'To Bless All Mankind' February 26, 2018 Issue

Everyone can win gold for integrity!

Mark Swinney

A version of this article was published in The Christian Science Monitor, February 7, 2018.

It’s so encouraging to hear how athletes have been taking a strong ethical stand for fair, drug-free play in the Olympic Games (see editorial on facing page). In significant ways, honesty and integrity bless. Pure honesty expresses a deep respect for one’s neighbor. In sports, this includes respect for one’s fellow competitors. Honesty is an expression of love, and it contributes to the kind of competition that gives all participants fair opportunities to contend.

But honesty is also good for the individual expressing it. For some time a friend of mine, a professional athlete, used steroids. The day came, though, when he turned away from them completely and never looked back. His career is even more successful now and, for many years, he has devoted his time to helping other athletes. His happiness is truly off the charts.

This turnaround makes sense to me because I understand honesty to be more than just the right thing to do as a good person. It is actually a quality that expresses our spiritual nature as sons and daughters of the Divine. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy explains, “Honesty is spiritual power” (p. 453). More than just goodwill, then, the spiritual power of honesty is evidence of the presence and influence of God, or good. The expression of genuine honesty brings spiritual light—spiritual good—to the world, strengthening it through God’s active goodness.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

Protest and progress