When I was a small child growing up, I was fearful of that world out there that I heard about from my grandparents and other family members. I heard the adults in the family, for example, talk about the Irish who lived in town. Supposedly they were hard-drinking, rough people with whom our family had no contact. Then there were those who weren't Protestants like us. They were "Catholics." The Catholics had a church just down the street from where my grandmother lived, and I'd been told that they had to go to church every Sunday. Also, our family members were conservatives, politically. Those on the other side of the political fence were "unclean"—both literally and figuratively.

Our ancestors went back to the American Revolution. These other folks, I was told, came from the "immigrant" population. And people from the city—about thirty miles north of us—were supposedly not to be trusted when they came down to be near the ocean for the summer. Especially those whose names ended in a vowel.

Does this kind of prejudice sound preposterous? It was. But, believe it or not, most of the folks who allowed themselves to buy into this self-righteous thinking were actually well-meaning. Their hearts were not hard. They were good people caught up in provincial beliefs. And those self-righteous beliefs had been handed down over the years. It seemed a very normal way to think. No one in the family ever questioned whether their line of reasoning was right or wrong. It was just generally accepted. This was 1950s, small-town America.

Today, in large part in society, such views have given way. Such old-school, self-righteous thinking seems absolutely parochial and old-fashioned to most of us, although there are probably still some places where one can find such notions.

Actually, what changed everyone in our family, was when an uncle announced that he had been doing some genealogical research into the family's background, and had discovered that—surprise of all surprises—our family had Irish roots. Then, another uncle married someone from a different ethnic and economic background. Familial beliefs and standards were now on shaky ground. A few years later, my dad, who'd held firmly to his political beliefs over 40 years, suddenly jumped political parties.

When I, and other family members, went off to service and college during the '60s and '70s, and returned home for visits with totally different philosophies than those traditionally held by the family, we were received with love—but oftentimes puzzlement. Today we're a mixed bunch. Our values range widely, now that a couple of more generations have come into being. Many family members have completely lost touch with each other. I ended up in a very different place—socially, politically, philosophically, spiritually from where my parents and grandparents had been. But the notion that we were the only ones that had it right, seems to be gone forever.

Self-righteousness and false judgment are the antithesis of what Jesus preached in the New Testament when he said things like, "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven" (Luke 6:37). Or, "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye" (Matt. 7:5).

It's so easy to sit in judgment on others—to believe that their lifestyle is wrong, or that they chose the wrong career, or that you have a much better idea of how to do something, or how something should be, than they do.

Yet Jesus didn't have an ounce of self-righteousness within him. He sure had to encounter self-righteousness with others, though. Think, for instance, about the account in John, chapter 8, where Jesus found himself in the midst of a crowd ready to stone a woman caught in adultery. The scribes and Pharisees brought her before him while he was teaching. Then those masters of the "letter" said to Jesus, "Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act." You can just hear the haughty ring to that statement. Then they justified the law that permitted stoning of the woman—the law of Moses. They tried to put Jesus on the spot.

Did he buy into their self-righteousness—would he sanction their absolute conviction that the woman should be stoned? No. Here's how Jesus handled the situation according to the Gospel of John. "Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, andsaw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (John 8:6–11).

Jesus clearly saw that woman as the child of God. He didn't look at her in an accusatory way. He didn't see himself as her superior. And, more important, he didn't attach the label "sinner" to her. He didn't see her as wrapped up in sin. He saw her as wrapped up in God—in infinite Love. He saw in her the perfect daughter of God.

There was tremendous humility in Jesus' approach to this situation. Humility is such a key ingredient in Christianity. There was a complete lack of Pharisaism in Jesus' actions. What were those who were about to stone the woman really all about? Were they looking for perfection in human behavior, instead of looking to the divine standard of perfection as Jesus did? Were they trying to compensate for some lack of spiritual identity within themselves? Were they sure they had it right and nobody else did? Did they have any love in their hearts?

Simply put, God is Love. This is true in every circumstance. You and I reflect that divine Love—a love that does not place us in a position to judge, but only to help, to heal. Being too quick to condemn only shows a shortfall in our demonstration of the Christ, in our commitment to really helping those who are suffering. And, in helping them, we also help ourselves, because we gain a notch in the understanding and expression of the one, infinite Mind or Soul that is the Father-Mother of us all. Isn't this demonstration a matter of seeing as God sees, of loving as God, divine Love, loves?

Christian Science teaches that our real being is sinless, eternal, perfect. God alone is righteous. And we reflect His righteousness, which when seen in its completeness will reveal the kingdom of heaven. Mary Baker Eddy wrote that "heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal, because sin is not there and man is found having no righteousness of his own, but in possession of 'the mind of the Lord,' as the Scripture says" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 291). This is the sense of righteousness that we're striving for—a God-righteousness, not a self-righteousness. This sense of righteousness demonstrates the divine Ego—not a swarm of little mortal egos. Again, Mrs. Eddy wrote in Science and Health:"That saying of our Master, 'I and my Father are one,' separated him from the scholastic theology of the rabbis. His better understanding of God was a rebuke to them. He knew of but one Mind and laid no claim to any other. He knew that the Ego was Mind instead of body and that matter, sin, and evil were not Mind; and his understanding of this divine Science brought upon him the anathemas of the age" (p. 315).

This oneness with God—listening to God instead of mortal thinking—gave Jesus his divine righteousness. It is this sense of righteousness that we all need to be striving for. And when it is seen in all its completeness, there will be peace and justice—everywhere. I'll leave you with this statement from Mary Baker Eddy. In Science and Health she said, "The impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our Master; but 'of his kingdom there shall be no end,' for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples—imperatively, absolutely, finally—with divine Science" (p. 565).In this kingdom, self-righteousness is simply not known. css