Article March 30, 1981 Issue

Me? A Muppet?

SARAH FLORENCE WINTERBOTTOM

Those funny, outrageous Muppets—how much laughter and entertainment they give. Yet they are only bits and pieces of fabric, glue, wood, string; and without the puppeteers' initiative and intelligence they would remain simply bits and pieces.

It's important to know that we are not puppets! Have you ever been thrown off balance as some happy friend suddenly erupts in anger and condemnation? Or a normally self assured neighbor dissolves in fear? Or "dependable Polly" refuses to give that helping hand? What is going on?

Some psychiatrists might tell us that the individual needs to accept his anger or fear. But Christian Science differs in its approach because it shows that what needs to be dealt with is never his or her fear but the manipulative influence of what Paul called "the carnal mind."^{Rom. 8:7.} What is the carnal mind? It is any suggestion that our Father-Mother God is not in control here, now, always; that good is absent from our lives or that evil is real—and that we are in trouble as a result. This carnal mind is any influence that would coerce us with anger, doubt, fear.