Kathy and I had a few hours in the afternoon before I had to lecture, so we walked around the city to see some of the main sights.
It was a delight to walk around the inner core of Liverpool for cars have been banished from the streets. The place is very pedestrian friendly with thousands of people walking to and fro, all doing important things, I’m sure…
Sidewalks and buildings are built here to last, centuries, I think. People in Europe seem to think in much longer terms than we Americans who have such a short history, comparatively.
Down to the wharf we hiked only to stumble across the Museum of Slavery, which intrigued me. It was a sobering exhibit on the cost of slavery to people on both sides of the horror, with especial note of the African trade to the Americas in the 18th and 19th century.
Here’s a few quotes engraved on the walls that caught my attention.
The above had special meaning to me as a student of Christian Science. Jesus taught, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This command is not just a nicety to be observed when one feels like it. It’s a requirement for salvation. To find eternal life one needs to get so “out of himself,” into the Spirit, that selfishness no longer reigns. When truly walking in the footsteps of Christ, one is no longer thinking in terms of “What can I get for myself.” One is thinking in terms of “Where is God leading me today? What good can I do for my neighbor today?” It equals selfless living.
As I read the above quote, I thought, “Yep, the freedom I help others find, I find for myself.” One cannot walk by a suffering neighbor, think “O poor soul,” and not be bound in some degree by the same lie. What you hold in thought as true about your neighbor, you hold in thought to be true about everyone, including yourself. The moral and spiritual demand is to break that bondage for your neighbor, set them free, and thus keep one’s own thinking free from the same lie too.
Here’s another quote along the same line of thought…
“The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being.” Mary Baker Eddy
“I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servitude to an unreal master in the belief that the body governed them, rather than Mind.” Eddy
“I saw that the law of mortal belief included all error, and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mortals are taught their right to freedom, so the claims of the enslaving senses must be denied and superseded.” Eddy
“Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: “Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death!” Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the “glorious liberty of the children of God,” and be free! This is your divine right.” Eddy
It takes consecrated effort, diligent work and persistent prayer to conquer the lies of mortal mind that would bind the human mind to suffering and sickness. But the effort is worth it. The demand to come out and be free must be heeded. We cannot wait for it to happen. The oppressor is not working fervently to let you go. Quite the opposite. The oppressor must be faced fearlessly, denied any claim to power, and walked away from. We need to demand our rights to freedom as children of God and stand confident in them. Mortal mind will not help.
Am I ever glad you were led to that museum, Evan.
Don’t you think these wonderful thoughts must apply to a less recognized form of enslavement: that of animals?
Do you see mortal mind oppressing our thoughts to the point where we end up unintentionally exploiting, instead of wholeheartedly cherishing and protecting, the individual divine ideas within infinite man who God calls His creatures?
Animals cannot be BOTH physical commodities for consumption and spiritual ideas whose usefulness lies in the qualities they express, can they? If the former, then they can be physically and mentally dominated … but if the latter, then they are subject only to man reflecting the dominion of Life, Truth, and Love, right?
(I’m asking the questions rhetorically, because I don’t believe it’s helpful or humble to sound like I think I have all the answers!)
We can’t have it both ways, can we? Don’t we have to decide between respecting and protecting Mind’s “lesser” ideas and falling for mammon’s lusts?
Perhaps you will agree that this sentence by Mary Baker Eddy is as clear-cut as she was able to get on the subject: “Christian Science gives neither the moral right nor might to harm either man or beast.”
In fact, the quote you cited “…so the claims of the enslaving senses must be denied and superseded” seems to say the same thing. The “enslaving senses” surely include an addiction to flesh, conditioned by one’s cultural traditions and by the advertising a.k.a. programming done by those in the “fleshpot” and “milk-and-egg-stealing” businesses and the media.
So, wouldn’t one happy way to free ourselves from the bondage of oppression be by standing up for our little animal brothers and sisters and saying, “Nope, you dope, mortal mind, you will NOT trick me into demeaning and demoralizing a beloved aspect of my perfect selfhood: the creatures in my consciousness. I’m in the liberating profession, not the tyrannizing and dominating and greed and gluttony industry.”
Glorious liberty to us ALL!