Testimony of Healing November 19, 1984 Issue

A few years ago I was held hostage by a gunman...

Name withheld

A few years ago I was held hostage by a gunman and raped. Some friends were vacationing in our home at the time, and when it became known to them that I was being held hostage, they called my husband at work. He in turn telephoned a Christian Science practitioner, who began praying on my behalf.

After my release I was very grateful to be alive and back with my family again. But soon I became depressed, ashamed, and so afraid that I felt I no longer wanted to live.

The practitioner talked at length with me, stressing that my true spiritual identity had never been victimized. He explained that in reality I could not have two identities; I could not be a suffering victim of crime on the one hand and a spiritual idea of God on the other. In truth my identity was spiritual—created, sustained, protected, and directed by God. Mary Baker Eddy writes in the textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 282): "Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God's absence, is the Adam dream, which is neither Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

It is with gratitude to God that I write this testimony