A college student I know asked his parents if he could bring a friend from another country home for the Thanksgiving holidays. The parents agreed. When they arrived, the tragicomedy began, because the young man was "foreign."

The suburb in which the student lived seemed dedicated to isolating itself from the non-English-speaking, non-Anglo-Saxon world. Over the four-day weekend this pressure made itself felt in both subtle and overt ways. As a member of an orthodox church, the student was filled with feelings of resentment about the hypocrisy of certain church members and of the community, feelings that were further reinforced over the next few years.

As time passed, the student had no trouble identifying with the causes of minorities and was grateful for a lack of prejudice. It was not until the study of Christian Science was taken up three or four years after graduation that this young adult realized the intense depth of his prejudice and resentment against his own white, middle-class community. As the prejudice was uncovered, it was slowly healed.

Of course, this situation is not unusual. But the young Christian Scientist must not become caught up in this disaffection, or he will lose his power to heal prejudiced thought. If he starts hating the haters, ignoring those who ignore, he becomes the tool of the world belief in all sorts of prejudice.

In Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy states, "To impersonalize scientifically the material sense of existence—rather than cling to personality—is the lesson of to-day." ^{Mis., p. 310;}

Here, then, is where our work begins. When we see economic, racial, or class prejudice, we must draw its sting and neutralize it with truth of God's allness and man's perfection as His loved son. We must immediately separate it in our thought from the individual seemingly expressing it.

This takes a great deal of self-discipline. It's much easier to start congratulating oneself as the Pharisee did: "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are." ^{Luke 18:11;} The Christian Scientist knows that the place the prejudice has to be healed is in his own consciousness, so that he does not accept it as real; he recognizes that he must not fasten it onto the perpetrator, for that only reinforces it for all mankind.

Now what if the idea of ethnic superiority or class prejudice has been voiced by a church member? Does this mean that Christianity or the branch Church of Christ, Scientist, or Christian Science has failed? Emphatically not. Some individuals within and without the church have made more progress than others, that's all. And if we meet prejudice with prejudice, we are allowing mortal mind to separate us from the most effective means of eliminating this senseless evil.

But if we are alert and calmly deny reality to the thoughtless indications of prejudice in our experience or in the experience of mankind, and if we then prayerfully await the leadings of divine Mind to give the answer that will heal, tangible evidence of the healing of prejudice will appear.

The prophet Jeremiah gave exact instructions as to how to handle this sort of situation: "Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth." ^{Jer. 1:6–9;}

Our very militant friends, hungering for confrontation on every issue, often do not realize that they are being handled not only by hatred but by vast, useless, nonproductive doses of selfishness and ego. The self-congratulatory nature of a great deal of what describes itself as militancy negates its effectiveness.

So, in reversing this untruth about man, and replacing it with the productive nature of man in God's image and likeness, the humble desire to speak as God has commanded serves us well. It will generally bring a sense of proportion and productivity back into the activity or conversation that has been muddled and deflected by such militancy.

This does not mean copping out. Christ Jesus was well aware of the radical nature of his message and of human opposition to it. Every time that he mentioned a Samaritan favorably or spoke the healing truth lovingly to a Roman he was challenging the Establishment of his day right where they lived. And Mrs. Eddy never hesitates to point out that "right is radical." ^{Science and Health, p. 452;}

It does mean conscientiously putting down the false sense of ego; it means getting out of the seat of the scornful; it reveals the two-edged sword implicit in Christ Jesus' speech to the Pharisees, "But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." ^{Matt. 9:13;}

If we do not wish to see whole ethnic, racial, and economic groups condemned out of hand, then we ourselves must not condemn. If we feel righteous in our cause, then we must be wary of the dangers of self-righteousness. If we feel the desire to love and comfort those who are hated, how much more do we need to love and comfort those who hate! Mrs. Eddy has given us specific guidelines on this: "If special opportunity for doing good to one's enemies occur not, one can include them in his general effort to benefit the race." ^{Mis., p. 11.}

Within the supporting, loving structure of the Christian Science movement the Christian Scientist has opportunity to institute in his thinking and experience the highest sense of brotherhood—that which even includes those with whom he strongly disagrees—and to take this truth into the community and, ultimately, into the whole world.