Article August 12, 1933 Issue

In a recent reference to the basic science bill passed by...

Theodore Burkhart, Committee on Publication for the State of Oregon,

Gazette-Times

In a recent reference to the basic science bill passed by the state legislature requiring physicians and drugless healers to pass an extra examination in certain "medical fundamentals," you say a customer inquired, Why did they not include Christian Scientists? "The answer is easy," you say; "they have too many votes."

However correct that explanation may be, a far better reason could be given for exempting Christian Scientists, namely, that Christian Science is a religion, in a class by itself, which heals spiritually, not materially. Those who hold themselves out as qualified to heal by material means and methods may rightly be required to have something more than a superficial knowledge of the human body and material methods, but no such knowledge is essential to the Christian metaphysician, who heals only by spiritual means. By its very nature, exalting God as All, as infinite good, as it does, the practice of Christian Science is the dispensing of good through exercising knowledge of spiritual power, which is incapable of harming anybody or anything. It is the practice of primitive Christianity, which has been discovered to be scientific, and as such it should not be regarded as an object of legal regulation as are material systems of treating disease. In the words of Mary Baker Eddy in the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 460), "Our system of Mind-healing rests on the apprehension of the nature and essence of all being,—on the divine Mind and Love's essential qualities. Its pharmacy is moral, and its medicine is intellectual and spiritual, though used for physical healing."

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