Article May 29, 1909 Issue

The minister who seeks to advance truth by attacking...

with contributions from Helen B. Morse

Detroit (Mich.) News

The minister who seeks to advance truth by attacking the beliefs of others is as far behind in his profession as the old teacher of the three R's who sought to overcome natural mental defects by a liberal use of the beech rod. The proposal of some members of the Pastors' Union to launch a campaign against Christian Science is bad judgment from the psychological, pedagogical, and religious points of view. It would show the lack of knowledge and wisdom on the part of those who are supposed to know the avenues by which truth finds its way to the mind.

The folly of the attack, the Pastors' Union's unpreparedness for it, is shown in the necessity of bringing in an outsider to do the fighting. Surely, if the pastors knew Christian Science to be all they hope to prove it to be, they would then know enough about it to see the utter uselessness of attacking it with a hammer. Here is a positive statement of principle. The principle is right or it is wrong. It is operative or it is not. To bring to bear on this statement of principle a negative, attacking campaign is to accomplish nothing. Christian Science has its appeal, which must be displaced by a better appeal, if Christian Science is to be uprooted—has the Pastors' Union formulated a better appeal? If Christian Science is a delusion, is the Pastors' Union prepared to produce a reality that responds to the deep cry of the race for an ideal that transforms?

Moreover, it is the experience of every cult that the more persecutions the greater its growth. Attacks are like the winds which toss the young tree and root it deeper. When Christian Scientists hear of the proposed campaign against them in this city, they will rest quietly and possess their souls in patience, for they know that Christian Science is due for a good boost here in Detroit. Attacks always work that way. The attacker is never quite as convincing as the man who merely states his principle and lets it do its own work in the mind. Unwittingly the Pastors' Union is lending itself to a Christian Science campaign.

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