'To Bless All Mankind' May 9, 2016 Issue

Moral progress and the role we can play

Randal Craft

Adapted from an article published in The Christian Science Monitor, March 23, 2016.

Moral progress has been vital to a world that often seems tested by corruption. The editorial on the facing page highlights the recent resignation of Ukraine’s economy minister, who was taking a stand against corruption in his country. The minister’s example of moral courage—his “brave stand for ethics”—points to the potential for further such progress around the world.

Mary Baker Eddy understood the importance of moral courage. Her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures states, “Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to proclaim the right” (p. 327). Moral courage includes not only identifying and calling out wrongdoing, but also rebuking it in our prayers. This is done as we prayerfully claim man’s true nature as God’s spiritual offspring—reflecting only God’s goodness (see Genesis 1:31), and therefore naturally perfect, pure, incapable of wrongdoing. That this is our true nature means that qualities such as honesty and unselfishness are inherent in each of us. As this truth about our real identity as God’s reflection comes to light, we’ll find more and more that moral progress is a natural outcome.

Christ Jesus’ moral courage, which stemmed from his loyalty to God and his fidelity to his real, divine nature, stands out as a strong example. He not only called out wrongdoing, but also prayerfully rebuked it with the complete confidence that, in reality, man is created in God’s image and likeness, and therefore incapable of being corrupt.

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