Article June 19, 2000 Issue

Thanks, to some unhonored women

For the unsung heroines who contribute to society's progress Spiritward

By Tony Lobl

Women have had quite a twentieth century, according to the Ladies' Home Journal. Last year that magazine listed the one hundred most notable women of the century, and the list included amazing individuals, such as Helen Keller, Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, and Anne Frank (see Special issue, May 1999). The list also included notable women politicians, artists, journalists, and scientists. As a man looking on from the sidelines, I can only express gratitude for these contributors to humanity's social, political, and moral health.

The list didn't include spiritual thinker, reformer, and Christian healer Mary Baker Eddy, however, and that got me thinking. Not only, why the omission of a woman who, early in the twentieth century, launched a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper (The Christian Science Monitor) at the age of almost ninety? But also, what about the hundreds and thousands of other active witnesses to spirituality who have graced this century with their prayers, their hard work, and their healing love?

Who are these unsung heroes? Many of them are Christian healers who have lived throughout the twentieth century, their lives committed to the practice of spiritual healing. Through understanding and demonstrating the truth of God's omnipotence and omnipresence, these heroines have stood for emancipation from every stricture on liberty, happiness, health, and worth. These women (and men) seldom make the headlines. But many issues of social progress—such as gaining and maintaining women's rights—owe more to their prayerful protests for true womanhood and manhood than the world may ever acknowledge or even recognize. These witnesses to the spirituality of God's creation have stood for divine equality, in which every woman (and man) is free to do exactly what God wants her (or him) to be doing at every moment—whether it be progressing in a demanding career, making a home for a family, or some blend of both.

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