Editorial January 28, 2019 Issue

Redeeming ourselves from strongman rule

Tony Lobl

From the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, to ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, to consolidation of power in the hands of China’s president, to many other distressing actions around the world, strongman rule seems to be on the march. Yet each January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day reminds us just how tragically off course the ship of state can sail when an authoritarian “strongman” takes the helm.

I grew up in the shadow of that history. My father, who was Jewish, escaped Hitler’s Germany only to end up imprisoned in a strongman regime on the other end of the political spectrum—Stalin’s Soviet Union. As I grew older and increasingly aware of how susceptible the world still was to the rule of autocratic leaders, I felt helpless before the tide of history. I was mentally in bondage to the fear factor that strongman rule thrives on, even though I lived in one of the world’s freest nations.

What slowly but surely turned that around for me was a new understanding of the nature of good and evil that I’ve gained through the study of Christian Science, which brings to light the truth of God’s goodness as ever present and all-powerful, and teaches how to prove this by degrees. As we yield to an understanding of this divine reality, solutions emerge—sickness is healed, lack gives place to sufficiency, joy and kindness increase in our relationships. As such proofs accumulate that good was present even where its opposite had seemed to be, it becomes clearer that this must be true for everyone, under all circumstances. Consequently, it feels natural to want to help others find their freedom through the same understanding and experience of this liberating, divine presence.

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Bible Lens—January 28–February 3, 2019