Sam Cooke’s civil rights anthem, “A Change is Gonna Come,” is a timeless classic. I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing it weren’t so timeless a classic. When the song was released during the civil rights era in the United States, it was a bold statement of the social problems being faced at the time, interlaced with the singer’s heartfelt hope. Why, almost 60 years later, aren’t we joyfully singing, “The change has come and it’s permanent!”
Of course, it’s right to be grateful for the hard-won progress made during and since the civil rights era. But the change Mr. Cooke was hoping for clearly hasn’t been fully realized; many obstacles to racial equality remain.
Empathy is a good starting point, but it can’t be the endpoint of our caring for one another. We need to act in ways that make a difference. That includes identifying and consenting to practical steps we need to take – and then taking them. It also demands that we watch what perception of ourselves and our neighbors we are holding in thought, because there’s more to each of us than is detected on the surface.
We each have a God-given identity that is spiritual, made in God’s, Spirit’s, likeness. This is what Jesus proved in his healings recorded in the Scriptures. This spiritual identity isn’t just one aspect of a selfhood that also includes a material form and temporal history, but is actually the whole of what we each truly are as God’s cherished offspring.
When we understand that this is our true existence and recognize that the source of everyone’s spiritual identity is the one Father-Mother God, we see that our coexistence with one another is a fully formed spiritual equality that was, is, and always will be unshakable. This is how divine Love, God, knows and cherishes us all – as a harmonious, spiritual family, all equally endowed and loved by God.
It is the very truth of this underlying spiritual equality that urges tangible change. And one way we can each play a part in forwarding this goal is by asking ourselves, “What expectations am I consenting to? Am I resigned to the seeming intransigence of entrenched attitudes? Or am I accepting that in the light of an understanding of God’s power to change lives, even long-held prejudices can lose their seeming obstinacy?”
The source of that obstinacy is pinpointed in the Bible as “the carnal mind.” This carnal, or mortal, mind is a supposed opposite to the divine Mind or God, and a seeming influence over us that we really do not want to consent to. This material mentality is the underlying foe of progress. It claims to operate in all our thoughts – whether as racism, selfishness, apathy, or a resignation to evil’s appearance of being immovable. But none of these mental outlooks constitute our true nature as the expression of infinite Mind, God.
To contribute to genuine progress, then, it’s not enough to simply acknowledge God’s goodness and our spiritual nature as children of God, although that’s certainly a good starting point for prayer. We need to consent to the actual truth of these all-embracing spiritual ideas, and therefore become conscious of the untruth of opposite mental states that have fueled the history of racism and that prop up its perpetuation.
People in all walks of life have experienced the power of spiritually understanding what is and isn’t true about everyone’s relationship to God. Rereading several such accounts recently inspired me to consider how we can do a better job of consenting to God’s authority.
For instance, if we read such accounts, do we accept that it’s natural for a prayerful, spiritual perception of ourselves and others to forestall or reverse experiences of racism? When a Black friend shared his confidence in relying on the practicality of God’s love in this regard, I realized that I was harboring doubts that God’s love would be sufficient in such circumstances. I wrestled with this lack of faith that I had in God’s goodness until I grasped the spiritual idea that Mind is all-powerful, and that therefore mortal mind isn’t the power it seems to be.
It takes commitment and consistency, but whenever our thoughts yield to divine Truth, it does more than bring a personal sense of peace. It also acts like a light shining into collective human consciousness, supporting the thought that is reaching for a higher and more dependable means of safety for all.
To consistently give prayerful consent to the divine reality that overrules mortal mind’s claims is to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and stand for all humanity’s right to freedom, fulfillment, and equity. In this way, people of all races and cultures can play a powerful part in helping transform Sam Cooke’s “Change is Gonna Come” from an anthem of hope to a prophecy come true.
Adapted from an editorial published in the Aug. 17, 2020, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
