Last week, a young woman, who was raised in Christian Science, told me that she was leaving the faith because “the Christian Science religion was not right for her anymore.”
Her words gave me pause and much to think about.
The first thought that came to me was, “Christian Science is not something you can leave.”
Let me explain.
You see, many people think of Christian Science as a religion, and I suppose justifiably so. There is a church, The Church of Christ, Scientist, whose members practice Christian Science. But Christian Science is much more and bigger than a religious institution or practice engaged by a group of people. Christian Science, by definition, is the laws of God.
Christian Science explains how God governs the universe. To say, “Christian Science is not right for me anymore,” is the equivalent of a mathematician saying, “The principles of addition aren’t right for me anymore.”
Hmmm…is this possible? Not really.
As there is one principle to math, that I know of anyway, there is one Principle governing the universe. And CS explains what that Principle is and how it operates.
I’ve seen people who view CS as a religion treat it like an individual item on a smorgasbord of options to choose from; like going to a buffet and choosing which food you’d like to eat. But CS is not that way. CS is a universal truth, like music is universal, or the principles of math are common to all mankind. CS is not a reality one chooses to accept or not. It’s how God governs the universe. And we’re all a part of that government whether we choose to be or not.
I thought about Newton discovering the law of gravity. Gravity had always been on earth, but Newton was the first to understand it and gain enough comprehension of how it worked to explain the law to others.
I asked myself, “Once he made the discovery, did people have the option to decide whether gravity was right for them or not?” Not really. It affected them whether they made the choice to accept it or not.
And that’s how CS works. It’s not a human theory or set of nice sounding ideas. It’s a discovery, a spiritual revelation of reality. It’s God speaking to man explaining how the cosmos works and our part in it.
Anyway, I found my peace of mind about the above woman’s statement by realizing that she could never walk away from God’s goodness or chose not to be a part of it. God blessed her through divine law no matter how she identified herself here on earth.
There are certainly people who disagree with CS and doubt its statements of truth. But in my mind, there is no doubt. The more one studies the laws, the more they make perfect sense. All put together, they comprise an absolutely perfect and seamless explanation of existence. In my quest for Truth, I have found them able to answer my every question.
I have much to learn, but am enjoying the adventure and cherish every forward step.
yes, but when healing is long delayed or treatment fails (death), CS doesn’t feel so gravity-like. And when churches are less than beacons of light and love, it can feel very not right indeed. I wish I knew the answer to that.
I’ve understood the word “Law” to mean it works every time, like the law of gravity. I don’t see how Christian Science’s law of God can be true because it is not effective every time. It is discouraging because if you are healed, you praise GOd for his law of perfection, but then if you suffer and die or are never healed after countless pracitioner bills, then you are told that you are still perfect but you’re just not seeing it. I agree with the above that churches are “less than beeacons of light and love”. I have been to many churches of different denominations and have found none as cold and full of restrictions than a C.S. church. There is no place for fellowship. It is full of cliques and the faces are mostly of one color and the upper tier in socio-economic status. The parking lot is full of expensive cars and people wearing fur coats. Doesn’t look much like Jesus’ following.
It is interesting that you blogged about this. I was feeling discouraged about my progress recently and had decided that I too should leave C.S. In fact I have come to that point often in the past couple of years. I realized the other day, though, that it would be impossible for me to leave C.S. It seems innate to me now. Even if I did stop going to church and reading the lesson I would still pray, talk to, and listen for God. I don’t think life is easy and there are always going to be struggles but without God/Truth I think I would be completely lost.
I love this open and honest dialogue of sincere thoughts by different readers…
I too have experienced the feeling of “Where is the love…” when visiting some churches. And I have prayed a lot about this over the years.
One very helpful realization for me has been understanding that Christian Science is a universal truth that one lives. It’s not a building or branch church that holds services. There is a distinction to be made between CS and organized religion. Organized religion may lose it’s appeal at times because of the activities or inactivities of various members, but CS never loses its appeal as a Truth lived and practiced. What other people do does not affect what I can do. That’s between me and God. And that’s a precious aspect of CS. It’s not an organized religion. It’s a universal Truth freely available to anyone.
