TruthBook Religious News Blog

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.

March 11, 2009

One heartbreaking aspect of the killing of the pastor in a Maryville, Ill., church last Sunday is that it happened in a church during a service – a place and time of refuge. It leaves one asking, Is there no time that is sacred, is there no place that is truly safe?

As meaningful as our places of worship may be, they are not the bulwarks of safety we wish they could be. But behind the physical structures is something unassailable and thereby safe because it is not material. It is our spiritual consciousness or our place of communion with the one infinite Creator, or divine Mind.

The Psalmist referred to this place of peace as "the secret place of the most High": "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust" (91:1, 2). This psalm assures us that we all have a place not subject to events, not at the mercy of violence – a place evil can never touch because it can only be accessed by aligning oneself with God's good thoughts.

The secret place of the most High is not an abstract place of retreat to avoid dealing with the world. Christ Jesus prayed consistently and was always conscious of his spiritual refuge in God. This protected him from an angry mob in the temple. He'd been sharing with this congregation that his spiritual identity (and therefore everyone's spiritual identity) exists in timeless, deathless, eternal oneness with God. This offended some listeners, and the crowd responded violently, preparing to stone him. "But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by" (John 8:59).

Mary Baker Eddy described Church as "the structure of Truth and Love..." ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," p. 583). Prayer can help each person become conscious of dwelling in this spiritual structure. And we can feel this structure as an infinite embrace, the embrace of God's tender care, which is with everyone in Maryville, in churches throughout the world, and with all people everywhere.

Labels: Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, prayer, safety, worship

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Monday, June 23, 2008

A spiritualized view of childbirth

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.

from the June 24, 2008 edition

Is childbirth solely a physical event requiring a medical environment? In the United States today, over 99 percent of all births occur in a hospital setting; 97.5 percent in Britain. Consequently, the dominant view – at least in those countries – leans heavily toward the physical, medical, technological, and human emotion aspects of birth.

But there's more to bringing a child into the world. There's a spiritual dimension that, like the spiritual realities of life itself, needs to be more widely understood – for humanity's health and welfare.

Let's examine some of the common fears that would draw thought toward a strictly material concept of birth and consider how to address them prayerfully.

Pregnancy and childbirth are physical events, involving material growth and development:

When it is clearly understood that all creation has its source in God, the only Creator, then material growth and physicality lose their predominance in thought. Expectant parents can care for their child from the very first, cherishing the child's spiritual individuality and origin. They can also glimpse the fact that they and the child share the same divine Parent, and that this relationship frees them from a false sense of responsibility or fear of the unknown. As God's ideas, we reflect His creative power, but we're not personal creators.

Childbirth is painful and unpredictable:

A curse that traces back to the allegory of Adam and Eve shouldn't continue to haunt women. This verse from Isaiah provides comfort and reassurance: "Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God" (66:9). The notion that childbirth is a painful event suggests a separation from divine Love, which knows no pain for its creation. Divine Love rejoices in the constant and harmonious appearing of each idea and would never promote an environment of discomfort.

Childbearing involves two beings, mother and child, who could potentially harm each other:

In the same paragraph on scientific obstetrics, Mrs. Eddy wrote, "Though gathering new energy, this idea cannot injure its useful surroundings in the travail of spiritual birth." Mother and child can witness how divine Life sustains and provides for its ideas. There can be no added strain, no depletion of life. And with the expression of God's creative power comes a natural harmony and order.

The best counsel anyone can hope for rests in the direct relationship to the Creator that all individuals have to nourish and learn from. We are, in St. Paul's memorable words, "all the children of God" (Gal. 3:26).

Adapted from the Christian Science Sentinel.

Labels: Childbirth, Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, spirituality

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Friday, June 20, 2008

Fortitude and the U.S. Open

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.

from the June 20, 2008 edition

There's an old saying that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

This was exemplified earlier this week when Tiger Woods won the US Open Golf Championship, his 14th major championship. Because he'd had knee surgery, he hadn't had tournament play or even much practice in two months. During the US Open he struggled, often limping, but his indomitable spirit of never giving up sustained him, bringing him to victory in a playoff. When asked afterward if he'd been tempted to give up, he replied, "You just deal with it, giving it your best, no excuses, whether 100 percent or not, it's just get up and go. I wasn't going to bag it. It's not my nature to give up."

