Article August 12, 1916 Issue

Our critic classifies Christian Science as a "female religion,"...

Harry I. Hunt

Atlantic City (N. J.) Review

Our critic classifies Christian Science as a "female religion," whereas many intelligent observers have expressed surprise at the large percentage of men to be found in congregations of Christian Scientists. Indeed he will find plenty of "real, red-blooded men" in attendance at Christian Science services, if he cares to look for them, many of whom have been brought back from the edge of the grave by the healing religion which he assails. St. Paul, who was a good example of strenuous manhood, up to the time at least that he took a certain famous journey to Damascus, declared later in his Christian experience that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" and Jesus, near the conclusion of that wonderful discourse called the Sermon on the Mount, made it clear that it is what a man does, not what he says or seems to be, that brings him into the kingdom. The Master said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

Our critic declares in substance that a man can dispose of sin by believing that it did not happen, and thinks that is a Christianly scientific statement. On the contrary, Christian Science shows that it is the beliefs of the human or carnal mind which are responsible for sin and its correlatives, dis ease and death. Christian Scientists understand that God is good, just as all Christians believe. They understand that God is the only creator, just as all other Christians believe. All that God has created, therefore, is like Himself, good. Now sin, disease, and death were destroyed by Christ Jesus, who declared that he came not to destroy but to fulfil the law. His destruction of these items of human experience, as recorded in the gospels, proved for all time that they are unlawful, not of God, and hence that they are wholly the product of that mind of the flesh which St. Paul says "is enmity against God."

The antidote for sin is clearly set forth by the same apostle in his letter to the Romans: "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." This transforming mind is, as he puts it, that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." It is that Mind unto which every Christian Scientist is striving to attain.

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Our critic classifies Christian Science as a "female religion,"...

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