Article November 8, 1919 Issue

Permit me to reply to the ministerial attack on Christian Science...

Joseph E. Badger

Montreal (Canada) Star

Permit me to reply to the ministerial attack on Christian Science as reported in your columns. In the first place, had this well advertised, so-called "Christian Science lecture" been designated, "Some False Views on Christian Science by Local Clergymen," it would have been more correct, and would have been less misleading to the general public. The admission, by one of these critics, that "he found its teachings an intellectual impossibility," at once disqualifies him as a competent judge of it. Yet, undeterred by this acknowledgment of his failure to grasp its teachings, he launches an attack on a figment of his own imagination; and is assisted in this display by a fellow clergyman in arms, who at first criticizes him for his "kid glove" attempt, and then joins in the attack more vigorously himself by resorting to the accusations that the Pharisees of old used toward Christ Jesus and his teachings.

Christian Science must be judged, not by what its critics say against it, but by its essential Christianity,—by what it really is and what it is accomplishing. It must be judged, not by whether it conforms to certain accepted standards or beliefs of ecclesiasts, but solely by the vital questions: Does it conform to the teachings of Christ Jesus? Is it fulfilling the essential mission of the religion he taught, which unmistakably is the healing of the sick and the reformation of the sinner? Christian Scientists emphatically declare, as a result of their experience, that it does so conform, and they prove this declaration in their daily lives. In every Christian Science church on every Wednesday night, all over this and other lands, many thousands of God-fearing people who are the direct beneficiaries of this healing, saving religion, bear willing and grateful testimony to its efficiency as a healing and redemptive teaching. These people are well and favorably known in their respective communities. They command the respect and esteem of their friends and their neighbors. Their word can be considered unimpeachable, because their integrity as citizens is unquestionable. They are Christian Scientists because of what Christian Science has done for them. When all else had failed in most cases, the power of God through Christian Science healed them.

In choosing to attack the religion of a large number of their fellow citizens who are endeavoring, with a gratifying degree of success, to reduce the sum total of the world's load of sickness, distress, and despair, these two Christian ministers were not only wasting their time and that of the teachers of the Sunday School Association, whom they should have been instructing in teaching the gospel message, "On earth, peace, good will toward men," but were exhibiting a regrettable spirit of intolerance which would, if it could, tear down that which has given to unnumbered thousands health in place of sickness, joy in place of sorrow, and peace where discord was before.

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