LETTERS TO THE PRESS

with contributions from Assistant Committee on Publication, JOHN DICKSON MARTIN

Recently, considerable media attention has been focused on several fundamentalist "faith healing" groups. One such group centering in Indiana was the subject of a five-part series of newspaper articles, which concluded by misleadingly linking Christian Science with that group's views and healing practices. The confusion between Christian Science and healing through blind faith is not new. Mrs. Eddy spoke of this at many points throughout her writings, stating, for example, "Blind belief cannot say with the apostle, 'I know whom I have believed' " (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 54). Seeing this distinction becomes especially important today in view of the current attempt to discredit healing through spiritual means as Christian Scientists practice it.

An Assistant Committee on Publication in the area where the paper is published saw the need to clarify the issue for her community. She wrote a brief, thoughtful letter to the editor, which the newspaper published in full. In the same spirit of fairness, the newspaper also offered the Committee on Publication in that state the opportunity of writing a guest editorial to explain even further the Christian Science view on healing—especially in regard to legislative protection for the rights of parents to rely upon spiritual means of healing for their children.

In The Fort Wayne News Sentinel
Fort Wayne Indiana

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