Olga Chaffee: Welcome to The Herald of Christian Science. I'm Olga Chaffee.

Laurie Haas: And I'm Laurie Haas.

Olga: Laurie, what do we have for our friends on today's program?

Laurie: Well, so many people in the world are facing pressure. We'll be hearing from an elected public official about how she responded to pressures imposed on her by some lobbying groups. And then we have someone who's going to talk about pressures that she was imposing on herself.

Olga: There's not one of us that is not being touched by one of these challenges today.

Laurie: Our first guest was a state senator in the state of Washington in the United States. Her name's Eleanor Lee, and she is speaking with a member of our staff, Richard Leopold.

Eleanor Lee: I had sponsored a measure before our state senate that would bring pay equity to our public employees. We'd discovered that many of them were not being paid what they deserved for the jobs they were performing. At that point some of the large industrial lobbyists—those who put forth their particular company's point of view to the legislature—started threatening some of my colleagues who supported the measure.

Richard Leopold: What was their concern?

Eleanor: That this measure might be applied to the private sector, which was completely untrue. Much of the private sector had already been implementing pay equity among their employees. But these lobbyists threatened my colleagues with loss of political contributions. My colleagues were also told that they would have very tough reelection campaigns. I did have to pray about that.

Richard: How did you pray?

Eleanor: No matter what your situation is, one of the first steps is to see the truth that God is not only the creator but also the governor of the universe and man. Then you begin to recognize that evil is an error, a lie. This helps you see, "Yes, I'm only one person but I can know the truth. I can know what is right, and God will direct me to do what is necessary to do." Directions that are spiritual, inspirational, come from the "still small voice." As the result of praying you have the certain sense that a particular line of action is correct.

Richard: You feel a sense of peace after you've made a decision to take a line of action?

Eleanor: It is a sense of peace, but it is much more than that. In the Preface to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, speaks of "a deep-lying conviction." I think that's probably as close as I can come to describing it in words. You feel what you're being guided to do is the result of an answer to prayer in order to make things better for the world.

At that point I knew that I had to take a stand. I just could not sit quietly by. So when I was asked by the press, I told them exactly what had been going on and who had been threatened. I'd been told before I talked to the press that I would not have political contributions and that I would have a difficult reelection race if I exposed these particular goings-on. But that didn't bother me because I knew that Truth is more powerful than a lie. I wasn't taking this stand to attack people or to blame individuals. I was taking it to expose what was incorrect, so that it could be stopped. Truth is far more powerful than any human means of resolving these differences among men and women. We are brothers and sisters, all with one Father, and He governs.

Richard: When your reelection came up, did this issue hurt you?

Eleanor: Not at all. In fact, the effect was precisely the opposite from what had been predicated. I received more campaign contributions than I'd ever received before from sources that I had never expected to receive contributions from.

Richard: Your stand, it seems, had a longer-lasting effect than just that one issue, didn't it?

Eleanor: Very definitely. It was a protection not only for me in my reelection campaign but for the other individuals who had been threatened as well. The threatening stopped, and the contract was quickly ratified with substantial majorities.

A passage from the Bible helped me a great deal. It's in the book of Philippians. Paul says, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." The Bible is jam-packed with examples of people using prayer to deal with issues—often in a context of civil government. From Abraham to Jesus of Nazareth and the apostles after him, they all relied on God, on the understanding that we are the sons of God and as such we are cared for by Him in everything that we do.

Richard: Thank you, Eleanor.

Eleanor: You're very welcome.

Olga: Eleanor just remarked how the Bible is jam-packed with instructions on how to deal with moments of pressure, moments when you feel locked in. Do you remember that statement in the Bible, from II Chronicles, where the children of Israel were in the thick of battle? The instructions were "Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's." It was true for a multitude of soldiers. It is true for a multitude of problems, a multitude of demands.

(End of part one. Part two will be published June 3.)

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