In your issue of February 28, under the headline "Modern Church Compared with Tower of Babel,"...

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

Polk County Itemizer-Observer

In your issue of February 28, under the headline "Modern Church Compared with Tower of Babel," appears an article copied from some religious weekly which points out how the "hodge-podge of confusion" among the many varieties of modern religion is at the bottom of the failure of the church to meet this, its "big day of opportunity."

This recital of contradictory doctrines and creeds, "this incoherent babbling of the guides" as the author expresses it, uncovers the weaknesses of some of the present-day religious systems, without, however, getting at the underlying cause, or suggesting a remedy.

I, for one, wish to voice my belief that, in spite of opposing practices and beliefs, the sacred Scriptures are being studied today more than ever before, and are becoming better understood in the light of Jesus' teaching that the "kingdom of heaven is at hand." The day may be distant, but I believe it is nevertheless dawning, when those of differing religious beliefs will be able to unite on the common ground of spiritual understanding.

I regret that the article you published included Science and Health in the long list of what the author refers to as "cults of every degree of fanaticism flourishing in the name of religion." The textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, is wrongly mentioned in such a list as that, for Christian Science stands apart from all other systems of healing and religion, in a class by itself. Its textbook is no hodge-podge of fanaticism, but is a logical and scientific treatise on that supreme Science, the Science of spiritual being. As did Jesus, Christian Science attributes all reality, all law, all power and intelligence to God, the one divine source of all good.

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, which with its 2673 branch organizations comprises the Christian Science church, was organized by Mrs. Eddy to "commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Church Manual, p. 17). Primitive Christianity, as founded by Christ Jesus, is the right basis for church unity; it contains no element of confusion or inconsistency, and when rightly understood and practiced it antidotes the troubles of mankind with very practical results.

As well-informed people know, the Christian Science church is doing its full share in aiding humanity to get rid of its false beliefs, beliefs which are the cause of all wrongdoing, all lack, distress, and suffering; and with gratifying success it is satisfying the "God-hungry souls" who turn to it, because, in the words of an old hymn, it "meets the heart's great need."

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