LETTERS

with contributions from ANNA WILLIS, JEROME MCINTIRE, SANDRA L. CLARKE, BARNEY PETERS

LONGER CAN BE BETTER

Thanks to you for including Mark Raffles's long, descriptive (in a positive sense) testimony, titled "My true countenance," in the April 21 issue ["You're not guilty"]. It really shows how his thought progressed about countenance and face.

His testimony goes well with the Christian Science Bible Lesson Sermon for April 7–13 on "Are Sin, Disease, and Death Real?" The word face is used in the Golden Text, the Responsive Reading, and every section of that Lesson.

ANNA WILLIS
RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA, US

HELPFUL EXPLANATION

Thank you for printing in the April 21 Sentinel the notice from the Christian Science Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees of The Christian Science Publishing Society, explaining the use of a newer Bible translation in a May Christian Science Bible Lesson, as well as giving helpful response to rumors that have been circulating regarding this move. Most of us have not taken the opportunity to look through early Mother Church records about the Christian Science Quarterly, nor to look up the sources of all of the Scriptural quotations in Science and Health. It doesn't surprise me that Mary Baker Eddy found value in a variety of Bible translations that were available in her day.

Thanks also for printing a number of the responses to this announcement. I especially appreciated hearing about the use of the Bible Lesson in institutional services and about the greater accessibility of the Lesson-Sermons to inmates when they can read and hear them in the modern language of recent Bible translations.

I'm sure the same is true for many young people. My own son, in elementary school, loves to hear the New Testament stories read to him from the J. B. Phillips or Eugene Peterson versions. I find fresh meaning in these as well.

JEROME MCINTIRE
VIROQUA, WISCONSIN, US

SUPPORTIVE OF PROGRESS

Thank you so much for the comprehensive and loving coverage concerning the occasional use of other versions of the Bible than the King James. It was nice to reread the letter from the Directors and the Trustees, but most especially I appreciated the generous selection of comments from members. It's encouraging to know that a majority of members are embracing and supporting this step of progress.

SANDRA L. CLARKE
ATTLEBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, US

FRESH VIEW OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A HEALER

I was so grateful to read Sarah Eastman's article, "A wealth of opportunities," and Lois Carlson's poem on the facing page, "After the call," [April 28, "A reason to hope"]. What wonderfully fresh and intimate views of the public practice of Christian Science healing.

In was so comforting to me, as a stay-at-home husband, to learn that I could cast off any false sense of responsibility regarding the spiritual love and care I feel for mankind and for the Church of Christ, Scientist—while attending to the many duties of home and a wife in graduate school—knowing as Sarah stated, "... that the real Healer is always God."

BARNEY PETERS
WALES, WISCONSIN, US

The Sentinel invites your comments. Please include your name, address, and daytime phone number. All letters to the editor are submissions for bublication, unless you request otherwise, and are subject to editing for length and clarity if selected for publication. Opinions expressed in this column are not nessarily those of the Christian Science Sentinel.

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Irresistible progress in healing

May 12, 2008

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