UPFRONT May 30, 2005 Issue

The true self-image adjustment

MARILYN JONES. SENIOR WRITER

Next time you're scanning the magazine rack at a newsstand, take a look at how many articles address the subject of identity. Raising low self-esteem, making yourself more beautiful, buffed, thinner, stylish—whatever. Our culture seems obsessed with transforming whoever we are today into some super-self tomorrow. Pretty superficial, a lot of it.

But one place I've found that improving self-image is crucial is in the Suffolk County Jail in Boston, where I'm a Christian Science chaplain.

A few years ago, Earline Shoemake (whose interview appears on page 12) told me a story of an experience she had when giving a talk on Christian Science in a prison. The person who picked Earline up and drove her to the prison said she'd been doing chaplaincy work in the jails for more than 20 years. And she told Earline, "I haven't met a bad boy yet!" That statement has inspired me in my own visits with prisoners. Because when I think of that statement, I'm able to see each man as God sees him: not as a "bad boy," but as a son of God. And that view takes away any fear or judgment that could creep into my thinking. When I talk to these men about their true identity as God's beloved son, they begin to believe there's hope for their own redemption. And they start to see God as a loving Parent.

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