Editorial November 26, 1984 Issue

Factual discovery, honest response

ALLISON W. PHINNEY, JR.

A spate of newspaper stories about Christian Science has appeared in the last year in the United States. These articles, developed mostly in the context of court trials, have often settled for the familiar stereotypes that make vivid headlines. They remind one of the local nightly news that so assiduously covers arson and conflict but pays little attention to the day-to-day life of the community. The viewer ends up knowing something about fires but not much about the community!

Yet one of the positive results of such stories about Christian Science is that they undeniably stimulate Christian Scientists, and others as well, to think a good deal more actively about what it is that causes one to be a Christian Scientist and why Christian Science calls forth such loyalty regardless of worldly skepticism.

Mary Baker Eddy, who founded Christian Science, once observed: "Much interest is awakened and expressed on the subject of metaphysical healing, but in many minds it is confounded with isms, and even infidelity, so that its religious specialty and the vastness of its worth are not understood." ^{ Miscellaneous Writings, p. 4.}