Article August 23, 2010 Issue

The Bible as a bridge

BY MARYL WALTERS

MANY YEARS AGO I stepped outside a social event to get a breath of fresh air. Another woman had done the same thing, and we started talking. I think she'd heard that I was a Christian Scientist, so that was how the subject came up. Mainly her comment was: "Do you really believe that stuff?"

My response was to share a little of why Christian Science means so much to me. We found we had mutual interests, including a deep interest in spirituality, and began to get together occasionally. Every time we saw each other, the subject of Christian Science would come up. I showed her the Christian Science Bible Lesson that I read every day. Her comment was: "It's really not fair to read the Bible the way you do—picking and choosing only what you want to read about—what works for you." As I recall, I didn't argue with her about it; I just kept sharing a passage or an idea that I had read in the Bible Lesson whenever we were together.

One day, she said to me: "While I've been criticizing you for just reading excerpts from the Bible, you've been reading the Bible every day and I haven't! You're inspiring me to be more diligent. Can I have a printout of your Bible Lesson?" She quickly explained that she would only be reading the Bible part of the Lesson. Of course I gave it to her, and soon she told me she couldn't resist finding out what Mary Baker Eddy had to say about the Bible passages! Then she would ask a lot of questions, some of them along the lines of, "What was Mary Baker Eddy thinking?!" We had many, many interesting discussions.