How prayer can change the "culture" of government

Many governments around the world seem constantly to be in a state of flux. Even in stable and democratically governed societies, leaders on the local and national level may change every few years with new elections.

Yet under the surface, there often seems to be a “culture” of government that can resist change, even positive and necessary change. Bureaucracies sometimes become so entrenched, not only with long-term personnel but with narrow ways of thinking and acting, that the changeover of elective officials may have little direct impact on how government responds to the people’s will.

This has often proved frustrating when important issues need attention, whether they have to do with things like national security and defense, the economy, health care, the environment, or day-to-day basic services in a community. Such an entrenched “culture” of government can make it difficult to implement broad policies or even to fill a simple pothole in a neighborhood street.

A central question is: What is really needed to make a difference in how government operates and how it responds to the people it’s intended to serve? To find an answer to this question, one might also ask if it’s fundamentally a wholesale change in personnel that’s needed in every instance.

In other words, do all the hard-working civil servants need to be replaced each time there’s new political leadership? Or is it rather that there needs to be more willingness to pursue new ideas and fresh courses of action, even if government workers who continue in their positions from one administration to another have different political views?

To me, it’s more important to foster the willingness to change one’s way of thinking in positive and constructive ways, and thereby change for the better the way people perform their individual duties and responsibilities. After all, what we do, how we perform, is invariably the outcome of what and how we’re thinking.

This brings up a point that is not often considered in public discussions or debate about how to develop more efficient systems of government and create real change. It’s the potential of prayer.

Many think of prayer as only appropriate to their personal lives and spiritual progress. Yet a growing number of people are discovering that prayer also has a proper and significant role in the larger issues of society and the world. Why, after all, shouldn’t one feel free to pray about one’s government and even to expect results from this prayer?

Here I’m not talking about a narrow prayer that may be motivated by an individual’s political persuasions or personal bias on how a government should function. People’s prayers can be bigger than that, more unselfish, more embracing.

I’ve found that a good place to start with my own prayers is from the simple standpoint of consciously endeavoring to give up any willful position I may be holding about how something should be resolved.

Turning to God with a heartfelt “Thy will be done” sets one’s prayer on the right course. And that word heartfelt takes on another dimension when I consider that for progress in good government, a change of thinking is necessarily going to be as much a proposition of the heart as the intellect. Real progress includes humility, and the recognition that God is the source of every good, right and productive idea for governing people’s lives.

This makes me think of an account in the Bible’s Old Testament that offers an excellent example of how government can aspire to become the best it can be. It depicts the time when Solomon had just taken over the reins of government as the newly appointed king of his people.

The Bible tells us that Solomon loved God, and when he heard God’s message asking what he would most want God to do for him, Solomon didn’t hesitate to respond. With the great possibility set before him of asking God for anything whatsoever, Solomon asked for wisdom.

He said: “I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?”

The Bible reports that Solomon’s words pleased God. “And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart.”

God blessed Solomon’s answer because it was, first and foremost, unselfish. It placed the interests of Solomon’s people above his own.

The prayer that seeks a wise and an understanding heart “to discern judgment” is a powerful prayer. And from the standpoint of Christian Science, this kind of prayer confirms that everyone has the capacity to discern what is right and good, what is directed by God, what will truly bless others and promote progress.

Each individual, from the highest elected official to the thousands of civil servants working in governments around the world, actually has the same source of intuition, intelligence and discernment.

This is because our real nature as sons and daughters of God is to express the Mind that created us. We are God’s ideas—the outcome of infinite Mind and divine Principle. And prayer based on such spiritual facts holds up a divine standard that helps to counteract egotism or selfishness, stagnation or inertia, which so often present themselves as models of human government.

More and more, as men and women uphold a divine standard, a different model of government is defined—a model which makes a difference.

In her central work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy provided a comprehensive outline of how God’s laws govern every activity of His creation. And she brought these divine laws directly to bear on human experience.

She affirmed, for example: “God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love.”

In another of her writings, Mrs. Eddy observed: “Mankind will be God-governed in proportion as God’s government becomes apparent, the Golden Rule utilized, and the rights of man and the liberty of conscience held sacred” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 222).

Jesus included the Golden Rule in his Sermon on the Mount. This sermon provides fundamental direction on how each individual can live in harmony with God’s government. Jesus said, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”

Doesn’t this provide an inspired framework for individual prayers, as well as inspired guidance for every political leader and government worker, from presidents and prime ministers to town clerks and property assessors?

This is not a naive prayer or a hopelessly idealistic outlook on life and government. Rather, utilizing the Golden Rule and holding sacred each person’s rights and freedom of conscience provides the essence of both good living and good government. It could literally change the very culture of government in our world today.

Bill Moody is a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science who lives in West Tisbury, Massachusetts.

We appreciate your feedback and support. Please share your thoughts and comments about this   article.
* Name:
* Email:
* Confirm Email:
Your message:
* Designates a required field. By submitting to the site, you agree to the site's Terms of Service. All submissions may be used by spirituality.com as described in the Terms of Service.

Printer friendly