Christian Scientists are characterized in many different ways in the public mind, some positive, and some very negative. One of the more pernicious, and unhelpful characterizations, is a common assertion that “Christian Scientists are those people who don’t go to doctors.”

Christian Science is a glorious teaching in that it does keep one out of the doctor’s office. It gives one spiritual medicine to heal health problems, and spiritual truth to keep one healthy and well. Lived rightly, it’s the best healthcare practice on the planet earth today.

Jesus Christ was the ultimate Christian Scientist. He demonstrated the power of Love to heal metaphysically without exception. He was successful in all cases.

However, Jesus was the Master! He was the Messiah, the promised one, and had a special advantage over the rest of us in possessing the knowledge, understanding and power to heal spiritually. But he promised that we could learn to heal as he learned. Through prayer and fasting, and steady and constant spiritual growth and increased understanding, thousands, millions, I suppose, have healed to a degree as Jesus taught.

Christian Science, as explained in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, explains how to heal spiritually as Jesus healed and the Bible promises is possible. It sets forth the ideal, the highest standard, and gives us the footsteps to follow to get there.

Because I have so much to learn, I think of myself as a student of Christian Science. Anytime an antagonist to my study of Christian Science tries to give me a hard time and imply that I should be performing cures at the same level of ability that Jesus did, I reply, “I’m working on that. I see healing everyday, much of which you would probably call miraculous, but I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not. I consider myself a student of Christian Science, and I keep growing and learning everyday, and becoming a more effective healer step by step, lesson by lesson.”

When someone asks, “Are you one of those people who don’t go to doctors?” I reply, “Christian Science is not about what you don’t do. It’s about what you can do. Christian Science explains how to find healing through prayer, through turning direct to God for help.” And I might add, “If you could turn to God in prayer, and find healing for what ails you, without using any medicine and not suffering from any of its negative side effects, do you think that would be a good thing?” And they usually nod in the affirmative. And I continue, “Christian Science teaches you how to do that, to find healing solely through your prayers. And it works.”

This unfortunate notion that “Christian Scientists are those people who don’t go to doctors,” is harmful not only for the public to hold in thought, but for any student of Christian Science who may heed to it. It does not characterize the practice of Christian Science.

Christian Science is about living the laws of spiritual harmony. It‘s a purely spiritual practice of keeping thought in harmony with truth and love, and working out the problem of being to the best of one’s understanding at the time. It’s not a human-willed position of “I don’t…,” but a spiritually inspired position of “I do….”

Many students of Christian Science, over years of practice, have taken a “suffer it to be so now,” medical step to alleviate extreme material circumstances. Perhaps they had a broken bone set by a surgeon, or some medical intervention during delivery of a child, or visited a dentist, an optometrist, or had heart surgery, or, who knows… They did what they thought was best under the pressing circumstances of the moment in order to keep going and growing. If they held in thought the mortal weight of “Christian Scientists don’t go to doctors,” they might find themselves unnecessarily struggling with feelings of guilt and condemnation about such temporal steps. And that would be totally unfair to them and to the world.

Christian Science is not about not going to doctors. It’s about living in harmony with God’s laws. And the laws of God are always in operation. No one is ever separated from them, ever.

There isn’t a single human act anyone could ever commit to separate them from God and the love of God that sustains all being. The pathway to discovering this truth fully is not always smooth and easy, but it’s for certain.

To take the position of “I never go to doctors,” is to take a human-willed and even prideful position. And that can be blinding to sound and sensible reasoning and perspective, which is not helpful in facilitating humble prayer that heals spiritually.

Having said all that, it’s seems imperative to mention that Christian Science is up to meeting all human needs, and thousands have proved in varying degrees, in different ways, and in all different types of situations. Putting faith in God’s ability to heal is sensible and most reasonable, and brings its rightful reward. Many students of Christian Science have gone decades without taking a single medicine and not visiting a doctor once, and remained in good health.

The better characterization of those who practice Christian Science might be, “They are those people who study how to pray and find healing.” I like that! It sounds so much better, and it’s a standard any student of Christian Science can live up to.

It doesn’t matter if progress comes in fits and starts, has its ups and downs, off days and better days. It doesn’t matter if we do it all perfectly from day one. I don’t know anyone who has done that, except for Jesus Christ. What matters is the progress one makes, the growing faith, the increased understanding.

Step by metaphysical step, we’re all going to get to the same place—a complete understanding of spiritual reality where all sense of sin, disease and death are no more. Christ gets us there, and no one will be left behind, no one, regardless of what happens in the human meantime.

God loves us all, and that never changes.

Christian Scientists are people who love the promise of spiritual healing, and turn to God in prayer, expecting to find it, and then trust the divine grace to lead them from there to what will continue them down the pathway of progress for the benefit of their own edification and for those around them.