A shining light

The author of Commitment to Freedom, our book for October, 2016, is Erwin Canham, for many years editor of The Christian Science Monitor. On a personal note, I remember a little column Canham wrote on the Forum Page of the Monitor. My memory is mostly of people finding pen-pals all over the world. I had a couple in the US, and Marie, my daughter, had one in Korea. It was perhaps a sort of advice/ethics/Q&A column. It was light-hearted. For example: “Q. Why do we start to read a magazine from the back?  A. Perhaps it is something to do with being right-handed.”

Readers may be interested in the following excerpt from an interview - An Interview with Erwin Canham by ROBERT L. GATES, from the May 1975 issue of The Christian Science Journal.

Half a century of distinguished service to The Christian Science Monitor has brought Erwin D Canham international recognition as one of the world's foremost journalists. Decorated by seven foreign governments and appointed to various commissions and boards by American presidents...he holds honorary degrees from twenty-eight colleges and universities and is a much-sought-after adviser to many leaders in public life. In all his affiliations...he is clearly identified as a Christian Scientist. For many years he has taught a college-age Sunday School class in The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.

I'm sure in your many travels you've considered from a spiritual point of view the safety of yourself and your family. Would you mind sharing some of the thoughts you find most helpful?

I do indeed consciously work for protection. If I'm going on a journey, say by air, I seek to purify and affirm the motives of the journey and the enterprise involved. I find solid support in Mrs. Eddy's statement, "Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action." 2 Motivation has to be honest and impersonal. Taking a journey, I strive to discern in it the opportunity for service to others—the motivation which establishes its rightness. Then I feel a deep sense of protection, of safety. In addition, like so many others, I think specifically about my personal dwelling place "in the secret place of the most High." 3  And always I feel that "underneath are the everlasting arms." 4  I remember and affirm that each person connected with the enterprise or journey is governed by Mind, God. This truth of God's government embraces the whole system, including the aircraft in which we fly. The persons who make decisions regarding our aircraft, its handling, its control, are all individually reflecting the one Mind, supreme intelligence, which holds all of us in its grip. They have the capacity to act wisely, swiftly, rightly. This eliminates the phenomenon of "human error" which is so often related to accidents.

Of all the important lessons you've learned about communicating with people and maintaining harmonious relationships, is there, perhaps, one significant thought on this you'd like to share with us?

Yes. Always discern, affirm, and love the other person's true selfhood as the child of God. Respect for his precious and inviolate spiritual heritage is the best conceivable basis for good human relations. To communicate we must, above all, listen. Listen to God, and listen to our brother man. The ear is just as powerful a communications device as the voice—maybe more so!

Gal. 6:3↑   ² Science and Health, p. 454↑   ³ Ps 91:1↑   ⁴ Deut. 33:27↑   ⁵ Science and Health, p. 584↑   ⁶ Ps. 90:4↑   ⁷ Science and Health, p. 486↑

 

The following appreciation of Erwin D. Canham was written by the Monitor's former managing editor and Washington bureau chief, Saville R. Davis. JANUARY 4, 1982 (http://www.csmonitor.com/1982/0104/010436.html):

At morning news conferences, when the day's paper was planned, he would often pour out good-humored, and sometimes hilarious, accounts of his travels in the realms of politics and journalism, where he had been representing the Monitor and picking up new information and analysis from his personal friends in high offices.

Amongst all the online information about Erwin Canham is a transcript of his diary while he was Plebiscite Commissioner (at the request of President Gerald Ford), and later Trust Territory Resident Commissioner, in the Marianas, during which time the Marianas people voted on becoming part of the Commonwealth of the United States. There is also an interview with Canham's widow Patience (Sue) about the whole episode.

Additionally, there is an exchange of letters between Canham and the Librarian, Mrs. Jacob, at the Maine State Library. As Canham was a native of Maine, the Librarian wished to have all of his published books on the library's shelves. A delightful turn of phrase is noted in one letter, “I am happy to send you an inscribed copy of my latest collaboration (“The Christian Science Way of Life” by DeWitt John, with “A Christian Scientist's Life” by Canham). You are awfully nice to want it.”

I do not have it to hand, but there is a book about all the editors of the Monitor from the beginning to the date of printing. Of course, Canham's contribution is chronicled there.

Yes. I will read the book!

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Mr Gates posed many interesting questions in the interview mentioned above! They covered topics such as accomplishment – getting things done; humility and self-respect; retirement and service; the state of the affairs of the world; uplifting consciousness; and, the role of youth.

Among his responses, I especially enjoyed these:

“People everywhere are spiritually hungry. Formal religion—the organized churches— are in considerable disarray. Some futurologists forecast their dwindling, if not disappearance. But the need and craving for religion persists. It's stronger than ever.

“The world needs a better and more precise and substantive understanding of the meaning of God: the kind of definition and conceptualization of God contributed by Mrs. Eddy from her study of the Bible.”

About youth:

“Our gaze should be directed ahead, not backward. This applies to all of us. I have no different attitude toward youth than toward everybody.”

“Many of us need to see that people in the more academic phase of their experience are being subjected to and invigorated by very challenging thoughts, discoveries, analyses. Some of these may be highly critical in their approach to religion, including Christian Science. If we are to communicate with people in schools, universities, or other academic situations, we must understand what they are talking about. This may require diligent effort on our part—wide reading and discussion not just within the ambit of Christian Science. But this is refreshing and invigorating for all of us, giving added depth and strength to our focused religious study.”