When healing doesn’t come as expected, or as timely, that does not detract from the Truth. CS has already been thoroughly proved by Jesus and other followers. Jesus’ followers didn’t get upset or mad when they failed to reach their Master’s demonstrations. And they went through some severe trials, even crucifixion themselves. This is not a justification for suffering, but puts things into perspective. They saw the Truth. They glimpsed it enough to know there was no where else to go. They were willing to sacrifice everything for it. There was nothing better. And they certainly received their spiritual reward for such faithfulness.
CS is infinite, vast, huge, with so much to offer and so much to learn. As a student, I try to remain as humble as possible in ascending the scale of demonstration, taking it one step at a time, learning what I can as fast as I can, and trusting I have what I need when I need it.
Life is eternal. It never ends, and the opportunity to experience enduring health and well being is never taken from anyone–ever. It may seem temporarily lost, but it is never gone. Truth triumphs. Truth inevitably wins the day. It’s God’s law of progress bringing everyone to their rightful place, a place in heaven where life is safe, there is no more evil, and no more suffering.
A couple years ago I started doing sudoku puzzles. I liked them and worked diligently at them, but they took me forever. I pedantically checked each number in each column and marked the numbers off. About a month or so ago right in mid puzzle the principle behind it just jumped out at me and I understood “how” they worked. It was so cool. What used to take me an hour now takes 5 to 10 minutes.
What does that have to do with this discussion? Everything.
I started wondering where the principle behind the puzzles was all those months I slowly struggled through figuring out each game, I realized the principle had been present, full and active all the time I’d been playing I just wasn’t aware of how it worked so I plodded along on the path using the only rules I understood at the time. Once I saw and understood the “law” that backed up the game ALL the plodding and struggling to demonstrate it fell away and I could fly freely through the games regardless of how tricky their construction was. The law was there operating the entire time. My lack of perceiving the principle behind the game didn’t alter the fact of the principle’s presence one little bit–but I invested a lot of time and ripped up a lot of pages before I got there.
It reminded me of my recent spiritual progress. Sometimes I have such a clear perception of the principle behind what I’m trying to demonstrate I fly right through it. Sometimes I’m not clearly seeing the law and plod along while growing in my understanding. The experience with the game convinced me that the law is always present and demonstrable and it is inevitable for me to understand it so I’m learning to be more impressed with the Truth I’m learning than with how long it takes me to get it.
I’m also learning to be more alert to what model I’m aspiring to. Peter had Jesus there in person preaching love, love, love right to him and he still cratered while walking to him on the water, still resorted to violence cutting off the ear of the man in the garden — but none of that prevented him from demonstrating the truths he DID understand even though there were plenty of them he didn’t get right then. I just remind myself regularly that Jesus is the model I’m looking to not Peter and even he had to work at it at times. Hopefully I’m learning not to let the world set the conditions for whether the law is working in my experience.
Maybe this will be helpful to someone out there.
It has really helped me.
Bigsky
I agree with stacytony above. Once you have learned about C.S. it’s hard to unknow it, and it’s impossible not to practice it to the best of one’s ability.
BUT I have come to think that church is pretty useless. I hear such lofty things in testimonies, and see that it’s just words, and not works. The coldness, the judgments, the fight over the pettiest things; it certainly doesn’t sound like going about “my Father’s business”. So I find solace in individual work, and feel much freer away from the human organization of church. I enjoy my quiet time communing with GOd without all the human will and personality scene. Is there anything wrong with that? I think C.S. churches have lost their way; they no longer attract; and we can’t hide the fact that the numbers are shrinking, and for good reason. People are not getting the spiritual inspirition from church that is provided by a sincere, in-the-closet communion with God on one’s own.
in the context of church … i have been thinking about forgiveness in a new way. somewhere in school I learned that material is said to have a memory. That is, it returns to its original shape. How often do I find myself remembering, cherishing, nurturing, perpetuating moments when my experience of church and of my fellow members was NOT what it truly is. And that begs the question of what I bring to the table … be the change you want to see, as Ghandi said so poignantly.