If we can glimpse the fact that we are spiritual, expressing strength, courage, and fortitude as ideas of God, infinite Mind, the source of all energy, then we won't allow anything to hinder or limit our expression of God's qualities. Denigrating, restrictive thoughts would suggest otherwise, sometimes so persistently that they may mesmerize us or make us afraid. But we can put them out of consciousness by turning to God for a rundown on our real status and condition.

Another example of fortitude was a woman who'd been told by the doctors who were caring for her that she had only a short time to live. That was 10 years ago, and she's now in her 90s. She said that when the doctor told her she was dying, she said to herself, "Well, I have had a good life, I have helped many people, and as far as I know have not done anyone any wrong, so I may as well just pass on." Then she suddenly became aware of the implications of consenting to death in that way. She thought, "If I do, I am committing suicide, and I am not going to commit suicide. I am not going to give up."

She remembered this statement by Mary Baker Eddy: "He is bravely brave who dares at this date refute the evidence of material sense with the facts of Science, and will arrive at the true status of man because of it" ("Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896," p. 183). She realized that she could be "bravely brave" and indeed refute the mortal evidence with what she knew to be true about her true identity as the child of God. And, within a short time, she was completely healed.

So often we are tempted to stop trying – to just give up – but we have the capacity to reject all such notions, and with this rejection come progress and victory.

For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world:
and this is the victory
that overcometh the world,
even our faith.
I John 5:4

Labels: fortitude, God, golf, Mary Baker Eddy, spirituality, Tiger Woods, US Open

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Friday, May 30, 2008

To promote an upturn in the global economy

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.
from the May 30, 2008 edition

Last month, asahi.com, an online Japanese/English newspaper, posted an editorial titled "Economic pessimism." It began with the old saying, "Worry is often the cause of illness," and added, "The perceived weakening of the economy, too, may have its beginnings in the mind" (April 3). The editorial went on to discuss the importance of reversing feelings of despair and confusion that could have a deleterious impact on the Japanese economy.

It's a keen observation that thought has a direct impact on individual experience and that it can influence collective experience, too. But it's also important to realize that this mental influence doesn't have to be negative. In fact, the individual conviction that divine Principle governs all can have a collective, positive effect on the world economy.

Mary Baker Eddy used strong words when she told readers of her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" how to respond to any error of thought: "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea.... Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious – as Life eternally is – can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not" (p. 495).

These statements provide a plan not just for restoring health to the body but also for renovating national economies and international relations – because thought does indeed influence the body and its environment. So when the illusion of a sick economy, or one riddled by greed, forecasts disaster, we can cling more steadfastly to the spiritual fact that everything concerning God's idea – the man and woman of His creating – is as perfect as God is. Also, we can allow only divine Love to speak to us about the health of the economy.

Essential to our confidence is that "recognition of life harmonious." To recognize the true harmony of human affairs is to realize not just that it rests on a spiritual platform, but also that it isn't separate from divine Principle, whose laws define the nature of Life.

News reports such as the one on asahi.com show how international economies are affected not just by actual financial downturns but even just by the thought of a challenge to a major business or weakness in the financial markets. Holding firm with the truth is an important step toward making and keeping them strong. Neither fear nor doubt can hold back divine progress, and our prayers can do much to make it so.

Adapted from an editorial in the Christian Science Sentinel.

Labels: Christian Science, economics, fear, Mary Baker Eddy, pessimism, positive thinking

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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Christian Science is a 'kind and gentle religion'

By REBECCA AUBUT
Standard-Times correspondent
April 19, 2008 6:00 AM

In the late 19th century, after a severe fall that allegedly caused a spinal injury, Mary Baker Eddy turned to the Bible for support and then unexpectedly recovered. Even in childhood, Ms. Eddy was said to have heard the voice of God calling to her. Inspired by her recovery, Ms. Eddy spent the next few years devoted to biblical study and healing; the culmination of which led to the publication of her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and the birth of a new religious way of teaching, Christian Science.

At the core of Christian Science is the teaching that God and God's creation are entirely good and spiritual, and that God's infinite goodness, realized in prayer, heals.

The church's universal system of prayer-based Christian healing created roots by establishing a mother church in Boston, The Church of Christ, in 1879. New Bedford's branch of Christian Science began in 1893 and by 1910 had built and dedicated a church on County Street. By the mid-seventies another Christian Science church was built in the North End of New Bedford.

