"In every land and in every age, there was never an individual unfolded into preeminent manhood, but through the noble ordeal of self-immolation. He or she must have renounced individual choice in the interest of universal principles.
He must have been just in reverence for justice, true for truth’s sake, and virtuous because he was pure. The only way into that eminent domain of character, where Principle [God] rules a man, is by self-surrender." (attributed to Mary Baker Eddy, "Essays and Other Footprints")
This is another way of saying: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount)
Universal principle. Can't escape it by hiding in a church, nor by running away from Christianity, nor by clinging to any other 'ism or self-identity. Why would we run away from that which is in our best interests, from that for which we were designed in the first place, spiritual man, the image, reflection of God?