As to healing, I am thinking more an more about that … in Christian Healer, Mrs. Eddy says “I am out of patience at hearing a student ask his patient to work when the patient is up to the ears in the waves. don’t ask anything of your patient. show him your Science and when he is healed he will work.” I have noticed that when I call for help, I am often coached as if I am giving the treatment. In some instances I can do that. In others, I’m panicked and truly in the waves. It is during those times when I find it so heart-rending to be asked to reach spiritual heights I simply cannot even see at that moment.
And one last thing … dear Evan you are our host, and I want to thank you for allowing this exchange to happen in your space. It is honest and open, and must bless us all.
Great and insightful comments…keep them coming.
On the subject of church services and branch church activity…
I have made many wonderful friends and acquaintances through branch church work. Yes, there are many things I find in branch churches that I find difficult to come to terms with at times, but I keep the big picture in mind when struggling with what to do.
Branch churches, with all their shortcomings, still offer benefits that can not be found elsewhere.
For one, as a father with 2 children that I wish to raise in Christian Science, I find regular Sunday school attendance very helpful in anchoring their thought in truth, and in a community of fellow Truth-seekers. I’ve thought about the “do it on my own,” route many times, where I just stay home and practice CS on my own. But anytime I’ve tried that approach, it failed. I just can’t practice CS on my own. It doesn’t work too well. And the reason, for me, anyway, is that CS, to really work in one’s life, has to be actively shared with others. Otherwise, it becomes a selfish enterprise, and eventually, it won’t work very well for the one trying to make it work. CS is pure unselfishness in action. And this is why Jesus was so forceful in requiring his disciples to get out into the world and preach the gospel. CS is an “outward” kind of thing. It has to be expressed.
Now, I agree, there are many ways to share CS, other than within a branch church environment, and they are all needed.
The biggest help for me, in praying through branch church challenges, though, is understanding that Church is spiritual. I take it with me wherever I go, and I find it wherever I am. It’s not a physcial, organization construct. It’s a state of Mind. I demonstrate church according to my understanding of God.
It’s like, if the body is ill, we don’t walk away from the body. We have to deal with it and heal it. Same rule applies to church. If we keep thinking we can “walk away from it,” when we don’t like it, we’ll never heal it, and our own sense of church will suffer. We have to face the “enenmy,” and conquer it.
Some of the enemies to church right now, I see, is apathy, lack of interest, sleepiness, materialism, medicalization of thought, comfort in matter, and fear. You may have more to add.
These need to be faced and healed, then the true Church will surface for all to benefit from.
This is a big subject….much more could be said…
It’s your turn…
One thing that has helped me deal with frustrations over church lately is a little fine tuning in my perspective. I realized I was very much immersed in thinking I was the answer. It was my belief in a personal working out of church (mine or somebody else’s) that made me feel burdened, overwhelmed and frustrated. I was thinking about a statement one Wednesday “God governs everything we do” and realized that I was busy trying to be God in action rather than bearing witness to God’s action governing my church. Only a small twist in thought but it has resulted in a freer sense of love and appreciation for all in/out church for me. Hmmm– letting God be in control rather than me in control–that was big for me in recognizing God’s love, presence and allness in church/home/work life. I have seen more humility and genuine love and affection for each other than ever before in my branch. True, we have a ways to go but you have to start somewhere.
The other thing that helped me was deciding a couple years ago that if I was going to continue to be a church attending CS I needed to commit myself to making at least one healing demonstration every week to testify to. I can’t begin to tell you what an amazing journey that has led to. I haven’t yet solved every problem I face, but it has brought an entirely new sense of being to my life. I am light years ahead of anywhere I’ve ever been before (or thought I could be) in the thinking and practice of CS. I haven’t verbally given every one of those testimonies at church–but I’ve had one– every single week for two years. That activity even led me to this blog which has been a gold mine of spiritual growth for me.
All I know is the God I believe in and the church I participate in live in the Love I’m learning to understand and demonstrate and not anywhere else.
I hope this helps someone. It did me.
Bigsky
I’m reading “Quest for the Living God,” by Elizabeth A. Johnson. The thrust of the book is that under pressure from historical events and social conditons, people of faith need fresh glimpses of God, and new vocabulary to describe these glimpses. It’s not a matter of discarding old concepts of the divine, but as people find themselves in new situations, they naturally seek the presence of God where they are in a way that responds to the context at hand.
