Christian Science Healing

New Haven Register

The meeting which was held in New York last week to discuss the problems which the growing Christian Science Church presented, was one of the most interesting events of the kind on record. Not that there were any large number of people there or that anything very remarkable was done, but men and women were there representing almost every branch to which higher education admits a man or a woman, and a great many things which were said there were indicative of the way in which people are coming to view the whole Christian Science question.

Christian Science, in the last few years, has assumed remarkable proportions; proportions which ten years ago would have been thought entirely impossible, and which to-day make it one of the forces in our social organization which it is well worth our while to take into consideration. And that it has grown to such dimensions, and taken such a firm hold on the minds of an ever-increasing body of our population, is proof positive that it is worthy of consideration. No one can dismiss Christian Science to-day on the ground that it is upheld by a limited circle of believers. There are more Christian Scientists to-day in America than there are Congregationalists, and their number is constantly increasing. What the future will bring forth it is impossible to foretell.

The meeting last week in New York recalled the monster demonstration in the city last winter when, at the call of the Scientists for a mammoth testimonial of believers, a tremendous throng gathered in Carnegie Hall and testified to their belief in the new faith. The meeting this week of enemies of the faith was weak and pigmy beside that remarkable gathering. It did not have the force of that assembly, nor did it accomplish as much in the destruction of the faith as the former did in its up-building. A bill was presented calling for the passage of a law making it a criminal act to advise any sick person to refuse medical aid, and manslaughter to be responsible for the death of any person through such advice. It raised a storm of discussion, and was defeated.

What we have long believed to be necessary in the matter of Christian Science healing is either legal recognition of such healing under certain restriction as within the law and permissible, or legal condemnation of it and its energetic suppression. As it is to-day any person who can gain the ear of an invalid open to proselytizing can treat that person by a spurious or an alleged Christian Science, and there is no law to restrain him. In this way numerous people could have died and have died under treatment, and there has been no legal power vested in any one to put an end to the practice or to prosecute the "healer" who has lost his case. It would seem as if this was an utterly inadequate way of meeting the difficulties of the situation. There is no reason in it, and no protection of the public health or morals. If there is to be Christian Science "healing," and we are not entirely certain that there will not be more and more of it as the new century comes in, there should be a public recognition of it as legitimate, so that the crimes that are committed under its name could be avoided.

On the other hand, if Christian Science is to go, there should be an energetic beginning made to suppress it before it becomes too troublesome to handle. It is no small matter to deal with in these days of private rights, but some result should be reached one way or the other, and before it is too late to move. By another ten years it may be too late, and the opportunity will have been lost for good.

Christian Science Healing

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