Questioner: We hear a lot these days of our right to be well, our right to health. I'd be interested to hear how you view this subject in Christian Science.

Speaker: We believe that an individual certainly does have the right to be well but that this right isn't the gift of any human government, but of God.

Questioner: That's a new viewpoint. Usually discussion of the individual's right to health refers to various private or government health plans.

Speaker: Well, it seems strange that people view liberty and even intelligence and a sense of humor as a gift of God, but not good health. They so often think of health as dependent on mere bodily conditions or material structure and organs. They see themselves as subject to material laws of health, deterioration, and change. And they feel that perhaps the government is responsible for keeping them well and healthy.

Now, Christian Scientists are not opposed to the aid given by government to those who are in need. But we learn from the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, that God is infinite Spirit, divine Life, that He is the real source of man's health and strength. And this health given by Him must be good because God, divine Love, is good. Health, then, is maintained by God.

The Psalmist praised God as "the health of my countenance, and my God" (Ps. 42:11), and spoke of His "saving health" (Ps. 67:2).

Questioner: But why isn't there more evidence of this God-given good health you say we have a right to?

Speaker: Good health, like freedom or good humor, has to be recognized and demonstrated to be effective. And we must spiritually understand that health is in fact man's God-given right. Christ Jesus helped people to do just that.

We find that healings of all kinds—both for individuals and for multitudes as well—flowed naturally from his understanding, acknowledgment, and worship of one God as the source of all health and life—the source, in fact, of all good.

Christian Science reinstates in Christianity the natural healing work which the Master did. You see, Jesus himself said (John 14:12), "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." Surely that's addressed to you and me today.

Christ Jesus explained that the basis of man's God-given health is a correct understanding of the nature of God. He said (John 4:23), "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." Now, I know that to worship God "in spirit and in truth" may require radical change from the generally accepted basis of thinking. It demands an entirely new approach.

Questioner: Would you explain this entirely new approach?

Speaker: Well, as I've mentioned earlier, the general human view of man is that he is merely physical, subject to material laws and conditions. But the Bible explains that man's eternal nature, his true nature that we don't see with our human eyes, is spiritual, perfect, and good. It's constantly governed by the law of good. And we find that man already possesses by reflection from God perfect health, soundness, and right activity. This is the selfhood of every individual, but it needs to be understood; it needs to be accepted right here and now.

Questioner: And yet the physical senses do exist; so you have the spiritual and the physical.

Speaker: But the physical is the merely temporal, human view of a situation. We find in Christian Science that the physical body and the material thinking about it are interrelated; in fact, they're two forms of the same thing.

Let me just give you an example. Suppose I showed you an English coin and told you that it was a half crown and then put my hand in my pocket again and took out what looked like another coin but what was actually the same coin with the other side up. You probably wouldn't recognize it as the half crown.

In a similar way, the material body and mortal thinking are two sides of the same coin. So when we seem to have anything wrong with our bodies, in Christian Science we don't treat the body. We look to our thoughts. We look to our consciousness and say: Now, what am I accepting as real?

This is the basis of becoming really aware of our divine right to be well. You see, whatever is unlike God, whatever is evil—whether it's disease, sin, or suffering—it must be challenged and overcome on the basis of recognizing that it is no real part of God's creation.

From this I think you'll see that worshiping "the Father in spirit and in truth," as the Master said we should, demands a willingness to exchange the merely material view of man for the spiritual.

Questioner: Isn't this asking almost the impossible, particularly in view of the long history of sickness and suffering?

Speaker: It would be if we had to rely on ourselves alone. But even Jesus said that he could do nothing of himself but that it was the Father that did the works. He constantly acknowledged God as the only power, as divine Life, and thus the motivating and sustaining force of man. In proportion as we steadfastly maintain this spiritual standpoint, the standpoint of our relationship with God, we come to recognize man's divine right to perfect health.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 136): "Jesus established his church and maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught his followers that his religion had a divine Principle, which would cast out error and heal both the sick and the sinning."

As you may know, it was a hundred years ago this year that Christian Science was discovered. And man's divine right to be well has been proved by countless people during the century.

Questioner: Well, of course, I have never seen a healing in Christian Science. I have seen healing through medicine. And so naturally this is what I would turn to in my belief.

Speaker: I think that's very understandable. You would normally turn to the best help you know. Now, in Christian Science, I have seen so-called incurable disease healed. A very good friend of mine was healed of cancer many years ago when she was waiting to go to the hospital to have an operation. And she's now an active Christian Scientist.

I have seen this work. I have seen this truth operate in our experience. In my own family I've seen broken bones healed inside of twenty-four hours. And so, naturally, when any trouble comes along, I turn to the source which I know is the best, the most practical, the most powerful help.

And Christian Science shows us that this right to be well is a divine right. It isn't something we hope may come about. It isn't something we strive to get next week. It's an awakening to realize that it's a divine right, that it's part of man's being to be well, to be happy, and to be free.