Article August 3, 1987 Issue

Progress

The Christian Science Monitor

My father sometimes gauged the world's progress by his own family's changing methods of crossing the Missouri River. "My great-grandfather swam over it," he would say. "My grandfather rowed across it in a boat, my father drove over the new bridge in a horse-drawn wagon, and I crossed it in an automobile. What's more, my son flew over it in an airplane. That's progress!"

Mankind's gains are welcome and needed. But material accomplishments, however remarkable, have not brought security to the human race. Crime, immorality, mental and physical abuse of children, men, and women on a worldwide scale, quickly tell us that something more is needed.

Individual spiritual progress that ensures moral integrity is not an idealistic option today but a practical necessity. In view of the vast differences in customs among people, however, can individual commitment to spirituality have any meaningful effect?

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