The Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, was keenly interested in government. She amazed many with her broad knowledge of current affairs. Yet, when asked about her political viewpoint, she replied by giving out this statement, which was recorded in the Boston Post, in November 1908: "I am asked, 'What are your politics?' I have none, in reality, other than to help support a righteous government; to love God supremely, and my neighbor as myself" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 276).

In this statement, supporting a righteous government is linked with loving God supremely and loving our neighbor as ourselves. All three elements are needed for effective government on every level.

For instance, don't most of us yearn for a political system that meets "the standards of what is ... just" and is "morally right"? That's the definition of righteous found in one dictionary. To be effective, those standards must apply to all, regardless of race, religion, economic or social status.

Those who love God supremely and yearn to follow divine Love as Christ Jesus did can express and support, in some degree, a truly "righteous government." God-centered, rather than self-centered, thinking—whether that "self" claims entity as an individual, a city, county, or state—allows for proper government. Human government is righteous only in the degree that it resembles the government of divine Principle, Love. It has been said, and rightly, that the Ten Commandments (see Ex. 20:3–17) and the Beatitudes found in Christ Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (see Matt. 5:3–12) are the basis of all good government. Studying them and putting them into practice strengthen our understanding of God's government and enhance our ability to be and to recognize effective leaders.

God's government rests on and is permeated by Principle, and is infused with the spirit of the Christ. Divine Love is its standard. God's undeviating wisdom sets the agenda, and there are no warring mortal minds within the one divine Mind to undermine, filibuster, or stymie progress. Apathy, inertia, procrastination, have no place within God's, Life's, allness. God, good, is the lawmaker; peace is permanently established within His kingdom.

In truth, each of us has one Father-Mother, God. Motivated by God, good, alone, both those who are governed and those who govern are bound together by one power, or divine Mind. This spiritual fact overrules the baser instincts of the carnal mind, the belief in a mind that is separate from God and capable of evil.

More and more people are aware of groups whose purpose appears linked to antigovernment feelings or hatred of minority or ethnic groups. Christ Jesus' teachings show us how to bridle the baser instincts of the carnal mind, which are characterized by enmity, separatism, destructive criticism, and violence. Asked which was the great commandment in the law, Jesus replied: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matt. 22:37–40).

It is easier to love our neighbor when we base this loving on the recognition that we are all truly a part of one family—the family of God. To love our neighbor as ourselves requires Christly thinking to supplant the egotism that revels in hate, discrimination, fascism. Christly thought naturally loves all and is concerned with benefiting all elements of society. Thought imbued with the Christ embraces mankind in a deep caring that looks for wise and healing solutions.

In Miscellany, Mrs. Eddy writes: "Mankind will be God-governed in proportion as God's government becomes apparent, the Golden Rule utilized, and the rights of man and the liberty of conscience held sacred. Meanwhile, they who name the name of Christian Science will assist in the holding of crime in check, will aid the ejection of error, will maintain law and order, and will cheerfully await the end—justice and judgment" (p. 222).

To serve one God is a spiritually motivated goal that uplifts our thoughts of government and blesses people everywhere. God's, Love's, righteous government is one that all can support.