The Bible Speaks to You November 18, 1967 Issue

[The above is an abbreviated, postproduction text of the program released for broadcast the week of November 10-16 in the radio series, "The Bible Speaks to You." Heard internationally over more than 1,000 stations, the weekly programs are prepared and produced by the Christian Science Committee on Publication, 107 Falmouth Street, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 02115.]

RADIO PROGRAM NO. 293 - Students and Identity, Part II

Questioner: Last week we talked about some ideas of identity that might be new to a lot of students. Many students seem to feel that their identity, their individuality, is determined by the clothes they wear—dungarees and sandals—or the music they listen to, or the places where they spend their free time. And it's very important to them that they don't miss out on any of these.
Speaker: I believe all this is a seeking for individuality, but I question whether it has much to do with genuine individuality. Their real individuality, your real individuality, and mine couldn't possibly be taken away; it's anchored in God. You just could not help being individual, for your real identity is unique and indispensable.

I think of Paul's great statement in the Bible (Rom. 12:2), "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
Questioner: If very many of the students came to the same conclusion in their search for identity, would there be any individuality?
Speaker: You mean you think everyone might become just kind of an amorphous mass with everybody just alike?
Questioner: Yes.
Speaker: It's helped me to think about it somewhat as all painters use the same basic colors, all composers use the same basic tones, all writers use the same basic words, yet each painter, composer, or writer is completely different. Even if painters are using the same colors or writers the same topic, each person's work is completely unique and recognizable.

Compare, for instance, the painting of Picasso and Rembrandt. They may have both used the very same tone of red. And yet you know exactly that one painting is a Picasso and the other is a Rembrandt. The context each artist has chosen for the color and the way he has used it are distinct. The result is individual; it's unmistakable. Robert Browning and Robert Frost and Robert Lowell all used the English language. They all used many of the same words. But their poems are completely individual, aren't they?

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