After reading the column in The New York Times January 1 on the topic of slavery in Cambodia, as well as Nicholas Kristof's follow-up in today's paper, have been thinking a lot about freedom. So many thoughts crowd in. To stay on young girls being enslaved, of course that's an enormous subject for discussion, greed and lust being at the root of so much of what is going on. And certainly something we Christian Scientists can have a healing effect on world-wide given all the Discoverer and Founder of our religion brings out on overcoming sin in ourselves and others.
But to go off in another direction right now, am so grateful for this blog which opens up to me and commenters on this blog the opportunity to express what we feel without worrying about someone or someones on high (note the small "s") censoring what we say, or exacting retribution for sincere opinions. Glorious freedom we thank God for!
What I'm focusing on now is what led that Times reporter I've mentioned to do a follow-up column since many of the hundreds of comments he received from men (not surprising) intimated that the girls led that kind of life voluntarily. Implied was this: they are only women, after all. What do you expect? Probably some do go into prostitution voluntarily, but I suspect, not out of looking for a good time, but out of economic necessity.
But thinking of how women are disregarded (and even American women understand this all too well) couldn't help being grateful for all that the Discoverer and Founder of my religion stood up to and overcame. To do what Mary Baker Eddy did--in a long skirt, in her day!-- was nothing short of amazing. Showed how God-sustained she was. And that time when she was founding an international daily newspaper and some of the men around her acted as though they wanted to give her a pat on the head and say, let us superior beings make the decision. Lord save us!
And on a personal note, cannot thank God enough I have Christian Science which has done wonderful things for me in this department. Years ago when I was appointed by The Christian Science Board of Directors as one of the Trustees of Chestnut Hill Benevolent Association outside Boston, have to smile now at something that happened at almost the first meeting. There we were assembled around a board table and one of the men who shall remain nameless leaned around one of his colleagues and said out loud, "Well they have you here as decoration for sure."!!!!!! Of course, implied in this statement was the feeling that the men in the group were superior at running things.
Lastly, on the topic of being free, want to express my thanks for Christian Science for the deliverance from bodily difficulties I have experienced. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is this from the woman who wrote the book. Mrs. Eddy writes: "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."
"The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the sensual, the sinner,I wished to save from the slavery of their own beliefs..." Page 226)
And at the top of this very page, she speaks of "a world-wide slavery, found on higher planes of existence and under more subtle and depraving forms."
Now, since this is an active blog and you all like to participate, I'd love to hear your thoughts on just what she may have been alluding to here. I have some idea though have not had time to think it through completely. So give me your ideas on her timely words.
