SECTION IX
Chapter 3. Christian Science

 "If God is all and God is good, it follows that all must be good; and no
   other power, law, or intelligence can exist.  On this proof rest premise
   and conclusion in Science, and the facts that disprove the evidence
   of the senses."

    --Mary Baker Eddy ("Science and the Senses", address at the National
     Convention in Chicago, June 13, 1888)



  Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), the founder of Christian Science, first
published her book SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH A KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES in Boston,
Massachusetts in 1875. Supporters hailed it as a revelation and as one of
the most influential works of the late nineteenth century. Critics maintained
that Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science was not really so novel--but was
instead a repackaging of:

  (1) early Christian mysticism,
  (2) Mesmer's pseudoscientific "animal magnetism", and
  (3) Hegelian philosophy

--admittedly into a new combination of beliefs forming a new doctrine.

  Christian Science became a powerful force in America in the nineteenth
century, around the same time when Mormonism and Millerism were gathering
momentum. It is probably not a coincidence that the anti-materialistic
views of the world were gaining popularity. (This was likely a reaction
against the new science and technological materialism--which was becoming
a powerful force of its own.)

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE--
as described by its Founder, Mary Baker Eddy

  Perhaps the best way to understand Christian Scientists, is to read
how the founder of the new sect, Mary Baker Eddy, described it herself.
The following are excerpts from Eddy's SCIENCE AND HEALTH, which define
the doctrinal basis of Christian Science:

  "In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of
  Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian Science...

  "My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed mind produces all the
   organism and action of the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new
   channels and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that Mind
   is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in Mind-science...

  " The theology of Christian Science includes healing the sick.  Our
  Master's [Jesus'] first article of faith propounded to his students was
  healing, and he proved his faith by his works.  The ancient Christians were
  healers.  Why has this element of Christianity been lost? Because our system
  of religion are governed more or less by our systems of medicine.  The
  first idolatry was faith in matter.  The schools have rendered faith in
  drugs the fashion, rather than faith in Deity. By trusting matter to destroy
  its own discord, health and harmony have been sacrifices.  Such systems are
  barren of the vitality of spiritual power, by which material sense is made
  the servant of Science and religion becomes Christ-like.

  "Material medicine substitutes drugs for the power of God--even the
  might of Mind--to heal the body...You say a boil is painful; but that is
  impossible, for matter without mind is not painful.  The boil simply
  manifests, through inflammation and swelling, a belief in pain, and this
  belief is called a boil.  Now administer mentally to your patient a high
  attenuation of truth, and it will soon cure the boil.  The fact that pain
  cannot exist where there is no mortal mind to feel it is a proof that this
  so-called mind makes its own pain--that is, its own belief in pain...

  "Disease arises, like other mental conditions, from association.  Since it
  is a law of mortal mind that certain diseases should be regarded as
  contagious, this law obtains credit through association,--calling up the
  fear that creates the image of disease and its consequent manifestation
  in the body.

  "This fact in metaphysics is illustrated by the following incident:  A
  man was made to believe that he occupied a bed where a cholera patient had
  died.  Immediately the symptoms of this disease appeared, and the man died.
  The fact was, that he had not caught the cholera by material contact, because
  no cholera patient had been in that bed."

Criticism of Christian Science

  Critics argue that Mary Baker Eddy was influenced by Quimby, a follower
of Mesmer's belief in animal magnetism. They point to the following
passages in her SCIENCE AND HEALTH book, and its references to the
term "animal magnetism" as proof:

  "Mortal mind, acting from the basis of sensation in matter is animal
  magnetism; but this so-called mind, from which comes all evil, contradicts
  itself, and must finally yield to the eternal Truth, or the divine Mind,
  expressed in Science.  In proportion to our understanding of Christian
  Science, we are freed from the belief of heredity, of mind in matter or
  animal magnetism; and we disarm sin of its imaginary power in proportion
  to our spiritual understanding of the status of immortal beings."

  In her autobiography, Mary Eddy described her miraculous cure--after
sustaining an injury from slipping on a street in 1866 in Lynn, Massachusetts.
According to her biographers, she had grown despondent from not having full
use of her limbs.  After several sessions with the Mesmerist Quimby,
his hypnotic-like commands and magnetic therapy reportedly completely cured
her.

   Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) described Mary Eddy's sessions with Quimby
in his book, MENTAL HEALERS, and then speculated that Mary Eddy's cure by
Quimby triggered her insight that led to Christian Science:

   "This spectacular cure [of Quimby] by purely mental means of a
  chronic affliction which the patient as well as her doctors considered
  organic and virtually incurable may have been the great turning point in
  Mary Baker Eddy's life.  It hit her with the impact of a sudden religious
  experience, carrying with it the illuminating insight that her illness--
  nay, illness in general--was due to psychological causes and to nothing
  else.  The surest way of conquering it therefore called for essentially
  psychological means.  More than that: if her illness (and illness in
  general) was solely in the mind, it was not a real illness--or rather,
  it was not real at all. Consequently, she reasoned, all that was needed was
  to convince the suffer from any disease of the unreality, the fictitious
  nature, of his affliction--and he would be cured.

