"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
When I read about the plans of the Christian Science Monitor to change the format from a daily print-edition to the first newspaper to go fully online, I was thrilled. As I was thinking about this step, aspects of fear for the future of The Monitor or the question, whether this step was due to financial problems vanished quickly and gave way to a sense of joy and excitement. I was in awe at the far-sightedness and vision of the Board of Directors, and for their clarity and courage to take this decision as the first daily newspaper worldwide, I think.
In the months previous to this information I had visited The Monitor’s website nearly daily to follow world news and the American elections – and to read the daily article on Christian Science. I was very grateful for this companion, grateful to have access to this strengthening and encouraging, healing perspective on what is going on in the world right in the middle of a busy day. Often during my lunchbreak at work the visit to The Monitor’s website was like a gate out of everyday-life into the world, - and to a higher perspective. The ideas of the religious article often came in like a ray of sunlight and strengthened me to go on in my prayers about my daily business, to hold on to this perspective we gain in prayer, even when things seemed tough.
During that time a close family member was working for a humanitarian organisation in Darfur, a country, which is a bit “out of the public eye” of world news, which is part of the problem of dictatorship in that country. So I honestly appreciated the clear, unbiased way of reporting of the Christian Science Monitor. It wasn’t that the Monitor had so much more information about this specific country, but I was – and still am - so grateful for the feeling, that this newspaper still does embrace all mankind – by its exceptional amount of bureaus all over the world, but even more by its mission and attitude, “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind”. All mankind !!
I knew that no matter in what remote desert- or bush-area my family-member would dwell, the first thing they would do, was to set up radio- and satellite connections, so that they would be connected to “the world” – and the internet again and be able to communicate. And so were their local staff members and the people they came in touch with during their work. And this was just one little example. This thought gave me such a sense of interconnectedness, and of hope, even that countries won’t succeed forever in cutting off their people from information, and from that global family.
Talking to a practitioner about The Monitor’s plans to change the modes of publication, he added that Mary Baker Eddy would probably have been the first one to go on-line. After all she had founded The Monitor in order to lift thought and attitude in the fields of publishing and journalism of her time. And if we need that lifting anywhere today, it’s in all the aspects of publishing on the internet, its use and misuse! And once more I felt just quiet awe for the awareness and the connectedness to today’s needs which I felt behind the decisions made concerning The Monitor.