Years ago, I swam a mile every day early in the morning. The gym was always very busy with swimmers, basketball players, and weight lifters, both men and women. One day, while getting dressed after my swim I heard another man talking about women with degrading and obscene sexual language. He was a few locker rows over, and I just tuned him out. 

At that moment, one of his friends came over to me, introduced himself, and asked what I did for a living. I replied, “I am a Christian Science practitioner and devote my life to helping others through prayer.” He mentioned that his grandmother had been a Christian Scientist, adding that he had respect for what I did. At that point, the whole locker room became quiet. And as I was getting ready to leave, the first man came over to me, apologized for what he had said about women, and told me he wouldn’t speak that way again. 

Something about my stand for Christianity and prayer must have touched him. I saw him in the locker room many times after that, and he never used profane or derogatory language again when I was around. This has meant more to me in recent years, as the use of “locker room talk”—sexually based jokes and stories that often degrade women—has come under increased scrutiny. It is no longer accepted or tolerated as just a typical part of men’s conversations with one another.

Contrast that with another experience, also years ago, that I have never forgotten. My wife and I were guests at a Chicago Bible Society dinner. One of the honorees was a prominent elected official. Upon receiving his award, he stood on the platform, and the first words he uttered were, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer” (Psalms 19:14). The audience was immediately quiet and thoughtful. It was a humble declaration by an extremely accomplished man giving the reason why his advocating for freedom and dignity for all people was so effective.

Those words from Psalms are a great guide to live by, and our doing so can also make a difference for others, as the life of Christ Jesus showed. No one has ever lived those words better than he did, and his whole life brought healing and resolution to all sorts of situations. 

Jesus also had potent words about watching our language. In answer to an accusation that his disciples were not observing the religious law of the time, he replied: “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.... Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man” (Matthew 15:11, 18–20). To defile means to spoil something—to pollute it. No one wants their life polluted.

What is it that can silence a man in a locker room?

Jesus always knew what to say to quiet his questioners, to tone down the rhetoric, and to bring morality and decency to the melodrama of the day. When confronted by a group that was determined to bring him into a discussion about whether or not to kill an adulterous woman, he simply said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” With those words, the woman’s accusers dispersed. He turned to the accused and said, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:7, 11). 

What is it that can silence a man in a locker room, give a politician the courage and integrity to base his life on pleasing God, and allow Jesus to bring healing to an ugly situation? It is the Christ—the healing activity of God, Truth, speaking to humanity and governing their actions. Jesus may no longer be present in human form, but the Christ he embodied speaks to the conscience of every one of us. Conscience—the ability to know what is right and to act accordingly—is inherent in all of us as children of God; no one is without it. The Christ utters the naturalness of morality, compassion, dignity, and grace. It is always speaking to us, never silent, opening thought to the right expression of language and behavior, including the resolution of any conflict.

In words that I have found essential in my life, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in the Christian Science textbook, “Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 332). The Christ, speaking divine Truth to us, clears away the pollution of obscenity, pornographic images, prejudice, racism, and all forms of hatred. It does this by revealing to humanity the truth about each of us: that we are not materially genetic, gender-based beings of one color or another. Our true selfhood is spiritual, created by divine Love, Spirit, God. Our identity is composed of an infinite array of spiritual qualities, including goodness, purity, intelligence, strength, courage, honesty, and love. These qualities bring the healing Christ into our words and actions.

Jesus understood the accused woman’s inherent spiritual beauty, dignity, and even innocence.

That was what Jesus ultimately saw in his encounter with the woman and her accusers. He saw her as a child of God, separate from the abusive, sexually based circumstances she found herself in. He understood that her true identity was spiritual and pure, and that this identity included her inherent beauty, dignity, and even innocence. He understood it so clearly that it shamed and silenced her accusers and provided her the opportunity to have a radically different life. 

Mrs. Eddy writes: “Continuing our definition of man, let us remember that harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and is always beyond and above the mortal illusion of any life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter. This statement is based on fact, not fable” (Science and Health, p. 302). Her statement is based on the fact that man is the image and likeness, not of matter, but of God, Spirit. It is this understanding that lifts us above the fictitious distortions of our and everyone’s true spiritual identity. That which contradicts our true selfhood—the speech or activity that would degrade or victimize us—is cleaned out by the understanding of this God-created, God-ordained, and God-maintained true identity of each of us.

Such a revelation! We are not mortal, “testosteroned” or “estrogened” blobs of protoplasm that revel in decadence and conflict. We are the spiritual reflection of God. We each have a divine inheritance and makeup. It is this understanding, lived and demonstrated, that brings respect, opportunity, peace, purpose, and joy into our lives.