Article September 28, 1935 Issue

In your issue of February 22, regarding House Bill 221...

Carl Walter Gehring, Committee on Publication for the State of Ohio,—Medina

Gazette

In your issue of February 22, regarding House Bill 221 introduced into the General Assembly, you state that this bill proposed to permit "persons in the practice of the religious tenets of their church to administer to the sick or afflicted by prayer and spiritual means and without the use of material medicine." In order that your readers may not be misled I am submitting just what the effect of the bill would be, and I hope that you will publish this explanation.

Christian Science is now being practiced among thousands of Christian Scientists in Ohio. There are many Christian Science practitioners giving all their time to the healing work of Christian Science. Believers in Christian Science go to practitioners for aid and have done so for years. What this bill does is to distinguish legally between the practice of medicine and the practice of Christian Science.

As things are now, if a Christian Science practitioner should charge a fee, that practitioner under the present medical practice act would be guilty of practicing medicine without a license and subject to arrest. This bill is intended to correct this unreasonable state of affairs. A Christian Science treatment, which is a purely mental treatment, decidedly is not a medical or surgical treatment. Forty-one states of the union have recognized this fact and legalized the practice of Christian Science; and Ohio Christian Scientists are now asking the Ohio General Assembly to do likewise.

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September 28, 1935
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