Corrective Statement by Committee on Publication for Southern California

John J. Selover

The Kingdom Voice

John J. Selover The Kingdom Voice, Los Angeles

I am sure you and your readers would appreciate a corrective statement showing the stand which Christian Scientists take concerning peace and war.

To preface my remarks, I should like to commend the statements which appear under the heading "Fear Grips the People." Surely the Scripture, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee," is a comforting influence to one held in the grasp of fear.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has made a number of statements concerning war in her book entitled "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany." "War," says Mrs. Eddy (p. 278), "is in itself an evil, barbarous, devilish." And again she says (p. 277), "But if our nation's rights or honor were seized, every citizen would be a soldier and woman would be armed with power girt for the hour." Later she says (p. 281), "War will end when nations are ripe for progress."

Christian Scientists believe in peace, but they rise in the strength of God to join in the battle against the aggressive forces of evil. Not only do they rise when war is actually declared, but they fearlessly battle the evil tendencies leading to war.

An editorial letter which appeared in The Christian Science Monitor on May 16, 1940, answering objections to taking sides in the world conflict, said that it is the "very love for humanity which compels this newspaper to take sides, not against any nation or group of nations in and of themselves, but against the evils which are attempting to destroy the very basis of civilization. . . . There is at stake the right to live the Christianity upon which men's lives must be based, else they perish. The challenge to Christianity is being made on more than one front, but in this period it appears to be receiving its chief impetus by an attempt to overthrow the Nazarene's love-inspiring doctrines through the forceful application of hatred-breeding Nazi dogmas."

I shall appreciate your courtesy in printing this letter, lest your readers, at a time when Christian faiths should stand together, obtain an erroneous concept of the position taken by Christian Scientists in the world conflict.

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March 6, 1943

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