Every health need met

On the evening of September 24, three members of the Christian Science Committee on Publication’s US Federal Office were joined by Kevin Ness (General Counsel of The First Church of Christ, Scientist) as moderator, in an 80-minute live online “town hall”-style meeting to primarily answer questions from Christian Scientists on how the US “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”—known as the ACA—may affect them. Signed into law by President Obama in March 2010 and designed to make health care more accessible and affordable, this comprehensive health-care reform law impacts individuals, employers, and insurance companies, and includes a mandate for individuals who can afford it to be enrolled in a health insurance plan or else pay a tax penalty. While some provisions of the law have already taken effect, the “individual mandate” to be enrolled in health insurance goes into effect on January 1, 2014.

Toward the end of the online chat, Margaret Rogers, a member of the Christian Science Board of Directors, who participated from Boston, shared her observations on the discussion. Here are some excerpts: 

 “Let’s just take a couple of minutes together to lift our thought in prayer about this whole issue. Often, I think the best way to start any prayer is with a thank you, and so I’ll just start by saying to all of our Church members, thank you for your prayers to understand the true nature of health and its inviolability, and to demonstrate God’s law of health in your life. It means so much to the world and to our movement. We feel the effect of your prayers. Our thanks, also, to many advisors who have helped us along the way so selflessly, and to the legislators, many of whom have gone out on a limb for our Cause. And all of that, of course, really just adds up to a thank you to God. Thank you to God for the Comforter, which has actually brought this issue of universal, effective health care to the surface of human thought, is pushing its boundaries, and is causing a more spiritual understanding of health to appear. There are so many changes. And, certainly, we Christian Scientists are not the only ones who are scratching our heads over some of these complexities. 

In the United States, many, probably most people, are at this point wondering just what’s going to happen—what it means for them. And all over the world, people are seeking a similar kind of assurance about their health care. So, the thank you to God is that He has given us a changeless law that we might state in these familiar words: “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 494 ). 

Let’s pause, mentally, here for a moment and just contemplate the greatness of that promise, that law. This infinite Love always has met and will meet every human need, and certainly, universal, effective health care is a human need. So, let’s realize that God has already met this need with the Comforter—with Divine Science. God has revealed the divine idea of health as a spiritual condition that cannot be changed—cannot be lost, or taken from anyone. Everyone is included. It’s a normal condition, and this divine idea of health is available now through Christian Science, through the textbook, Science and Health. This divine idea of health has been embracing humanity, it’s been leavening human thought until people are reaching out for a higher, more spiritual, more reliable form of health care. 

And, two points that I think were made so effectively by our speakers, were that our work now, as Christian Scientists, is to see that nothing can interfere with or prevent the practice of this divine law of health, and also that everyone has a right to freedom from fear about their health. 

I love that Bible statement that “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it” (Revelation 3:8 ). So, nothing can interfere with the practice of Christian Science—it’s an open door that all may access. No one can shut it. Yet, I think we need to watch. Mrs. Eddy was always telling us, in agreement with Jesus, to watch—watch that no evil thoughts can shut that door to good, that we cannot be caught up in this highly polarized atmosphere, or become cynical or afraid or confused.

Rather than berating our government, we can become peacemakers. We’re going to know that government is a spiritual idea, that it’s God’s. You know, if “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man,” and that “correct view of man healed the sick” (Science and Health,
pp. 476–477 ), then we can behold the perfect government of God, and that correct view of government must bring out harmony. We can look for and magnify the good. Religious freedom and fairness are not in conflict—they are not partisan principles. They both are qualities of divine Principle and Love. They are united, and we can have religious freedom and justice and universality. That’s God’s law. So, let’s just think of this online meeting as a healing balm that we are pouring out on the whole of society, and if we take away just one thing from this meeting, perhaps it can be that great affirmation that “divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.”

An audio replay of this meeting is available at http://bit.ly/18MhN0a