As I read, it occurs to me that the same could be said about Church. If “church” is indeed “the structure of Truth and Love (other names for God),” then these times we live in demand fresh glimpses of that structure, and new ways to describe what Church is capable of.
Just think how many new contexts we have since MBE’s discovery and the subsequent establishment of the religious organization she provided! That organization was set up in a country isolated from any other than Western Christian culture. The prevailing standard of physical and mental perfection was white and male, and usually spoke English. The rites and rituals of “respectable” worship were sharply delineated. Given all this, her earthly church was way ahead of its time. ‘Tain’t so now.
The chapters in this book — which I haven’t yet finished — are named after concepts of God which respond to modern contexts. Here are some, where I’ve changed the word “God” to “Church.”
“The Crucified [church] of Compassion”
“Liberating [Church]of Life”
“[Church] Acting Womanish”
“[Church] Who Breaks Chains”
“Accompanying [Church] of Fiesta”
“Generous [Church] of the Religions”
There are more. But, wow, just these few have shoved me into new ways of looking at God and experiencing God’s structure in everyday life.
I’m speaking as one who is far from even the opportunity to attend a branch church….and NO, I don’t want to start one. But from conversations with those around me, the quest for a deeper spiritual maturity stretches across denominational lines and definitely reaches beyond them. It’s back to basics time, when what we’ve found comforting in the past seems cold and lifeless now. After all, it’s when the leaves fall off the tree, we get a real appreciation for it’s underlying structure.
The Sunday School is also a big problem. Teachers are so different, and some churches have such stringent rules and don’t allow anything other than the Bible and S&H. From what I observe, the children are bored to tears, and hate going. I’ve often thought no wonder they don’t grow up and want to come to church because the Sunday School was so awful! In any other school setting, people would notice the yawns and the bored faces and try to do something about it, but because they stand on PRINCIPLE, they don’t think any change is necessary. It is so discouraging. My children love C.S. when it is lived and not shoved down their throats with lofty sayings and unprovable big-talk. I think they would do better to stay at home.
In S&H, Mrs. Eddy writes of Jesus,”First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his followers the healing power of Truth and Love. He attached no importance to dead ceremonies.”
and a few pages later, she writes, “Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can unite with this church only as we are newborn of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth the fruits of Love,–casting out error and healing the sick.”
It’s interesting that in Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy doesn’t refer to church as a material building or in the sad way that many of us think of it and have experienced it.
The dying away of these sad and false expressions of church is an inevitable occurence and has to happen in order to make room for the true and healing Christ idea.
“God will overturn, until ‘He come whose right it is.'”
I think our churches would be packed if there was healing going on right and left like it did in the time of Mary Baker Eddy. In those days, life was much tougher and people were more willing to look to spiritual solutions. I think the reason that there aren’t as many physical healings is because we’re lookwarm in our committment. If we accept that there is no pain in matter, we must accept that there’s no pleasure in matter, and I’ve read that somewhere, that you have to give up both pain and pleasure. It seems like people want to just give up the pain, but you hear few people advocating giving up pleasure in matter: material goods, luxuries, sex, video enterntainment, idless hours of gaming, tantalizing foods, etc. If we were giving less thought on food (matter) we woudln’t have an obesity problem! And i don’t see that many skinny people in the churches. Who is REALLY willing to give up all for Christ? Who is REALLY willing to do what Jesus Christ said, which is give to the poor and live for spiritual pleasures? We want it all; and are not willing to sacrifice anything. People are not honest with themselves. They DO want pleasure in matter. We’ve clearly lost our way!
I agree.
There is very little sacrificing going on or even asked for.
Take the war for example. In WW2, all citizens pitched in and had to sacrifice, buying war bonds, giving up resources for the common war effort. Fast forward to now. People are so quick to go to war, but we are not asked to sacrifice a thing (just the lives of people, of mostly lower socio-economic status). The government doesn’t even ask us to pitch in with higher taxes. It’s easy to be for something when you don’t have to give anything up.
This seems to be the way of the world right now. Get it all without a sacrifice. Nobility and honor has been lost; committment to high ideals too.
