Editorial October 5, 1968 Issue

Counteracting a Public Nuisance

Helen Wood Bauman

In 1883, Mary Baker Eddy founded The Christian Science Journal. In her Miscellaneous Writings she explains some of her reasons for starting this publication. One reason she states in these words: "Looking over the newspapers of the day, one naturally reflects that it is dangerous to live, so loaded with disease seems the very air. These descriptions carry fears to many minds, to be depicted in some future time upon the body." She goes on to say, "A periodical of our own will counteract to some extent this public nuisance."^{Mis., p. 7;}

Now that news media have expanded to include radio and television, the danger of their spreading sickness through descriptions of diseases demands greater alertness than ever on the part of those who understand what is happening and want to do something to stop it. If the unholy practice of depicting diseases is to be counteracted, the student of Christian Science must be quick and firm in his denial of the very existence of disease whenever he is confronted with some fearsome suggestion of its danger. He can do this effectively if he really understands that God is All and that disease has no place in that allness, hence no real existence.

Christ Jesus called the devil, or evil, "a murderer from the beginning,"^{John 8:44;} in other words, a destroyer, as opposed to creator, the one divine Principle, God. Disease is one of the destructive tools of the devil, and it should be seen in this light rather than merely as a discomfort or a personal misfortune. The Scientist can wage his individual campaign against the foolish advertising of the devil's tools by realizing with special clarity the powerlessness of evil's malicious intent to spread destruction through disease.