The renowned scholar, rabbi, and civil rights activist Abraham Joshua Heschel described marching with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., as “praying with my legs.” The spiritual love and conviction that flows from prayer was an impelling force behind the civil rights movement and is still at work in today’s efforts to heal societal racism. Like our fellow Christians and many other people of faith, Christian Scientists uphold the recognition of the image of God in everyone as basic to healing racism—and basic to all genuinely prophetic Christian witness. As one of the Freedom Riders who later became a Christian Scientist put it, “That was something I remember—you cannot hate, you cannot hold this person in error. You’ve got to see them for who they are. They don’t know it, maybe, but they’re God’s children too” (Pauline Knight-Ofosu, quoted in Eric Etheridge’s Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders).
The resources listed below reflect this conviction. The Christian Science Monitor, published by the Church of Christ, Scientist, has reported on issues relating to racism since the earliest years of the civil rights movement. The denomination’s religious publications, including the monthly Christian Science Journal and weekly Christian Science Sentinel, have addressed these issues from a spiritual perspective through many decades in articles that share how people have prayed, how they have been inspired and often humbled through Christ and in the Holy Spirit, and the actions they have taken as a result, to bring healing of racism in their individual experience.
The sampling of recent articles included here, first from The Christian Science Monitor and then from the Christian Science Sentinel, are offered as resources to help readers of all faith backgrounds to “keep watch,” in the way Jesus instructed, over trends and events that need and deserve their powerful witness and prayer.
If you have questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact our church’s ecumenical and interfaith representative.
Amanda Kiser
Lead Representative for Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs
The First Church of Christ, Scientist
210 Massachusetts Ave. Boston, MA.
Email: ecumenical@csps.com
Phone: 617-450-3321