Article October 12, 1981 Issue

Why Christian Science is not a cult—3

Editors' Note: From earliest days misrepresentations of Christian Science teachings have been circulated by critics. More recently these have reached a crescendo in a broad-scale attempt to brand Christian Science a "non-Christian cult. " We feel these questions and answers on key points, prepared by the Committee on Publication, will be of interest to our readers and inquirers. We present them in line with the purpose our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, assigned this publication, "to hold guard over Truth, Life, and Love,"^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353.} and in the spirit of her words, "A lie left to itself is not so soon destroyed as it is with the help of truth-telling."^{Ibid., p. 130.}

Question: Some people say that Christian Science isn't really Christian because it holds a philosophic and abstract view of God as a cold, impersonal principle whom one cannot really love, trust, or turn to for comfort.

Answer: Could there be a less cold or abstract concept of God than that expressed in Mrs. Eddy's communion address to The Mother Church in 1896: "For 'who is so great a God as our God!' unchangeable, all-wise, all-just, all-merciful; the ever-loving, ever-living Life, Truth, Love: comforting such as mourn, opening the prison doors to the captive, marking the unwinged bird, pitying with more than a father's pity; healing the sick, cleansing the leper, raising the dead, saving sinners"?^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 124.}