Article May 23, 2016 Issue

In defense of the whole human family

Joseph Eller

Each report of a terrorist attack triggers a question within me: “What can we as world citizens possibly do to protect ourselves?” And it is not just terrorist attacks that appear to threaten some segment of the human family these days. It is also extreme weather conditions, as well as the understandable fleeing of huge numbers of refugees from inhumane and unlivable conditions in their own country.

I have sometimes found that my alertness and attention to incidents of this kind are inversely proportional to the distance between where they are taking place and my own home. The greater the distance, the less my attention to them is. On the other hand, if they are in my own country, my interest and care are greatly heightened. But is this a right attitude? It does not seem so to me.

And then I am always reminded of a startling statement written by the Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. She says, “Only by admitting evil as a reality, and entering into a state of evil thoughts, can we in belief separate one man’s interests from those of the whole human family, or thus attempt to separate Life from God” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 18).

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