Politicians, sex scandals, and the view that makes a difference
The parade of politicians – each one in the midst of a personal and a political crisis spawned by a sex scandal – seemingly grows longer and more sordid by the week. This is one parade that can't end soon enough. It tramples across too many humiliated spouses, bewildered children, and innocent bystanders. It sows too much cynicism. It corrodes the resolve of honest individuals trying to do the right thing.
It's easy for the public to jump on a bandwagon devoted to painting all politicians with the same broad brush as morally compromised and ethically bankrupt. But that overlooks a simple reality. Politicians are pretty much like the rest of us. Unquestionably there are hypocrites who condemn colleagues (usually from the opposite party) only to be caught later in their own scandal. And there are sincere people who uncharacteristically have stumbled but are now scrambling to regain their moral footing. And then there are many individuals striving to live decent lives and serve their constituents ably and honestly.
A spiritual viewpoint – from which one glimpses something of what the Almighty already beholds of His own creation – discloses the basis for right thinking and acting. It undercuts the allure of wrong actions. It mitigates the damage done to families and careers. From this spiritual vantage point a few things come into focus: A public addicted to the salacious is not inevitable. Neither is a public sunk into cynicism about its elected officials. Faithfulness is not dead. Fidelity is not a casualty of the times. In fact, fidelity and faithfulness are alive and healthy. They are native to the men and women God created. Why? Because they are native to God, who is Love. This Love, the Principle of unity, keeps us united, at one with the goodness in Him.
Instead of getting caught up in either the salaciousness of the scandal or in the cynicism of the moment, is there a better course? Absolutely. Why not get caught up in the holiness and wholesomeness of that spiritual view? Go to the rim of the Grand Canyon, stand there quietly, and you'll likely find the scene takes your breath away. You're left feeling so in awe that if any tawdriness were lingering in your thought from some newscast you'd glanced at earlier in the day, it would simply lose its hold on you and drift off. Views of the Almighty's handiwork – of what divine Principle, Love, creates and manifests in His offspring – have an effect like that. They inspire. They fill us with awe. And scenes of moral decay cease to hold our gaze or make us jaded or fascinated.
The truth is, fidelity and faithfulness are not just within reach. They are within. They are inherent to every one of us, including every politician, not because we hold worthy ideals and occasionally even live by them. But because obedience to God's law is, in a sense, already divinely installed in us. Divine Principle, Love, puts that law, and the fidelity to that law, within. These are inborn spiritual facts for each of us. The prophet Jeremiah records God as saying concerning His offspring, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jer. 31:33).
Consider His law as stated in the Ten Commandments. Among other things, they spell out the idea that those who are married stay true to each other, neither one coveting anything outside the marriage, and the children honoring the parents. The law relating to this is already written in the heart and put in the inward parts of each one of divine Love's offspring. It's inherent in us to do what is morally and spiritually right. If someone veers off course, spiritual facts do not unravel. Instead, that inner decree acts as a divine urging to help the individual get back on track, back to living in accord with the Principle and the Love that fulfill the law.
Mary Baker Eddy found the nature of divine Love to be consistent and divinely certain. This forwarded her discovery that there is a law or Science of Love. Or, to use the phrase she employed more often, there is Christian Science. This same divine certainty is what Christ Jesus drew on when healing physical and moral ills. In line with this Science, she wrote, "Love is the Principle of unity, the basis of all right thinking and acting; it fulfils the law" ("Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896," p. 117). That Principle of untarnished Love, along with its Science, lifts us to views that make a difference. From that higher vantage point, it becomes easier for people to respond to the divine law. Then they turn from wrongdoing and return to the "right thinking and acting" so natural to God's sons and daughters. Healing follows.
From an editorial in the Christian Science Sentinel.