Here is 274 Union St., New Bedford, the group's main meeting area and the heart and soul of the congregation, their Reading Room. Reading Rooms were established early on for Christian Science members, as well as to be a place for people to come in and learn about Christian Science, says Ms. Booth.

A third generation Christian Science member, Ms. Booth opens the Reading Room's doors three times a week. Along with Marcia Albert, a member of Christian Science since the mid-eighties, she is happy to talk about the history of Christian Science

And though services seem to be dominated by study and reading, as Ms. Booth said, "Mrs. Eddy, with her writings, says that it's not intellectual in the sense that you don't have to be brilliant to embrace Christian Science."

Even with its deep spiritual outlook on life, Christian Science membership has continued to dwindle. Ms. Booth says the church doesn't count the number of its members and that despite a small, older congregation and the closing of many area branches, she still has faith that the church and its beliefs will always have a following.

"I know that the church will flourish, maybe not in this area, but in another community and grow," she said. "I don't have any doubts. It's well established and the writings stand by themselves because it's founded on the Bible; it can't help but go on."

Labels: Bible, Christian Science, healing, Mary Baker Eddy, religion

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Monday, February 25, 2008

Free to love, freed by love

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.
from the February 26, 2008 edition

The United States has yet to achieve "liberty and justice for all" – the concluding words of its Pledge of Allegiance – but few would deny that the nation has made great strides in that direction. In part, Black History Month celebrates that progress toward freedom.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus recognized people's need for freedom – regardless of race – and he explained how to get it. He said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). If to "know the truth" means to know God, divine Truth, Jesus' promise can be paraphrased this way: "Ye shall know divine Truth, and divine Truth shall make you free."

Knowing God as divine Truth includes understanding and believing what's divinely true about ourselves and others – that God created us in His image (see Gen. 1:27). Viewing others from that perspective makes hatred hard to justify.

Perhaps that's the reason love, like truth, figures so prominently in Jesus' teachings. In his Sermon on the Mount, he said, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies ..." (Matt. 5:43, 44).

The Monitor's founder, Mary Baker Eddy, emphasized the power of divine Love as well. In her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she identified Love as a synonym for God (see p. 587) and explained, "... Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity" (p. 517).

Importing that "clearest idea of Deity" into Jesus' statement sheds new light on freedom with this paraphrase: "Ye shall know divine Love, and divine Love shall make you free." Free of hatred, envy, strife, even of physical and mental illnesses. But also free to see the reality of each individual's spiritual nature as the son and daughter of an all-loving God.

The Negro spiritual that Dr. Martin Luther King quoted at the end of his "I have a dream" speech makes a specific connection between love and freedom as well. The speech concludes, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" The Negro spiritual ends, "For I never felt such a love before,/ Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last."

That love "never felt ... before" is God's liberating love, the driving force behind Dr. King's fight for civil rights. In a sermon titled "Loving your enemies," King described a few strategic reasons for loving those who hate you. Then he noted, "An even more basic reason why we are commanded to love is expressed explicitly in Jesus' words, 'Love your enemies ... that ye may be children of your Father which is in heaven.' " And a few lines later he added, "We must love our enemies, because only by loving them can we know God and experience the beauty of his holiness" ("Strength to Love," p. 55).

Hating our enemies blinds us to God's love for us – and for them. God is Love and God is All, so He can't know anything unlike Love. And as God's ideas, or reflection, we can't know anything unlike Love either. That doesn't appear to be the case from our limited, mortal perspective, but as we replace our material view of things with the divine reality, whatever basis for hatred we thought existed disappears.

That change – or spiritualization – of thought and action is the only way to keep our end of the bargain. Both Jesus and King urge us to know God, divine Love, by living love. And if we do our part, God will certainly do His: Divine Love will make us free. And not only will those who love their enemies be freed, but the enemies themselves will be released from hatred's grasp. That's the way divine Love operates – impartially, universally, unconditionally, irresistibly.

Mrs. Eddy wrote, "Love is the liberator" (Science and Health, p. 225.) King and his followers proved that fact in their day, and we can continue to prove it in ours.

Labels: freedom, God, Jesus, love, Martin Luther King Jr., Mary Baker Eddy

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Saturday, February 23, 2008

The power of prayer, in good times and bad

Friday, February 22, 2008

Christian Scientists rely on spiritual healing throughout their lives.