Seems to me that when I’ve run into stodgy, inflexible, uninspired thinking at church it has been because those folks were looking to the letter for their salvation rather than the Spirit. If that is the thinking, it is easy to mistake the living of a victorian lifestyle for the actual practice of CS as a religion of love. The only solution I’ve come up with is to live the Love myself and bathe everyone else in it. Either we are going to let the world influence our churches or we are going to let our church influence the world. As a friend said to me recently “wouldn’t it be in the carnal mind’s best interest for us not to get our act together about church?”.
I spent considerable time with friends recently who shared their frustrations with their own denominations. Some had quit church some had changed churches and it was all pretty much over similar issues we get frustrated about. It made me realize I had the opportunity to show spiritual leadership in this area. Like it says in the Message Bible…. “we are here to show the God colors in the world”
..I can do that….today….
Evan, I was interested in your comments on how you found it hard to stay away from church in the practice if CS. I had a demonstration a year ago to stay away from my branch church due to issues that will remain private. It is true I have found that if you are not attending church there is a tendency to get things introverted for lack of a better word. There is no sharing because the rest of the world hasn’t a clue what CS is. As I realize though that as we spiritually “see” things through our own consciousness, material church is not the answer but a crutch. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness praying and spent countless hours in his “closet” (consciousness) communing with God. The day is rapidly coming in which the material church will slide off and the true idea of church will emerge. This is how we can deal with the mass shootings, the hate, the wars, etc. In my consciousness they are nothing but an illusion of material sense that has come from objectifying these images of error etc. We need to make a stand and declare that this so-called material world is not real. We are metaphysicians and the sooner we realize this the sooner we can move on from the debate about church and all the other so-called problems of the material world. They are a lie. We can either accept the lie in our consciousness or turn it away. I choose to accept God and continue to work out my own salvation on that basis. There is simply no debate on this. Thanks for letting us share our thoughts on this.
I grew up in the CS sunday school and later joined a branch church and gave it my all for seven years. I had no intention of resigning my membership, but over the course of a few months in my seventh year of membership, it became clear to me that I needed to resign. I prayed and prayed about this decision and even tried returning a few years later, but it just was not the right place for me.
It’s been ten years now that I haven’t attended church on a regular basis, and one thing that I noticed right away after I left was that God was still God wherever I was and that He wasn’t stuck or limited to a little building somewhere.
There are superstitions regarding church attendance and “reading the lesson” as being necessary to be healed and to progress. But our God and Science is much bigger than that. Can church membership/ attendance and reading the lesson be helpful? Of course, but not without God’s help. Going through the motions without the true spirit of things is worse than useless and is not only fruitless, but potentially harmful.
To make our churches work there have to be healers and healings that are absolutely obvious and unmistakable. If we’re called to the “wilderness” or the “closet” to learn our lessons, then we have no choice but to obey. And if we’re asked to continue serving in churches and learning good lessons through churchwork, then again, we have no choice but to obey.
My hope is that eventually we will all unite in a truer sense of church and Christianity that will be irresistible and impossible to ignore.
I would resist the temptation or suggestions to state a negative opinon or belief about Christian Science,it’s churches,or Sunday Schools,even if all my physical senses were screeming that these were true.
Mrs. Eddy, has given us the true deffinition of Church, as found on P.583:12,of her book,Science & Health with key to the scriptures, as;” The structure of Truth and Love, whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine principle…” This is the truth, and if it does not seem the truth,then we must affirm it’s trueness by knowing it until it manifest itself in our own and our children’s experiences in our churches and Sunday schools. It always helps me when I establish in my thought,the qualities,and activities I would like to see manifested in the branch church my family attends;Mrs. Eddy’s deffinitions of Life,truth,children,love,etc.
I don’t like criticizing churches either because I think people are trying to do their best. However, S&H indicates that when healing sin, we need to “unmask” the error in order to get the victory over it. So this opening our eyes to negative or unpleasant things can be a necessary step in order to go forward with progress and healing. Then we won’t be crying “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.”
I agree. We need to recognize where improvement needs to occur so we can devote prayer, energy and time to making those improvements.
Dullness and sleepiness in church is indicative of a sinful state of thought. Sin has to be uncovered to be destroyed.