Meeting the Moral Demands:
As
many already know, forced long-term celibacy is a pretty hard task.
During
much of history, social pressures kept many people from committing
adultery,
or engaging in premarital sex. By the end of the 20th Century,
most of these
pressures were gone. Birth control pills and abortion
prevented unwanted
pregnancies outside of marriage. The rights of
illegitimate children were
enforced, and the stigma associated with
illegitimacy faded. Women’s legal
and economic independence fostered
a more carefree attitude about sex, and
easy, no-fault divorce gave
both men and women an escape from unhappy
marriages.
With social pressures
gone from much of Western society, and sexual freedom
seeming more
and more acceptable, why would a person care about meeting
Old or
New Testament standards of morality? Remember from citations quoted
earlier, how the Jews often committed adultery even though they risked
being
stoned to death if caught? Today, in most societies, severe
public consequences
are gone. So what is there to restrain us from
indulging in sex outside of marriage?
There may be many individual
reasons for abstaining from sex, but a solid,
permanent reason is
clear: Love -- pure love for God and man. Many Christians
do want
to be obedient to God. They do want to respect and honor others. And,
many Christian Scientists do yearn to heal others spiritually, and
are willing to
stay pure to do so.
Where once the expectations of
society and family kept premarital sex and
adultery somewhat under
control, we are now left alone, with few social stigmas,
face-to-face
with our conscience and with God. How do we fend off the
temptations
of lust and adultery in today’s modern society?
Christian Science
offers a way to lift thought above the material senses to see
our
lives “hid with Christ in God.” We do have a spiritual covenant with
God, our
Father, and as we grow in our understanding of His nature
and our relationship to
Him, we find a special unity with Him that
cannot be broken, divorced, or adulterated.
What keeps us from consistently
being the good, moral people we may long to
be? The Apostle Paul expressed
his frustration in this way:
“For the good that I would I do
not: but the evil which I would not, that
I do. Now if I do that I
would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me.”(Romans 7:19-20)
According to Christian Science, lust and sensuality
are evidence of a mind
mesmerized by the material senses. Paul called
it the “carnal mind.” Because
human procreation seems necessary
to perpetuate this so-called carnal mind, the
suggestions of lust
seem to be the most powerful sin of all to conquer. But, in
reality, sinful qualities are not natural to God’s children, and need
to be targeted
by spiritually scientific prayer. It does seem to be
a struggle, but we are given
encouragement in Christian Science that
we can be successful, since there is
no divine law supporting lust
or sensuality. Any indulgence in them can cause
a belief in
separation from God, good, and may bring us much needless suffering.
Let's
take a look at how lust and sensualism are viewed through the
lens of
Christian Science:
“A moral question may hinder the recovery
of the sick. Lurking error,
lust, envy, revenge, malice, or hate will
perpetuate or even create the
belief in disease.” (S&H 418)
“Self-ignorance, self-will, self-righteousness, lust, covetousness,
envy,
revenge, are foes to grace, peace, and progress; they must be
met manfully
and overcome, or they will uproot all happiness. (Miscellaneous
Writings 118)
“Until he awakes from his delusion, he suffers least
from sin who is a
hardened sinner. The hypocrite's affections must
first be made to fret in
their chains; and the pangs of hell must
lay hold of him ere he can change
from flesh to Spirit, become acquainted
with that Love which is without
dissimulation and endureth all things.
Such mental conditions as
ingratitude, lust, malice, hate, constitutethe miasma of earth. More
obnoxious than Chinese stenchpots are these dispositions which offend
the spiritual sense.” (Unity of Good 56)
“Sensuality
palsies the right hand, and causes the left to let go its
grasp on
the divine.” (S&H 142)
“Sensual treasures are laid up ‘where moth
and rust doth corrupt.’
