Testimony of Healing January 17, 2011 Issue

Embracing church, finding healing

Sally Sullivan

Adapted from the Church Alive website under the title “Restrictions and resistance dissolved.”

Most of my family attended a Christian Science church when I was a child. My mom and I read the weekly Bible Lesson together, and I loved the Bible stories. Even as a child, I loved Mary Baker Eddy’s use of language in Science and Health. Yet I resisted church attendance much as I resisted a lot of things my family did—claiming my independence and self-reliance. Christian Science seemed too restrictive and weird, and I felt it set me apart from friends who went to more mainstream churches. I really wasn’t practicing Christian Science even though I was reluctantly attending church with my family.

In college, feeling even more empowered and independent, I decided I didn’t need that kind of structure in my life at all. So I severed all contact with church, including withdrawing my membership in The Mother Church.

But my life did not go well health-wise. I’d had skin rashes as a child and teenager, and after marriage, skin problems, food allergies, and other health issues worsened. I began reading self-help books on biochemistry and taking food supplements, thinking I had to manage the nutrients my body received. Soon my cupboards were full of supplements, not food. I became pretty much addicted to these. I increasingly feared food and its effects.

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