Article June 4, 1979 Issue

My encounter with Christian Science

HELEN MARGARET SYKES

One of an occasional series of articles by young people who have in recent years become students of Christian Science. They explain how they became interested in Christian Science, what convinced them of its utility and truth, and how its teachings have changed their lives.

On looking back over the way things have worked out for me, I don't regret that as a young child I had no strict religious instruction. My parents had decided that my brother and I should find our own answers on spiritual matters, and they provided a sound basis for us to make such judgments by encouraging us to aim for the best in life, whether in schoolwork, homelife, or team games. At my own request I had attended two different Protestant Sunday schools, where I learned about the Bible and the framework it provides for moral standards.

However, during high school a number of my classmates became deeply involved with religious activities of an evangelical character. Part of their approach was to share with the rest of us their personal accounts of how they'd been "saved by Jesus." Many felt their lives had been transformed by what they had found. Their wholehearted commitment to study of the Bible and the way they shared their insights with others were at once a wonderful example and a staggering rebuke to someone who, like me, had always gone along happily, unchallenged by deep theological questions.

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