Editorial May 11, 1974 Issue

Valuing Variety

Naomi Price

While serving in the Army, two men became friends. One was black and the other white. They enjoyed each other's company during off-duty hours. They liked doing the same things and discussing the same subjects. It was a pleasant companionship. But sometimes the white man found he had opportunities open to him in places where his friend was not welcome. It was a situation he could not comprehend or tolerate. Why should his friend not be welcome wherever he would be himself?

The black man was not resentful. He wanted his friend to enjoy all the opportunities open to him and did not stand in his way. Sometimes he even attempted to persuade him to go along without him. But without success. The friend valued him highly as an individual. A student of Christian Science, he had learned to open his thought to the grandeur of all God's manifestations, their individual ownership of the ideas and qualities of divine Love, and their equal right to participate in the joys of Soul. "No," the white man said, "where you cannot go, I will not go either." So they continued to spend their off-duty time together, and neither felt deprived as their friendship grew.

When the time came to leave the Army, each man went his way to his own hometown. But their unity in Spirit has developed. They are now both active Christian Scientists, members of The Mother Church and of branch churches in their own localities. They both subscribe to the six Tenets of Christian Science, written by Mrs. Eddy, which, if practiced, will eventually destroy earth's injustices and prejudices and bless the human race by bringing to light a true sense of the brotherhood of man under God's law.

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