Mortality is their doom. Sin breaks in upon
them, and carries off their
fleeting joys. The sensualist's affections
are as imaginary, whimsical,
and unreal as his pleasures. Falsehood,
envy, hypocrisy, malice, hate,
revenge, and so forth, steal away the
treasures of Truth. Stripped of
its coverings, what a mocking spectacle
is sin!” (S&H 241)
“Selfishness and sensualism are educated in
mortal mind by the
thoughts ever recurring to one's self, by conversation
about the body,
and by the expectation of perpetual pleasure or pain
from it; and this
education is at the expense of spiritual growth.
If we array thought in
mortal vestures, it must lose its immortal
nature.” (S&H 260)
“Sensualism is not bliss, but bondage.”
(S&H 337)
We are promised that sin and all evil can be overcome,
and Christian Scientists
are encouraged -- commanded, even -- to take
up the fight against lust. The
following citations offer insights
to how we might overcome this sin step-by-step:
“Christian Science
commands man to master the propensities, — to hold
hatred in abeyance
with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge
with charity,
and to overcome deceit with honesty. Choke these errors in
their early
stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators
against health,
happiness, and success. They will deliver you to the judge,
the arbiter
of truth against error. The judge will deliver you to justice, and
the sentence of the moral law will be executed upon mortal mind and
body.
Both will be manacled until the last farthing is paid, — until
you have
balanced your account with God. ‘Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall
he also reap.’ The good man finally can overcome his fear
of sin. This is
sin's necessity, — to destroy itself. Immortal man
demonstrates the
government of God, good, in which is no power to
sin.” (S&H 405)
“If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco,
or the special servant of
any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet
and destroy these errors with
the truth of being, — by exhibiting
to the wrong-doer the suffering
which his submission to such habits
brings, and by convincing him
that there is no real pleasure in false
appetites. A corrupt mind is
manifested in a corrupt body. Lust, malice,
and all sorts of evil are
diseased beliefs, and you can destroy them only by destroying the
wicked motives which produce them. If the evil
is over in the repentant
mortal mind, while its effects still remain
on the individual, you can
remove this disorder as God's law is fulfilled
and reformation cancels
the crime. The healthy sinner is the hardened
sinner.” (S&H 404)
“We cannot build safely on false foundations.
Truth makes a new
creature, in whom old things pass away and ‘all
things are become
new.’ Passions, selfishness, false appetites, hatred,
fear, all sensuality,
yield to spirituality, and the super-abundance
of being is on the side of
God, good.” (S&H 201)
“Evil thoughts
and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than
one's belief permits.
Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes
cannot go forth, like
wandering pollen, from one human mind to
another, finding unsuspected
lodgment, if virtue and truth build a
strong defence.” (S&H 234)
Prayer, as taught in Christian Science, enables us to destroy sinful
beliefs,
such as lust, by daily denying their reality. They are not
real because God did
not create them! We pray to not be led into the
temptation of believing that
evil has power, or is “real” in God's
kingdom, which "has come." We also affirm
the spiritual good
that God did make, and ask to be fed with this daily bread of
Truth.
We affirm our spiritual innocence and purity.
Christian Science and
Marriage:
Mary Baker Eddy offers an entire chapter on the subject
of “Marriage,” in the
textbook, Science and Health. The chapter contains
both practical and moral
advice to those who are seeking to improve
their concept of marriage and
family relationships. But tucked in-between
these helpful, down-to-earth comments,
will be found ideas and statements
meant to lift thought that is ready for it, to a
higher ideal of true
marriage. We can find in the teachings of Christian Science
the remedy
for that feeling we are somehow not complete, and need a mate to
make
us so. We learn that adultery is more than disloyalty to a human institution;
it is disloyalty to God and to our spiritual integrity.
Most Christian
religions see in the Bible’s words God’s blessing of marriage;
however,
Christian Science picks up on the message of Jesus to his disciples
as it was recorded in Luke:
“And Jesus answering said unto them, The
children of this world marry,
and are given in marriage: But they
which shall be accounted worthy to
obtain that world, and the resurrection
from the dead, neither marry, nor
are given in marriage.” (Luke 20:34-35)
While
Christian Science does not teach that its followers abandon marriage
at
this period, as it certainly provides for stability in homes and
families, we are
given indications throughout the writings of Mary
Baker Eddy, that Jesus meant
what he said. The question to ponder
then, is why does he say that?
