In the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, Lieutenant Cable sings in anger, "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught." It's a song about being educated from childhood to be prejudiced, to hate and fear those who are different from us. The lieutenant's love for a Polynesian girl, Liat, is strong. Yet despite his love, he is a prisoner of his childhood training. He was so "carefully taught," he is afraid to take Liat home to his family.

One has only to watch young children at play to understand the sentiments in the song. Social, cultural, racial, and economic differences mean nothing to children until they take in the poison of prejudice.

Can prejudiced and intolerant adults ever change? Of course they can! And those who hate—cam they ever learn to love without reservation? Positively yes! New Testament teachings point clearly to the possibilities.

The redemptive power of the Christ—of the divine healing influence illustrated in Jesus' life and works—is impartial. In New Testament times Christ, or Truth, transformed sinner into disciple. It helped an immoral woman find the way to moral living and an unjust tax collector to honest and fair-minded citizenship.

Christ Jesus' love was for all. He understood that God, divine Love, cares for each of His offspring without measure and that man's genuine selfhood is God's unlimited spiritual likeness. Social status, race, and nationality don't then, define God's child. Jesus proved this throughout his ministry, showing us that no one is outside the full and equal blessing of God's love.

How can we emulate the Way-shower's impartial love and healing touch? It's important that we cultivate childlike innocence. Jesus said, as Matthew records, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Becoming like a little child requires a willingness to give up prejudiced views of others and reclaim the purity and unquestioning trust we once had. Rigid stereotypes must be done away with and willfulness replaced with humility and unselfish love.

God's likeness isn't material, categorized as black, red, white, yellow, or tan; rich or poor; educated or uneducated. We need to see that man's origin is in God, Spirit. We limit one another when we look no further than a nationalistic or cultural origin. God made only one kind of man—His spiritual image, expressing universal love. Therefore racial and cultural prejudice have no real place in His kingdom.

Paul's words to the Colossians give us an indication of the spiritual reality of man we need progressively to bring out in our lives. He told his listeners that as followers of Christ they must discard such traits as anger and dishonesty, seeing that they had "put off the old man" and "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." In this new man, "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." Moreover, as God's representatives, they were to be merciful, kind, humble, and tolerant. They were to let "the word of Christ" dwell in them. Everything they did was to be done "in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

Racism and intolerance die hard, but they do die, because they have no spiritual basis, and whatever is not founded in Christ, or Truth, can't last. Prejudice disappears before a realization of the truth of man as God made him, inseparable from his creator.

My first lessons on the evils of racial intolerance came from the editor of a magazine called Negro Traveler. The magazine's sole purpose was to give African-Americans (or Negroes as they were then called) information about lodging and dining facilities where they could be served. Coming from such a different background, I could hardly grasp the depth of feeling the editor must have had as he told factual stories of hardships his people encountered because of discrimination when traveling. My education left me totally unprepared to fathom the cause of such intolerance.

When I took up the study of Christian Science, I learned that underlying racism's strong hold on human thought is the false conception of man's origin and nature. No one would deny that we appear to be corporeal mortals, born into, maturing in, and dying out of matter—defined almost entirely in physical terms. Yet our true selfhood is far more than that. Only through a growing understanding that man is actually spiritual, God's likeness, can racism be destroyed.

An unexpected need to test my strength at resisting racism came shortly after I established my own real estate business. A homeowner, responding to my call telling her I would be showing her home to someone, was concerned. She thought the potential buyer might be a black man she had seen drive past. Since I had only talked to the customer by telephone, I didn't know his race and had simply arranged to meet him at the seller's house.

This woman had been "taught" not to let a black person into her neighborhood. She had grown up in a big-city suburb that resisted integration. As a child she had witnessed major race riots over this question. She was absolutely adamant that she would "protect" her neighbors.

There were not yet any laws or court decisions banning discrimination, and my legal obligation was to represent the homeowner. Also, a year or two earlier a fellow broker had been fined for breaking "the color barrier" in a neighborhood. More recently another broker had publicly apologized for taking part in a sale to a black in a white neighborhood. Even so, I knew that I could not discriminate. Neither could I apologize for doing what I knew to be right in the sight of God.

Looking beyond appearances, I realized that the customers, who might be a black family, the homeowner who seemed determined to discriminate, and my fellow relators were all, in reality, God's children. While each of God's offspring is individual, He does not have different kinds of children. He does not have "bondmen" and "freemen" in His family. All are of one origin, divine Spirit, and all express the impartial love of God.

It occurred to me that I should ask the woman to be present when the man and I met at her home so she could tell him directly of her objections. As it turned out, he was black, and she told him exactly why he could not see her home.

At that point, the reeducation of this woman began. The man responded calmly and with love. Soon she let him see her home "for comparison purposes" only. She was still adamant that she would "protect" her neighbors. The home proved to be exactly what the man's family needed.

The words of a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal formed the basis of my prayer to bring healing to this situation. They are from the poem "Satisfied," written by Mrs. Eddy. The beginning verse confirmed my conviction that serving God was the important consideration:

If I served Him, the consequences of my actions could only bless everyone concerned.

Identifying myself as a child of God, I realized I had no choice but to express divine Love. And that meant not only refraining from discrimination and intolerance myself but helping others come to know the rightness and joy of doing the same. I couldn't accept racism as being native to others but not to me. I couldn't have it both ways. Since racism is not in God's creation, it isn't truly in any of His children. There could be no penalty for standing for this truth.

The third verse offered a promise. It says in part:

This gave me confidence that God, Truth, would shatter the false fears. Practical evidence confirming this came throughout the following week as the prospective homebuyer talked to the homeowner several times. Mutual understanding was developing. In addition, a leading residential appraiser and an attorney experienced in real estate transactions confirmed my observation that a sale to a black family does not depress neighborhood home values. Furthermore, two friends of the homeowner rebuked her when she told them what a wonderful thing she was doing by keeping a black family out of her neighborhood. Also, she accepted my assurances about property values, because I explained to her that I lived in that neighborhood and would be substantially affected if I were wrong.

At the week's end the owner agreed to sell to the family and signed a contract. In due time the sale was completed. The family became accepted members of the neighborhood, and there was no adverse effect on property values.

The fourth verse of the hymn "Satisfied" supported my prayers while the sale progressed to completion—and afterward. It says:

As it turned out, "hate's thrall" had no effect on us or our business.

In succeeding years our business helped many families find homes in neighborhoods not previously open to them. While I cannot say that racism disappeared, still there was progress toward breaking down long-cherished stereotypes. During that period it was proved that, as the hymn concludes, "Who doth His will—His likeness still— / Is satisfied."

God is our Father-Mother, our All-in-all. As we put service to Him first and increasingly strive to discern the spiritual reality of creation, we'll find peace and greater success. We'll find, too, a deepening of our love for others, regardless of apparent racial or cultural differences.

The transformation of human thought may come gradually, but it will surely come, for the power of God, Truth, is supreme.