  "Certainly, this was an unwarranted oversimplification of a highly
  complicated state of affairs--a wholly illicit exploitation of a grain of
  truth contained in her reasoning.  She did not say to herself, "I have
  been the victim of an incapacitating disease, largely imaginary in nature."
  She did not argue, "My legs only seemed to me to be paralyzed.  There
  was really nothing the matter with my locomotive system or with my spinal
  cord, and once I made a supreme effort to snap out of my inertia I was
  cured--or allowed myself to be cured by good old Dr. Quimby...

    Instead, Mrs. Eddy, barely able to stand on her feet, wasted from
  lack of exercise, literally jumped to a conclusion of staggering
  import.  In the blissful moment of her newly restored health, it became
  a "self-evident" truth to her that not only her illness, but all illnesses,
  regardless of their nature, were by matters of the mind, errors of man's
  misguided imagination.  They were, in effect, unreal, nonexistent, and
  could therefore be conquered by a mere act of will, like the one mustered
  by herself some time in October, 1862 (or was it in February, 1866) in her
  great moment of illumination." (as quoted by Jan Ehrenwald, MD, FROM
  MEDICINE MAN TO FREUD, Dell, 1956)

  Christian Scientists agree that Mrs. Eddy was treated by Quimby in 1862
and 1864, yet they insist that this had no impact on Mrs. Eddy's spiritual
beliefs

  Christian Science quickly grew into a powerful sect in the latter half
of the nineteenth century.  Mark Twain for one, feared that it would take
hold in the U.S., destroying all science and therefore civilization with
it.  Twain's fears did not materialize.--There are numerous other Christian
sects that have larger memberships than the Christian Scientists--and
(most of them) do NOT share the antagonist views of Christian Scientists
towards medicine and medical treatment.

Christian Science and the Medical Profession.

  Christian Scientists DO have success stories, such as the case of
Mary Baker Eddy herself! However, as is true with faith-healing--most
individuals that were "cured" would be considered by the medical profession
to be suffering from MENTALLY-related illnesses and conditions (ie
headaches, depression & fatigue, hysteria, etc) as opposed to PHYSICAL
conditions, such as one caused by an infectious disease or serious
bodily injury.

   I was once told about a distant relative of mine, who was a Christian
Scientist. Then, she had an appendicitis attack (definitely an example of a
physically-related disease). Luckily for her, her family forced her to
go to the hospital where she was operated on and later recovered.  She
later converted into another Christian denomination. Not surprisingly there
are other cases, though, where there was NO happy ending.

A Story with a "Tragic" Ending

  Truly one of the most tragic cases comes from a couple of EX-Christian
Scientists named Doug and Rita Swan. The Swans knew that their 1 1/2 year
old son, Matthew was very sick.--  However, when they contacted a
church spiritual healer to pray for him, they were told that Matthew's
illness had occurred as God's punishment (because Rita had earlier broke
down in obtaining an operation for an ovarian cyst.)

  Despite the healing sessions with her son, Matthew became sicker--and
his condition deteriorated into terrible fevers and convulsions.  Rita
Swan, not knowing what to do, feared the consequences of disobeying the
healer and taking her son to the doctor:

  "They say it's your fault if the religion doesn't work.  They even told us
  that our fears were holding up the healing.  They stripped us of our
  normal parental instinct by saying that our fears showed a lack of faith."

  After 12 days of intense suffering, the church leader agreed that Matthew
could be taken to a doctor to examine his bones. (Christian Scientists DO
allow the use of doctors for resetting broken bones.) The news they heard
at the hospital was to break their hearts.--For the doctors there
told them that Matthew had meningitis (an inflammation within the brain/spinal
chord resulting usually from a bacterial infection.)  They told her that he
could have been easily cured if only he had been brought in earlier.
Matthew died in the hospital days later.

  In the meantime, the Christian Science faith-healer ("practitioner") had
become angered that the Swans had sought medical attention.  The church
congregation refused to even pray for Matthew during this time because of
his parents' perceived "sin" of taking him to the doctor. From the Swans'
point of view, their church had abandoned them in their greatest hour of
need.  Compounded by the horror of their son's death, the Swans were
devastated with guilt, due to their own passive role in it.

   The Swans never returned to the Christian Science church after their
son's death. (They later converted to be Methodists). To combat her mental
anguish from her great loss, Rita Swan went public --and founded an
organization named CHILD (Children's Health Care Is a Legal Duty)
dedicated towards "combating inhumane religious practices that affect
children."

  The organization helps vent some of their rage at the Christian Science
church, but of course it can never bring them back their son.  According
to Rita Swan:

  "Matthew's death is still a very big part of our lives.  He would have
  been a teenager now.  He would have been doing all kinds of things.  Every
  once in a while you run into little slippers tucked into your dresser
  drawers, and suddenly it was the death of a fluffy-haired baby who
  trusted you for everything.  Then it becomes that raw kind of grief.
  Doug and I are very much aware of him at Christmas."
  (Roger Rosenblatt, "A Woman at Christmas", LIFE, December 1990, p43)


  Of course, not all people would agree with the Swans.  Rita Swan's own
parents, for example, have remained loyal Christian Scientists throughout
her ordeal. Rita and her parents have accepted that it is best not to
discuss certain topics with each other.  Therefore when she and her
parents converse, they are both careful to NEVER talk about the Christian
Science church.