Article February 10, 1934 Issue

Extracts from Reports of Christian Science Committees on Publication

The first duty of Committees on Publication is "to correct in a Christian manner impositions on the public in regard to Christian Science, injustices done Mrs. Eddy or members of this Church by the daily press, by periodicals or circulated literature of any sort," as cited in the Manual (Art. XXXIII, Sect. 2). There has been a marked change in the attitude of newspapers toward Christian Science, and this is especially true in Kansas. No critical articles, and only two misleading references to Christian Science in the state press which needed correction were called to our attention during the year. In each instance the editor gave our corrective letter a prominent position. One paper headed the correction "Christian Science Based on the Scriptures" and reprinted the letter several months later, with proper credit, when it appeared in the Christian Science Sentinel. As a result of this friendly contact the latter paper is now carrying our Lesson-Sermon excerpts. Our Lesson-Sermon excerpts have become a weekly feature of one hundred and thirty-five newspapers of the state.

From all parts of the state we hear of increased attendance at lectures and an unusual demand for newspapers in which lectures are published. The experience of Kansas newspaper men with lecture reports has proved satisfactory and profitable. In one city the two daily newspapers alternate in publishing the local lectures, and the circulation manager of one of our large dailies volunteered the information that the reports of Christian Science lectures in his paper have resulted in a noticeable increase in circulation.

The Pentecostal Herald said on June 21, 1933: "It may be truthfully acknowledged that there were many people who left the church and adopted Christian Science because they were not receiving the soul rest which they craved. ... It may be further said to the credit of Christian Science that the publications of their organization are morally clean. When one turns from the trails of detailed murder stories, immorality depictions, and putrescent advertisements in the daily papers and then reads The Christian Science Monitor, he is conscious of a purer atmosphere." An official of the American Medical Association delivered an address twice in Kentucky during the year, in which he attacked all forms of nonmedical healing. Not a single line of his remarks referring to Christian Science was printed in the newspapers of one city, and they were only slightly referred to in the other.

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