Article September 7, 2015 Issue

Valuing a higher concept of man

Stephen Carlson

This article was adapted from a “A Christian Science Perspective” column that appeared in the May 29, 2015, edition of The Christian Science Monitor.

Recently I was watching some of Frank Capra’s classic film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Jimmy Stewart plays the part of an idealistic young senator confronting the corruption of a ruthless political machine. It’s a story about how one decent, honest individual’s stand for what’s right triumphs over wickedness in high places. I was struck by something that Stewart’s mentor in the film said to him. This man was a veteran senator Stewart greatly admired but who had become corrupt. He said that “this is a man’s world” and that “you have to check your ideals outside the door, like you do your rubbers.”

It’s a pretty negative concept of manhood—as though “a man’s world” were synonymous with dishonesty, greed, and perpetual compromising with evil. It’s as if he had also said: “There’s no place for decency, no place for goodness and noble motives in this world, not if you’re going to be anybody or accomplish anything. Real manhood conforms to the world’s ways.”

The world’s ways can seem all too common. And it may be challenging sometimes not to feel pressure to conform, even in small ways, to what the world says is fashionable or simply how people behave, even if it’s morally questionable. Yet beyond the allure of worldly standards and the deceptive chatter of materialism is something higher, a truly safe and progressive path that benefits everyone. It’s clearly presented in Christ Jesus’ teachings and discerned by our God-given spiritual sense, which is cultivated in the quiet of communion with our creator. This God-inspired perception reveals a fresh, untainted sense of identity—the true view of man. It impels us to put off tendencies that clash with the divine nature, that are contrary to our own actual nature as God’s spiritual, immortal likeness.

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