Article July 7, 1917 Issue

The evangelist who by printed handbills, over his signature,...

B. W. Oppenheim—Moscow, Idaho

Star-Mirror

The evangelist who by printed handbills, over his signature, circulated in Moscow during a series of revivals in his church, linked the Christian Scientist in a class with the "adulterer, the seducer, the unclean, the murderer, the drunkard, the thief, the godless," and other criminal and sinful offenders, has gone so far beyond the limits of propriety and truth that not even his priestly office can protect him from the accusation of having stated that which he could not but know to be untrue.

He must have known, for he has the means of knowing, that the Christian Scientists in his own community are law abiding people. This is true of Christian Scientists not only in his own community, but in every community throughout the world. Christian Scientists are engaged in worshiping God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and are by law entitled to freedom from such slanderous reviling. No minister of the gospel is commissioned by any power, human or divine, to bear false witness against them, little as he may agree with their doctrine.

It is not true that the designations used by this man apply to Christian Scientists in any sense or at all; nor can any sophistical definition of sin place Christian Scientists and the offenders mentioned in the same class together; nor do the teachings of Christian Science tend toward the commission of crime or the upholding of sin. On the contrary, the whole teaching of Christian Science and the constant effort of its followers is toward purity, morality, sobriety, the uncovering of crime, the overcoming of sin, and the healing of disease and suffering. Christian Science is based on the teaching and practice of Jesus the Christ. Its example is the risen Saviour, who overcame every form of sin and discord, even death, and who admonished his followers to attain unto the perfection of the Father which is in heaven.

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