Article February 5, 2018 Issue

Drop limited, prejudiced thinking

Brett Stafford

I have at times allowed myself to entertain exclusive, negative thinking toward some people, even in church. And these judgments came when I really didn’t know these individuals well. However, I’ve worked to drop limited, prejudiced thinking and embrace everyone more fully.

Take age, for example. It’s nothing new. There is and has been a tendency to stick closely within one’s own age group, even in church. This may involve a lukewarm attitude toward generations not one’s own—even a disposition to avoid them or adopt a sort of standoffish thinking.

Over the last two years I’ve given special attention to pages 244–249 in Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. In the last paragraph on page 244, under the marginal heading, “Man not evolved,” the first sentence reads: “Man in Science is neither young nor old.” That’s a spiritual truth—how wonderful and clear. Science and Health has helped me to grasp more clearly and deeply that by believing man to be a lot of young and old mortals running around, I’m buying into the false concept of man—the fleshly view—which is only a counterfeit of the real, whole, ageless man—the Christlike man that is your and my selfhood now and always.