Article May 13, 1916 Issue

Nothing can be more repugnant to the American sense of...

The Asheville (N. C.) Citizen

[Editorial in The Asheville (N. C.) Citizen]

Nothing can be more repugnant to the American sense of justice than the persistence with which the courts of various sections of the country, doubtless aggravated by special interests of a selfish nature, hound that ever-growing body of religionists known as Christian Scientists. For the third or fourth time this year the great state of New York has lent itself to a form of persecution which seeks to convict a man who practises the art of healing with prayer. The strangest part of each proceeding is found in the language of the warrant which charges the accused of "practising medicine without a license." If prayer is to be incorporated into materia medica, then every mother who has knelt beside the cradle of her sick child, and every minister of the gospel who has asked the prayer of his congregation for some afflicted member, has been equally guilty and has practised medicine without a license.

It seems that Christian Scientists so accused are held guilty of the death of a patient when death ensues; yet when we enter the recognized circles of medical practice, where the death totals run up into the thousands every year in givine sections, no one is held responsible, nor should any one be. The annual report of the New York state department of health shows that there were approximately fifty-five hundred deaths from pneumonia alone during the last year, all under one form or another of medical treatment. Naturally, there was no talk of "investigation" at the hands of the state authorities.

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