Does God’s divine plan for man include
the human institution of marriage? We
get the first indication that
marriage may not ultimately be a divine requirement,
in this early
paragraph from the chapter “Marriage,” which has the marginal
heading
“marriage temporal.”
“Marriage is the legal and moral provision for
generation among human
kind. Until the spiritual creation is discerned
intact, is apprehended and
understood, and His kingdom is come as
in the vision of the Apocalypse,
— where the corporeal sense of creation
was cast out, and its spiritual
sense was revealed from heaven, —
marriage will continue, subject to
such moral regulations as will
secure increasing virtue.” (S&H 56)
It appears that as long as
mankind still believes in the need for human procreation,
marriage
will be needed to protect families. But the idea is introduced here
that
would indicate there will come a time when this human marriage
may no longer
be necessary. The question may then be asked:
where will future children come
from if marriage is no longer necessary? The
answer may be found through an
in-depth study of the textbook of Christian
Science -- Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures -- for an
explanation of the true nature of man as an infinite
reflection and
"image and likeness" of God, and how God is the only Creator of
man
and the universe. There will never be a shortage of God's children!
The
chapter on “Marriage,” introduces the concept that “completeness”
-- which
we usually hope to find in marriage -- does not come from
such a ceremony or
oath, but is rather a compound idea of
mental elements:
“Union of the masculine and feminine qualities constitutes
completeness.
The masculine mind reaches a higher tone through certain
elements of
the feminine, while the feminine mind gains courage and
strength through
masculine qualities. These different elements conjoin
naturally with each
other, and their true harmony is in spiritual
oneness. Both sexes should
be loving, pure, tender, and strong. The
attraction between native qualities
will be perpetual only as it is
pure and true, bringing sweet seasons of
renewal like the returning
spring.” (S&H 57)
Seeking for such spiritual qualities in a partner,
rather than superficial traits such
as money, looks, status, etc.,
is a more promising way to start a marriage. But,
we are also shown
an even higher spiritual outlook:
“Marriage should signify a union
of hearts. Furthermore, the time
cometh of which Jesus spake, when
he declared that in the resurrection
there should be no more marrying
nor giving in marriage, but man
would be as the angels. Then shall
Soul rejoice in its own, in which
passion has no part. Then white-robed
purity will unite in one person
masculine wisdom and feminine love,
spiritual understanding and
perpetual peace.” (S&H 64)
Is there
any Biblical authority for this idea? Mary Baker Eddy points us to
the
story of creation in Genesis. It is there we read:
“So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created he
him; male
and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:27)
We see in Genesis that
God has created man in His image. We learn in Christian
Science that
God must be both Father and Mother; otherwise, God could not
create
man both male and female. The divine Mind, or Spirit, must include
the
substance of that which He creates! But, was His “male and female”
divided into
two separate “genders”? Mrs. Eddy writes of the concept
of “gender”:
“Gender means a kind. Hence mankind — in other words,
a kind of man
who is identified by sex — is the material, so-called
man born of the flesh,
and is not the spiritual man, created by God,
Spirit, who made all that was
made.” (Miscellany 239)
“God determines
the gender of His own ideas. Gender is mental, not
material. . . Gender means
simply kind or sort, and does not necessarily
refer either to masculinity
or femininity. The word is not confined to
sexuality, and grammars
always recognize a neuter gender, neither
male nor female. The Mind
or intelligence of production names the
female gender last in the
ascending order of creation. The intelligent
individual idea, be it
male or female, rising from the lesser to the greater,
unfolds the
infinitude of Love.” (S&H 508)
The following words of Jesus are
part of the traditional Christian marriage
ceremony:
“What therefore
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Matt.19:6)
Was
Jesus referring only to the act of mortal men and women being joined
together, or was he suggesting something more spiritual?
Click here
to continue
Coming Up: Christian Science and Marriage continued; Dealing
with the
Temptation of Adultery; "Blessed are the merciful"; Divorce?
