Skip to footer

Climate change, politics, and prayer

A Christian Science perspective: What the golden rule and a spiritual view of government can bring to our atmosphere.

  • By Allison J. Rose-Sonnesyn

One of the most heated political debates in Washington right now involves spending federal money on research and implementation of climate change regulations. When faced with political gridlock, how do we find a way to move forward together and do what’s best for everyone?

This was a challenge I faced in my work as a policy adviser in the federal legislature. The way I was able to work together with colleagues with different viewpoints on climate change policy was through gaining a deeper understanding of what government really is, what constitutes our climate, and the application of the golden rule.

My colleagues and I were tasked to find a way to write a bill, of which climate change policy was a portion, that would express common ground between two sides of the debate. But with so much unhappiness and hostility present in each party, it seemed hard to know where to begin.

I chose to begin with prayer. It was clear that a group of varying opinions was not going to come up with an effective solution. So I turned to God, the one divine Mind, for answers. A passage in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament that foretells the coming of the Christ came to my thought: “For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder. These will be his royal titles: ‘Wonderful,’ ‘Counselor,’ ‘The Mighty God,’ ‘The Everlasting Father,’ ‘The Prince of Peace.’ His ever-expanding, peaceful government will never end” (The Living Bible, Isaiah 9:6, 7). It shows that God governs through His Christ, the spiritual truth Jesus represented as the Prince of Peace. True government, then, is the expression of one, universal, infinite Truth that includes and governs all of God’s creation.

From this inspired definition of God’s government, I reasoned that since God is Spirit (see John 4:24), His kingdom is spiritual. His perfect, spiritual ideas dwell and express their purpose in perfect harmony. This reminded me of the definition of Kingdom of Heaven in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy: “The reign of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme” (p. 590).

“The atmosphere of Spirit” seemed to address the entire issue of climate change. Where God reigns harmoniously over His creation, there could never be extremes, imbalance, pollution, contamination, hatred, anger, disagreement, lack of love, or false judgment.

As I continued to pray, I declared that, as God’s children, the kingdom of heaven is within us (see Luke 17:21). This means we express the one Mind, the one Principle governing all creation. Therefore, we could know what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and how to communicate it. I also affirmed that everyone could feel the Christ speaking to them in a way that could be understood and practical. Harmony is the law in the kingdom of heaven – in the “atmosphere of Spirit” – so solutions were attainable, practical, and would bless everyone.

I prayed this way over the next few months as we all worked together to write the bill. The work was harmonious. Every time a challenge arose, we were able to find a gracious way to solve the problem. Then, right before our deadline, my counterparts provided new legislative text that hadn’t been discussed during our work together. This was so unexpected, that it was hard not to feel betrayed. I also felt a tremendous amount of pressure to make the right decision quickly, and I felt pulled between suggestions voiced by colleagues that ranged from retaliation to throwing in the towel and stopping the whole attempt at working on a bipartisan level.

Instead of giving in to these suggestions, I quietly expressed gratitude to God for all the good work that had been accomplished in the interceding months. I reviewed all the spiritual truths I had prayed with, and declared that those were laws of God that could never be overturned. I also refused to take the situation personally and applied the golden rule – instead of responding cynically, I acted kindly. Once I did, the answer presented itself, the deadline was met, and the bill passed with complete bipartisan support.

I am grateful to be learning more each day about the power and effectiveness of God’s government. When faced with news of partisan gridlock, I continue to pray with the spiritual truths Christian Science teaches about God and His love for His creation.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Climate change, politics, and prayer
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2015/0617/Climate-change-politics-and-prayer
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe