My spouse and my faith

Often when people meet me and discover, as we get acquainted, that I am a Christian Scientist and my husband is not, they ask me how it works for me to practice my religion. Then as the conversation continues and they learn that my husband is a retired medical professional even more questions come up. They often ask how we raised our three children with one of us leaning on medical care and the other leaning on spiritual care.

Now, just to clarify, there is no “church mandate” or rule about Christian Scientists seeking medical treatment. Christian Scientists are free to choose whatever we individually feel is the best course of treatment for ourselves in any instance. I choose to rely on prayer and spiritual healing for my health care because I find it to be effective. 

It’s no secret that there are many Christian Scientists married to spouses of other religions or with no religious interest. My husband has no particular interest in organized religion. (Many times throughout our marriage he’s asked me: “Why are you still reading that same book?” [Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures].) However, our children were raised going to the Christian Science Sunday School and Christian Science summer camps. Whenever our children were ill, and when the children were too young to make their own decisions, there were a few times that we needed to decide between medical treatment and Christian Science treatment for their health care. 

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