Finding Community Without Conformity

As social creatures, we crave interaction with each other. As spiritual beings, we know our spiritual practice depends on our individual, solo connection with the Divine. How do we balance the two?

In the December 2022 Science of Mind magazine, Rev. Dr. Jesse Jennings writes, “In Science of Mind, we teach spiritual practice. Our philosophy is that the Divine Presence is within each of us, and our religious doctrine, if we must call it that, is to deliberately connect with that Presence through meditation, prayer/treatment and related activities and techniques.

“Spiritual practice is individually accomplished. … Yet the learning about spiritual practice mostly occurs in group settings, like classes and such. One thing I've always enjoyed about these activities is that although they are technically indoctrinations, they don't enforce ideological conformity. Nobody is made to go sit in the hall if they miss a treatment step or can't explain inductive reasoning. Any conformity or cohesion is voluntary.

“We are a gathering of like minds, and minds are free to change.”

Jennings goes on to define community as a feeling, as a collective memory. He writes, “Community is dreaming, and dreams are real, especially the waking ones.”

Rejecting Antisemitism in Our Communities

In recent weeks, celebrities sharing antisemitism tropes and encouraging retaliation against Jewish people found themselves being rejected by the companies that supported them, the fans they counted on and the public who scorned them. But is that enough?

Early in the 20th century, newspapers, books and radio programs offered rampant antisemitic to the American public. And it was against this backdrop that Chicago attorney Sigmund Livingston created an organization — The Anti Defamation League — whose mission is “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.”

The ADL understands that “the fight against one form of prejudice cannot succeed without battling prejudice in all forms.” To that end, the organization offers resources to help educate communities and organizations on antisemitism. The materials help participants understand the roots of antisemitism, what it looks like today and how to include this awareness in your own settings.

The free, online resource,  “Stand Up Against Antisemitism in the Workplace: Why Addressing Jewish Concerns as a Part of DEI Is Essential,” can be adapted to your specific setting as we join together to create communities free of antisemitism and prejudice in all its forms.

Give Thanks and Praise the Increase

By Ernest Holmes

There is a Divine Presence at the center of things that responds to us, and It ought to be so real that we feel it everywhere, in everyone and in every situation. Our starting point is to believe this, not as a theory or an idle dream, but as something to be recognized and entered into, here and now.

Jesus recognized God as the Supreme Presence in the universe — not only outside people, but within them. He approached life and people as though this were true. And because he did, his life became a miracle. Everything he touched sprang into a newness of being. He didn't condemn the few loaves and fish the little boy brought to him, but looking up to heaven, he gave thanks for their increase.

Are you and I giving thanks and praising the increase? Are we gratefully acknowledging the good we wish to experience? Or are we condemning the little things in our lives so the good cannot multiply in our hands? After all, it is really the little things that count. For just as minutes run into hours, and hours run into days, and days into years, and years fill up our lives, so it is that the little things that transpire from moment to moment really decide what our lives are to be and to become. …

Let's you and I see if we cannot become as little children. It is natural for us to believe. It is natural for us to dance with joy and enter into the rhythm of life with happiness.

—Excerpted from the November 2022 Science of Mind magazine

...more