From the Editors February 28, 2011 Issue

Join the protest

The Editors

What would cause you to publicly and openly express your ideas in opposition to something you felt was very wrong? Most likely a cause that stirs you, perhaps enough to make a difference by adding your voice to a collective whole. 

It takes just a brief scan of world news to find hot spots where people are gathering in protest. In Tunisia recently, people came together over hopes of a more democratic future. And in Egypt protesters have braved violent retaliation in favor of a regime change and an end to oppression. There’s also the example in this week’s In the News article, where an online campaign known as Meter Jam brought together commuters in India to boycott corrupt drivers of taxis and autorickshaws (p. 12). 

Of course, there are also the more silent protests. And it’s these quiet protests that take on deeper meaning when seen relative to scientific prayer. Christian Science defines prayer in a way that empowers the individual to wage a mental protest against whatever is unlike God, good, in their experience—and to expect harmonious results. “Silent prayer,” wrote Sentinel founder Mary Baker Eddy, “is a desire, fervent, importunate: here metaphysics is seen to rise above physics, and rest all faith in Spirit, and remove all evidence of any other power than Mind; whereby we learn the great fact that there is no omnipotence, unless omnipotence is the All-power” (The People’s Idea of God, p. 9). 