By BILL CUNNINGHAM
The Orange County Register

At Fullerton's First Church of Christ, Scientist, two speakers stood together at a wide podium. One read a passage from the Bible; the other read related words from Mary Baker Eddy's book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." The Sunday morning congregation listened quietly in the plain sanctuary. No crosses, no statues, no elaborate ornaments. Words and thoughts were emphasized, rather than symbols and rituals.

The two books, the Bible and "Science and Health," are considered to be the spiritual leader of the church. There is no ordained clergy.

Mrs. Eddy, who wrote about suffering with ill health since childhood before studying the Bible and discovering a method of curing herself and others, founded Christian Science in 1879. It was designed "to commemorate the word and works of our Master (Jesus Christ), which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing," states a church manual.

An estimated 1,600 congregations now exist in America, with hundreds more worldwide. Beyond the use of the word "science" in the name, it has nothing to do with Scientology.

Spiritual healing is an important part of the Christian Science religion. When practitioners are sick or injured they pray first, rather than head to a medical doctor.

"Spiritual healing probably has as many different faces as there are individuals that are applying it," said Donald W. Ingwerson, spokesman for Christian Science in Southern California and a church member for over 50 years. "Basically it's the power of prayer that heals. And that prayer is based upon inspiration from the Bible and from 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.' "

But if a church member with a broken bone or a severe illness feels the need for medical treatment, there's no stigma attached. "All Christian Scientists are free to go to a doctor any time they feel the need for it," said Ingwerson. "However, generally speaking, a Christian Scientist would pray first and see where that leads their thought and their need. And if they felt after that prayer, they needed to see a doctor, they should feel free to go see a doctor. But many find that they don't need to go to a doctor after they pray."

Although Mrs. Eddy was founder of the church and the author of one of its most important texts, she is not looked upon a saint or a prophet. "But she certainly has the deep respect of the world for the religion she created," said Ingwerson. "Mrs. Eddy herself said 'look for me in my works' and that's where she wants to be of value to us."

Each church reaches out to the community in several ways. There are practitioners, considered full-time professional healers, who can be called by anyone seeking treatment through prayer. And there are Reading Rooms open to the public throughout the county. These rooms have Bibles and Christian Science literature available for reading, borrowing or purchasing.

On Wednesday evenings, one-hour Testimony Meetings are held, at which individuals tell of personal experiences involving healing. At a recent meeting, several spoke of ailments that were resolved without medical assistance. One woman told of many healings, "physical, emotional and relational" over the years.

Unlike some individuals who live in fear or hope of an afterlife, Christian Scientists "don't believe in a literal sense of heaven and hell," said Ingwerson. "We don't think it's a place. We think it's a state of thought and it's right here. You're living in your own hell or heaven right now. It's not a place you go to later."

Labels: Bill Cunningham, Christian Science, Christianity, health, Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, prayer, spiritual healing

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Friday, February 08, 2008

Renewable energy, renewed planet

from the February 7, 2008 edition

Problems, personal or worldwide, present an opportunity to turn to prayer. How to slow down global warming and still supply the world's increasing energy needs is one of those challenges. Not only is the problem baffling, but the solutions offered so far have had only a mixed reception.

It's heartening to realize that existing technologies could provide energy that won't pour so much carbon into the atmosphere. And we can expect further developments in this area as well as some form of international agreement on their use. Finding energy sources beside nonrenewable oil and coal is also a promised solution. Yet none of these technologies is without some kind of drawback. So the question remains: how to make good decisions about such complex issues?

There's value in turning to God, Spirit, for solutions. In fact, the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," speaks of energy in spiritual terms. Its author, Mary Baker Eddy, who was very much abreast of the news during her lifetime, declared, "Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy" (p. 249).

To shift our thoughts from limited resources that are either quickly being depleted, or that have ecological drawbacks, to looking deeply into God's infinite care for His creation can be quite transforming. For one thing, divine Spirit doesn't include matter – and neither does its creation. The "divine energy of Spirit" might be defined as Love, which supplies direction and strength to fulfill the obligations of a busy life. This divine energy is eternally renewable and includes no element of destruction. It promises that not only can we personally expect a wonderful feeling of newness but that Spirit can inspire humanity to discover new methods for generating energy and reveal new ways to help save our planet.

Many thinkers today are recognizing that the universe, including man, is more than a material creation and actually has a spiritual origin. In their eyes, the universe is governed by spiritual law and powered by unlimited and renewable divine energy. This energy naturally finds expression in new and better ways of living.

