Article June 4, 1990 Issue

Is there a bully in the house?

No fear can intimidate us so long as God reigns supreme in our lives, so long as Christ remains head of the household.

Julie Campbell Tatham

When my husband passed on, his estate was handled by a highly respected law firm. I felt quite secure with this arrangement until I discovered that mistakes were being made. However, when I reported these errors, the subject was deftly changed to a forthcoming tax audit. The picture that was painted of the tax agent was of a merciless ogre. It was all very intimidating.

I'll always be grateful for a friend who explained to me early in my study of Christian Science that while it is a sin to be an exploiter, this does not mean that it is not a sin to allow yourself to be exploited. I realized widows were frequently targets of exploitation, and I wanted to proceed very cautiously. The problem was that I seemed to be surrounded by bullies: the prestigious law firm, the independent lawyers who would charge a large fee for conducting the audit, and the tax agent, that merciless ogre! One thing I knew from my experience as a Christian Scientist was that it is always better to rely on one's spiritual intuition than on human advice.

"One on God's side is a majority," said Wendell Phillips. I had learned from many previous victories over all kinds of fear that one with God is actually a monopoly, for God, good, is both omnipotent and omnipresent. There can be nothing added to or outside of God's infinitude. The manifestation of God's infinite good is what constitutes the genuine nature of man. Evil is contrary to this nature. Hence, Christian Science teaches that an evil person is not the man of God's creating but is a distorted sense of man. Anything that threatens us, whether it is a person or a situation, has no authority over God's supremacy. We might say that an intimidating threat is a boastful bully insisting that it is something to be afraid of. Christian Scientists usually refer to this bully as mortal mind or animal magnetism. But no matter what name we give it, it has no actual substance, because it was not created by God, the only creator. Evil, or animal magnetism, has no origin, nor is it the originator of anything.

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