Valuing a higher concept of man

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. 

It may be challenging sometimes not to feel pressure to conform, even in small ways, to what the world says is fashionable.

The Bible counsels, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2 ). While this “renewing” requires alertness and persistence, it’s actually joy-giving, because it brings thought more in line with God, with the source of lasting joy and of all that’s genuinely good. Jesus’ teachings, reflected in the New Testament as a whole, ask us to let go of old ways of thinking and doing and to cultivate greater purity and innocence, to increasingly express the qualities that characterize the man and woman that God created in His own likeness. 

The materialism of worldly thinking belittles innocence. It puts down a state of thought that embodies something of the spiritual mindedness that Jesus taught and illustrated. But the very qualities that worldliness would suppress are what confer genuine strength and dominion. They help ensure progress on the most solid of foundations because they have a divine source. They’re from the one almighty God, and, therefore, they reflect the power of God, of unopposable Spirit. It’s natural to express these qualities, because each of us is truly the outcome of God. Each of us is, in fact, God’s image, not a sinful, mortal personality who feels at home with materialistic thinking.

Referring to mortals, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “They are slaves to fashion, pride, and sense. Sometime we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has created men and women in Science. We ought to weary of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which hinders our highest selfhood” (p. 68 ). 

When I was performing in comedy clubs for a time, it was difficult to find more than an occasional comedian who didn’t feel compelled to use crude language, at least a little, or to tell off-color jokes. There was a strong tendency to conform to a low standard, not only because performers felt that it was a way to get a response from the audience, but because it was considered a normal expression of manhood and womanhood. My act was clean, and while some audiences wanted something different, I felt it was a helpful influence.

The very qualities that worldliness would suppress are what confer genuine strength and dominion. 

Someone might ask why it really matters—in a comedy club or facing the pressures of life in some other way—that we strive for a higher standard of thought and action. It could be argued that you just have to face facts: Life is difficult, often unfair, and you sometimes have to do the less than honorable thing to succeed. In various ways we’re all confronting the impositions and injustices of a flesh-based sense of life. But freedom from such impositions requires a lifting of thought above crude, materialistic standpoints, which don’t represent either God or man. This can be such a help to us individually as well as to others.

Christian Science highlights the spiritual reality of man in God’s image as the basis for thought and action and as the standpoint for healing whatever is unlike the divine nature. Science and Health says, “The great truth in the Science of being, that the real man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible; for if man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither inverted nor subverted, but upright and Godlike” (p. 200 ).

True manhood and womanhood have nothing to do with worldly ways or, on the other hand, naiveté. They express purity, innocence, wisdom, spiritual strength, integrity, and all the other Godlike qualities that are essential to our individual salvation and to the well-being of humanity. Striving to live in harmony with this standard isn’t, ultimately, a matter of choice but a matter of who we really are. And that’s a blessing to all.