Article November 16, 1929 Issue

A writer in your issue of April 18 indulges himself in a...

Edgar McLeod, Committee on Publication for Northern California,—Los Gatos

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A writer in your issue of April 18 indulges himself in a rather bitter attack on Christian Science. He complains that a Christian Science lecturer "sent out from Christian Science headquarters," gave a lecture in Los Gatos during holy week which was being "so beautifully celebrated by Catholic and Protestant groups alike." Christian Science lecturers are not "sent out" to Los Gatos or elsewhere. They are members of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, and they give lectures only in response to invitations from The Mother Church or one of its branches. These lectures are free, and the public is invited to attend them. That they are appreciated and enjoyed, not only by Christian Scientists, but by many others as well, is evidenced by the fact that in many instances they are given to capacity houses. In fact, in the larger cities they are frequently held in large auditoriums, the seating capacity of ordinary halls and church edifices being inadequate to accommodate all who desire to attend. One reason for the continued and growing interest in these lectures is that they contain a helpful message of healing and good will. It might be appropriate to add that following the invariable rule of the Christian Science church, these lectures never attack, ridicule, or belittle other religions or the adherents thereof. The critic's boast that he did not accept an invitation to attend this lecture simply indicates that he neglected an opportunity to learn something of a religion with which apparently he is but slightly acquainted, and which he therefore does not understand. Yet, notwithstanding this lack of understanding, he has presumed to discuss and condemn it.

In observing the critic's method of attack, one is almost impelled to conclude that any investigation he may have made of Christian Science has been mainly, if not wholly, for the purpose of combating its teaching. He has resorted to the use of detached, garbled, and misquoted phrases and sentences. Even the Scriptures, which in their proper setting and sequence glow with spiritual beauty and wisdom, if subjected to such treatment would be made to appear incoherent, contradictory, and inconsistent.

The critic makes a rather uncomplimentary remark about the teaching of Christian Science, because, among other things, it asserts that there is in reality no matter. Christian Scientists do not quarrel with those who do not accept this statement. Nevertheless, now that the critic has raised the issue in a controversial spirit, his attention is directed to the fact that matter no longer has the fixed status which it was believed to have something over sixty years ago when Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, declared that it was not included in God's spiritual creation and therefore had no real existence. Although pursuing an opposite pathway of investigation, the natural scientist has been learning that matter is not, at least, what he had formerly supposed it to be. Year by year, under the searching scrutiny of the laboratory, matter has been growing more and more illusive, until to-day it is usually admitted to be some unexplained form of force.

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