In reality, we are dwellers in a spiritual universe where all energy is divine. The more we recognize and yield to this divine energy, the more we'll feel not only newness of life individually but also find more ways of conserving and renewing all the elements that make up daily living. Each of us has our part in working together to accept the divine energy that God is providing and to let God guide us to steps we can take to renew our planet.

Labels: energy, global warming, God, Mary Baker Eddy, prayer, spirituality

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Monday, February 04, 2008

Soldier to soldier

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.
from the January 30, 2008 edition

A few years after the Vietnam War, I left active duty and joined the Army Reserves. As a battalion chaplain, I noticed an interesting pattern with some of the other vets. It seems that they were returning to the military for no other reason than to sort out their war experiences with others who knew what they'd gone through.

Many of them had been exposed to such assaults on human sensibilities that sights and sounds were seared on their minds, haunting them. These soldiers had done whatever they could to get through their tour of duty, but when they got back home, they didn't leave behind the mental impressions and the emotional turbulence.

Often when I talked to a vet, he wanted to know if I was a vet too. Empathy helps. Certainly my tour in Vietnam broke open my shell of self-interest and evolved a greater sympathy for the sufferings of those around me. And I was so grateful for others whose sympathy let me know that I wasn't alone in encountering feelings I'd never experienced before.

Ultimately, I found that my sympathy was most helpful when I recognized something else we had in common: that we were children of a loving God, dwelling in a spiritual reality that was untouched by the imprint of war.

In a sense, all of us who have witnessed suffering that has pushed us to the margins of human stability are on a walk to Emmaus. The Christ is with us, doing what it has always done. The Christ, so fully expressed in Jesus, is the ever-present spiritual reality of being making plain to disturbed and disoriented human thinking our well-being in God's love.

Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy glimpsed and then explored this reality that healed her in her desperate search for meaning in life's tragedies. She shared in her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When you read this, remember Jesus' words, 'The kingdom of God is within you.' This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility" (pp. 573-574).

As you sympathize with soldiers struggling to recover, let your sympathy evolve into a prayer that acknowledges the presence of spiritual reality making itself known to them in a peace that is untroubled and unafraid.

Labels: Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, peace, veterans, war

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Friday, January 18, 2008

To continue freedom's work

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.
from the January 18, 2008 edition

For many people, the Martin Luther King holiday has become yet another three-day weekend, time off from work or school. The Civil Rights movement, which began with the bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955, may seem like ancient history in a society where there's "instant" everything from coffee to messaging.

But this special day is a time to consider that despite the progress that has been made, racism hasn't been completely eliminated.

Discrimination against indigenous peoples, against immigrants (including legal ones), as well as those of different races still remains, even though it sometimes takes subtler forms. For example, in many large cities young African Americans still grow up in poverty and remain there because they can't escape that mental environment. Breaking out of the culture of poverty isn't just about getting more money. It's about knowing that you have value, that your presence in this world can be a blessing.

In a way, that is perhaps the last but also the most challenging aspect of the civil rights struggle. Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Monitor, witnessed this country's struggles with slavery, and the transition out of it. In her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she observed, "Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United States was hard; but the abolition of mental slavery is a more difficult task" (p. 225)

For Jesus, healing was not only about setting people free from suffering, but also about changing the thought of society, especially among those who felt superior to others. So, for example, when he was criticized for healing a woman on the Sabbath (because no work was supposed to be done that day), he replied, "Doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound ... be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" (Luke 13:15, 16)

To me he was saying, "You value your animals enough to take care of them. Can't you see that this woman, as a descendant of the man to whom God promised His care, has an even greater heritage?

Society has changed greatly from the times of Jesus, yet the same mental struggle goes on: the need to value each individual, to see his or her spiritual heritage and the blessings to be gained from unlocking those talents. Each of us can contribute by not looking down on someone else because of race, background, handicap, or gender, and by praying for the day when all people will be valued.

And there's a direct, personal benefit to taking this step. Each time we can see others as children of God, we reinforce our own spiritual heritage as God's offspring. We become freer from the mental slavery that says some are "top dogs" and others are not. We are loosed from the burden of despising or rejecting others to rejoicing in the knowledge that our Father's house is big enough for everyone to have a place and for each one's gifts to be joyfully expressed.

Labels: discrimination, Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, racism