Article February 1, 1930 Issue

Your issue of July 30 contains a report of an address by...

Edgar McLeod, Committee on Publication for Northern California,—Chico

Enterprise

Your issue of July 30 contains a report of an address by a doctor. When he digressed from his main topic (medical practice) to discuss Christian Science, his statements revealed that he undertook to explain something which he himself did not understand. While his statement that "there is a great truth in Christian Science" is a generous tribute, still it does not dispose of the wholly misleading impression his later remarks conveyed. His criticism that Christian Science "is neither scientific nor Christian" is one of the hackneyed charges which certain opponents of Christian Science still employ. Christian Science is a religion founded upon the teaching and works of Christ Jesus. It is Christian because it is compassionate and redemptive. It is scientific because it sets forth a demonstrable Principle which has been proved by thousands who have been healed and regenerated through its application.

If the doctor were acquainted with either the theology or the practice of Christian Science, he would not have stated that "it is psychotherapy which all physicians must use." Christian Science treatment, while both mental and spiritual, relies wholly on the power of Spirit. This reliance is based on the recognition that God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, and that the spiritual man reflects this infinite God. In conformity with Paul's oft-quoted statement that "the carnal mind is enmity against God," Christian Science teaches that the mortal or human mind (that is, the so-called mind on which psychotherapy relies), being the source of disease, cannot heal disease; and it continually warns against the use of hypnotism, mesmerism, and mental manipulation.

The doctor, after stating, in substance, that he has nothing against Christian Science or other systems which have made contributions to the healing art, adds: "But it is desirable that all people who make a specialty of any kind of therapy be a family doctor for at least four years." In so far as this statement is intended to include Christian Scientists, it reveals another misapprehension due to the doctor's failure to realize that Christian Science is a religion, and that the healing is accomplished through spiritual means. I assume that it will be conceded that even the experience of having been "a family doctor for ... four years" would not have equipped Paul with the understanding which made whole the cripple at Lystra, and protected him from the viper which "fastened on his hand."

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