution, with spiritual warrant for its authority, puts the citizen above the state and the dictates of conscience above arbitrary will. And in vouchsafing great liberties to the people, the American Constitution unquestionably places upon the citizens great duties. The Government is denied the right to coerce a free people, but it remains to a free people always to utilize freedom, to employ its right to cooperate to the common good; and in democracy this right becomes a duty.

[From the Canadian Baptist, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

It is very easy, too easy in fact, for Anglo-Saxon people to think of themselves as heaven's choicest production. The Jew was not the only one to divide the world into two classes only—Jews and barbarians. The Anglo-Saxon has the evil habit of imagining that because some others have different colored skins, speak strange tongues, eat unusual foods, and dress oddly—to us—they are of little or no importance. Forgetful are we of that great fact that many of the world's finest characters have not sprung from our race or been of our color or country. A heart's a heart wherever found. A little old Chinaman scurried across a busy corner one day, casting but a hasty glance at a white who stood irresolutely at the curb. Safely over, he turned and stared back at the stranger at the edge of the walk. Then he returned, discovered that the white man was blind, and led him through the traffic as gently as a mother would a little child.

A heathen Chinese! So some might say, but in a great book there's something written about "a cup of cold water" for the wearied one—and it seems to apply here.

All virtues were not placed under white skins, and many from whom we tend to draw aside our skirts can teach by their lives and intellect some of the finest truths man needs.

[Rev. Dr. Frederick Brown Harris, as quoted in the New York Times, New York]

Of what avail our modern knowledge if it does not save us from personal defeat and social catastrophe? Of what avail our marvelous labor-saving, wealth-producing machinery if in the midst of plenty millions are thrown out of employment and are compelled to beg or to starve? Of what avail all our boasted progress if it but lead our civilization to the grave? Men are realizing now that Jesus knew the direction in which abundant life lies. Human society, divided against itself, class against class, race against race, nation against nation, cannot stand. But see the Christ stand. He is the everlasting light. The future belongs to him.

When finally the last battleship is scrapped as old iron and the last dictator releases his iron grasp, and the last nation held together by force collapses like a deck of cards, the words of Jesus will still stand unrefuted and irrefutable.

In a world sliding down to despair and ruthless revolution, can the church produce folks who can change the world? A new age is possible only on terms by which any age has been made new—by reformation going to the center of thought and life with the cruciality of the Christ and of the cross.

Education must go redemptive or reveal its futility. Politics must go redemptive or exhaust itself in destructive party strife. Business must go redemptive or sink into the bottomless pit of self-interest. Civilization must go redemptive or go down in the red burial of war. Religion must go redemptive or pass into the oblivion of the inconsequential.

We are moving into a day which will tax to the last limit both the wisdom and the endurance of every idealist.

[Rev. Raymond C. Brooks, D. D., in the Pittsburgh Press, Pennsylvania]

Probably none of us escapes the conviction that something far-reaching is happening in the world about us. Apparently, we are at the end of an epoch in human history and are witnessing or rather participating in the birth of a new order. It is becoming plain that we cannot go on much longer with our racial hatreds, our industrial strifes, our international wars, our religious controversies. We must either live above them or be submerged by them. It is equally clear that we cannot much longer survive the conditions created by the fact that men have so commonly lived by the greed that causes them to fear and hate each other until they bring upon themselves and the generation to which they belong financial bankruptcy, moral nakedness, and spiritual destitution. It is equally clear that we are facing an unexampled opportunity, an opportunity to win new achievements through science, new glories through art, new fellowship with Christ, new inspiration through his religion.

[Rev. James Reid, D. D., in the British Weekly, London, England]

All around him, as he talked, Christ [Jesus] saw men with the strain of life on their faces, and anxiety looking out of their eyes. They were victims of the struggle of life. They were afraid of tomorrow. They were haunted by the thought of poverty. The more they strained, the more entangled they became in worry and anxiety. They were taking life up by the wrong end. Seek the kingdom of God, said Jesus. Put first in your life the desire to be ruled and guided by Him, and what you vainly seek by selfish struggle will come in its own place. God will provide. That is the way the world was meant to work. We must put first things first, and the secondary things will follow in their place.

This is the clue to most of the problems of life. It is the secret of peace, for instance. Peace cannot Be found merely by seeking it. For peace is a fruit. It is a result. It comes when we seek first what God wants. It is the condition in which we find ourselves living, when together we seek God's way in national ambitions. Mr. Aldous Huxley said this in a recent talk on the subject: "Peace is the byproduct of a certain way of life." There is a life in fellowship with God which "takes away the occasion of all wars." It cuts the roots of strife, because it sets us seeking things that are not found by fighting.