A Phase of the Publication Committee's Work

Archibald McLellan

The following extract from a letter by Mr. Albert E. Miller of Philadelphia, recently published in the Telegraph of that city, is an example of the work our Publication Committee is compelled to do in order to correct a certain class of misstatements which, if allowed to go uncontradicted, are likely to lead to an entirely erroneous concept of Christian Science, and to create or foster a prejudice against its teachings. Mr. Miller writes as follows:—

"To the Editor of The Evening Telegraph:

"In The Evening Telegraph of March 8 appears a news item with the heading, 'Goes Insane over Christian Science.' ...

"In the present instance your news item errs in its statements concerning this lady, who is supposed to have become insane through the study of Christian Science, because it has been found that it was a church of another denomination in which she had become interested, and of which she had recently become a member just prior to being overtaken by this misfortune. The lady in question is Mrs. Kate Jarvis of Palm Beach, Florida, and this correction is offered on the basis of information obtained from her friends and relatives."

It may seem to some that such corrections are unnecessary, but the experience of those who have had this work to do has shown that it is as necessary to ascertain and state the truth in these matters as it is to refute the most serious misstatement of the teachings of Christian Science. Before this work of publicly correcting such erroneous news items as the one referred to by Mr. Miller was undertaken, there was prevalent a very general impression that Christian Scientists were doing all manner of foolish things and that they were going insane, or dying, by hundreds. This false impression was largely due to just such reports as the one from Palm Beach, which is now ascertained to be untrue so far as Christian Science is concerned, and we have no doubt that many sufferers have been deterred from resorting to this Science because of fear or prejudice engendered by these reports. We know how hard it seems for newspaper men to discriminate correctly between the true and the false which comes to them over the wires, and how little time there is for investigation, but we believe they will be justified in withholding mention of Christian Science in connection with ninety-nine per cent of the sensational stories in which it is mistakenly made to figure. While there has been a very great improvement in this respect during the past five or six years, there is still room for much more, and we urge our friends of the daily press to still greater discrimination in coupling Christian Science with these stories, and thus avoid doing an unintentional injustice to a system which has for its sole object the good of humanity by the destruction of sin and sickness through the same means that were employed by our Master.

Archibald McLellan.

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