Tom McElroy grew up in California where he attended a Christian Science Sunday school. His parents occasionally went to church, too, but let him make his own choices with regards to his spiritual practice.
He recalls an incident during his first year at university when he got very sick and spent two weeks in the on-campus care facility. “Up to that point, I’d been pursuing a career path that promised very surface levels of success,” he told me during a recent interview. “I didn’t realize how unhappy I was until I asked someone to pray with me, and they commented that if I got better, I didn’t have to go back to how I’d been doing things.” That turned out to be a defining moment, and he soon found himself well. “What that comment did was take away fears I didn’t even realize were there, and got me looking in a new and deeper direction. As I explored my relationship to God, my career path opened up and provided me with many inspiring opportunities.”
Going forward, Tom became interested in other cultures and he took a spiritual perspective with him when to travelled to France, Belize, Vietnam, China and Tibet for study abroad programs. During these years, and in many subsequent global travels, he feels he’s witnessed many proofs of God’s care for our diverse global family. This led him to become a prison chaplain when he returned home, where he shared Christian Science perspectives with inmates and at-risk youth.
Tom now works as a Christian Science practitioner and is a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Victoria is sponsoring his online talk titled, “Spiritual Discovery: How You Can Better the World.” It’s being hosted on Sunday, April 10th at 2:00 pm Pacific time, and you can access it by visiting
Here are a few highlights from my conversation with Tom.
MJ: Your upcoming lecture is titled “Spiritual Discovery: How to better the world.” What do you mean by “spiritual discovery?”
TM: Today, many think of spirituality as positive thinking, or even in some cases as downright ignorance. Yet the spirituality that’s talked about in the Bible – it’s not just in your head. There’s something actually present that Jesus, his students, and the Hebrew prophets were picking up on. They didn’t invent it.
This is what lies at the core of any discovery: a person encounters a set of laws or a truth that already exists, and it changes their views in actionable ways. For example, people have always been equal, yet at times not everyone has been perceived or treated that way. The gradual realization that people are equal has been happening because of a kind of discovery—people understanding more and more that equality is true regardless of a belief system—and as this mental shift has taken place there have been positive implications for our society.
Spiritual discovery works the same way. It’s a perception of life based in the nature of an all-good God that shifts our perspective in actionable ways.
MJ: How can an individual discovery better the world?
TM: I’ve always loved that Gandhi quote: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Like with the issue of equality, our views of God affect our views of others and of what is normal and natural. Our spiritual views impact our expectations for goodness and progress in the world, including in the day-to-day stuff—even in regard to our health and well-being. God’s nature is the “Principle” behind this spiritual cause and effect relationship. And the more informed our views are by God’s nature, by divine Love, the more our lives will become a kind of proof of the change that is possible everywhere.
We also see this pattern in the Bible. When Jesus or the prophets encountered some kind of problem, a mental shift often took place that had implications for their lives. Moses found food and water in the desert where initially there didn’t seem to be any. Jesus loved and reformed the unlovable, healed the sick, and showed many people a path forward when it looked like there wasn’t one. They gave us examples of what can happen when we lean on these spiritual discoveries.
The primary book on Christian Science, by , explores the Bible’s application to our lives and this concept of spiritual discovery in depth.
MJ: When I think about improving the world, what often comes to mind is the word “activism.” There are so many different types, and they obviously mean different things to different people. How would you define “spiritual activism”?
TM: It’s worth saying that many people see spirituality as a cop out—like the overused phrase “thoughts and prayers”—and they don’t want to hear about it anymore.
Having said that, I spoke in Washington a couple blocks from the White House during the women’s march on the Mall, one year after Donald Trump’s election. Many people who are active in government and NGOs, and from differing political perspectives, attended the lecture because of their interest in this topic. An indication, perhaps, that thoughtful and engaged people can find some benefit from spiritual perspectives.
For me, spiritual activism starts with whatever kind of prayer helps take a step back from surface appearances and opinions, and tunes us into a bigger sense of God’s nature. This kind of prayer must include qualities of humility and a hunger for universal goodness—it opens up to more of what’s normal and progressive. It should also lead to action. Some of that can be quiet action in my own thoughts—affirmations of God’s power and presence. But it can also lead to outward actions, actions that can be far more effective when directed by divine Love, a higher intelligence.
For example, praying to see our enemies as God’s children, and to embrace them with love in constructive ways, can have a profound healing effect.
MJ: Can you give me an example?
TM: Sure. Here’s a really simple one. A couple weeks ago we had an issue with a neighbour who nobody on our street seemed to like. One of their trees fell on our, and another neighbour’s property, and it seemed there was going to be a long and drawn-out conflict about it. But my wife and I decided to pray about it, making the effort to understand and value this neighbour’s needs and to see them more as God sees them—as expressing qualities of reason, flexibility, kindness, etc. At times, it seemed like there was an intractable wedge between us. But before long, a resolution was agreed upon that blessed everyone. We even made a new friend!
MJ: One can’t help but wonder how that way of thinking might apply to the situation in Ukraine right now.
TM: It’s hard to offer a sound bite response to that, but here’s a relevant thought that might help. Truth is highly contagious. When the USSR broke up, it was because new ideas about justice were spreading among key members of Russia’s leadership. And, I think, even more importantly, fearlessness and a sense of the unstoppableness of what was right was spreading among the people in countries which we now consider part of Eastern Europe. As people demanded what was right, and what was unjust was seen to be ultimately a baseless fabrication, autocracies crumbled in rapid sequence—most in bloodless revolutions. Truth is not weak. And those who look beyond the surface and bear witness to the presence and power of divine Truth everywhere, in everyone—seeing the world’s evils as ultimately rooted in falsity—I think are best equipped to help contribute to healing change.
MJ: When you look around the globe at other apparent problems, it can feel overwhelming knowing where and how to start. How can our prayers be effective when it comes to big issues like climate change?
TM: First, I think approaching the problem from a spiritual perspective can make us feel more filled up and cared for—that there’s a force for good in the world, giving us what we need. We start to see there’s a larger intelligence guiding us to potential solutions, and even transforming hearts where necessary. We’re putting our mental raft in the moving water of divine Love, so to speak, which can help to resolve burnout and fear in people who want to do good but may feel overwhelmed.
That’s where humility in prayer comes in, too. It’s not merely looking at what we already know about how to solve a problem. It’s about acknowledging God’s omnipotence, and allowing ourselves to be directed to innovative solutions. The inspired reformers in the Bible didn’t know how every problem would be solved, but they had the justified conviction that by turning to God a solution would be found.
Matt Jackson has been fascinated by how science and religion relate to each other for as long as he can remember. He is a member of the Christian Science church in Victoria, BC, and has been a professional writer and editor for 27 years.
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking, HERE: /blogs/spiritually-speaking
