Editorial June 20, 1959 Issue

REJECT THE MYTH OF HEREDITY

Helen Wood Bauman

Christ Jesus taught that God is the Father of man. Probably nothing in his entire teaching is more profound than his words (Matt. 23:9), "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." The Master constantly kept this truth before his listeners. An important aspect of one's understanding of God's fatherhood lies in the power this relationship possesses to annul all evil and limitation and blight that have come to one by reason of the so-called law of heredity.

Christian Science makes the teachings of Jesus practical: it shows that the fatherhood of God, who is Spirit, necessitates a manhood which is spiritual. Science reveals man in God's likeness unspoiled by hereditary claims. And in the measure that one expresses spiritual sonship, the myth of heredity and its pretense to be law are proved unreal.

Mary Baker Eddy says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 178): "Heredity is not a law. The remote cause or belief of disease is not dangerous because of its priority and the connection of past mortal thoughts with present. The predisposing cause and the exciting cause are mental." One is reminded of the words of Jesus, who said of a man who was blind from his birth (John 9:3), "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents." The Master said this in answer to a query from his disciples, who evidently accepted the belief of their day that the father's sins could be visited upon the children. Jesus' rejection of that belief enabled him to heal the blind man immediately.

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