PERSPECTIVE ON THE NEWS July 2, 1979 Issue

Responsibility Where, ultimately, are we placing it?

The recent aircraft accident in Chicago has raised a question of responsibility. And the aftermath of the accident at the nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, not so long ago, enforces the same lesson. Clearly, perplexing factors enter when governments and corporations carry heavy responsibility for public safety. Sometimes huge sums of money are at stake and are a factor in assessing the degree of security and responsible control the public can expect.

Therefore, should we be attributing to the actions of governments and corporations—and even to the machinery of aircraft—ultimate responsibility for our welfare? The basic question is a metaphysical one. Christian metaphysics explains the divine nature of such fundamental concepts as life, man, and law. This, in the final analysis, is the only responsible premise from which we can reason. The more we apprehend that God is the only Mind, that God is intelligence, the less inclined we are—and the less we feel the need—to trust our well-being unquestioningly to material agencies, be those agencies government departments or corporations. Through metaphysical understanding we can be more responsible for our own safety and overall welfare. That we should want to be so is a natural consequence of spiritual growth.

Our increasing emphasis on individual spiritual growth as the basis for demonstrating the government and substance of God does not lessen the obligations resting on agencies humanly responsible for conducting with integrity the complex affairs of a modern society. In fact, our discernment of each individual's right and power to be God-governed will support more effective action on the part of these corporate and collective agencies.

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