SENTINAL WATCH June 21, 2004 Issue

The right government for Iraq

By Bea Roegge

WHAT IS THE RIGHT GOVERNMENT for the citizens of Iraq? So many people have been asking this, and as the date draws nearer when sovereignty will be turned over to the Iraqi people, the question demands answers—and our continuing prayers.

I found something in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy that is inspiring my prayers with new hope. It has lifted me out of worry and helped me look forward to the establishment of a good government just right for the long-oppressed Iraqi people: "Through divine Love the right government is assimilated, the way pointed out, the process shortened, and the joy of acquiescence consummated" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 232).

Hearing daily news of the acts of insurrection, of ever-changing plans for an interim government and accusations of no plans—and being reminded that this is a people who have had no experience in self-government as a nation—I had almost forgotten that God was as present in Iraq as surely as in my country. Years of experience have proved to me that it is only through the power of divine Love that good government, including self-government, exists.