Article May 20, 1922 Issue

A recent issue contains an article on "Compulsory Vaccination...

Willard J. Welch

Denison (Iowa) Review

A recent issue contains an article on "Compulsory Vaccination of School Children" which may mislead some people as to the attitude of Christian Scientists on this point.

The value of vaccination has always been a mooted question everywhere, since Dr. Jenner introduced vaccination over a hundred years ago into England. The public is still bewildered to-day, and physicians now as then are divided in their opinions concerning the practice. Those physicians who do not favor it are becoming more numerous and more positive in their opposition. The constant effort to legislate it on the people is proof of their opposition. If vaccination always proved to be a protection and never an injury, everybody would want it for themselves and their children. But, is this the case?

Christian Scientists protest against the compulsory feature of the vaccination question, because they know, and they demonstrate in their lives, that they have found a better way to meet disease. It should, however, be made clear to all, that they do not, and have no desire to force their way upon others who may differ from them, and that they do not oppose the practice of vaccination for those who do believe in it, nor do they disregard quarantine laws. They have no quarrel with physicians. They are taught on page 151 of their textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, that "great respect is due the motives and philanthropy of the higher class of physicians. We know that if they understood the Science of Mind-healing, and were in possession of the enlarged power it confers to benefit the race physically and spiritually, they would rejoice with us." But in theory and practice Christian Scientists steadfastly uphold the rights of conscience and the freedom of individual choice in healing methods.

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Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"...
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