Article July 10, 1995 Issue

"Political correctness" or God's laws?

Elaine R. Follis

Probably most people would agree that in a society where the dignity of the individual is cherished, public statements and policies reflecting prejudice and insensitivity toward others need to be eliminated. In recent years some have made vigorous efforts to achieve this aim through enforcing conformity to certain standards of language and behavior dubbed "political correctness." Ironically, however, the coercive tactics employed by some of these advocates have created an atmosphere of intolerance very little different from the bigotry they originally set out to destroy.

The motive to value and care for others is a good one. But human rules can never permanently lift people out of despair. Only God's laws can do that. "Divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may pardon, but this divine Principle alone reforms the sinner," writes Mary Baker Eddy (Science and Health, p. 6). This statement points to a higher authority for rights and dignity—an authority not shaken by the changing winds of opinion.

God is Spirit, as the Bible declares in John's Gospel, and that all that He has created is spiritual, expressing Him. What appears to be a material universe, imperfect and filled with injustice and frustration, is a misperception of reality, shaped by the material senses. Standards and opinions derived from the testimony of those senses can thus never truly be correct. People will never realize their true identity and their rights until spiritual sense reveals to them man's nature as the image and likeness of God. St. Paul addressed the basic issue of identity and dignity when he wrote, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Rom. 8:16). At the beginning of that same chapter, Paul spoke eloquently of the true foundation of individual freedom: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (verses 1, 2).

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Defeating a "killer virus"