What Are Christian Scientists?

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What are Christian Scientists?

I have some as neighbors, and would like to understand some of their ways. Is it true they don’t visit the Doctor or take medications? What would they do in the face of a serious, life-threatning disease that is easily treatable? For example diabetes. Would they take insulin or just die?

What are some of their core beliefs?
 
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cargopilot:
What are Christian Scientists?

I have some as neighbors, and would like to understand some of their ways. Is it true they don’t visit the Doctor or take medications? What would they do in the face of a serious, life-threatning disease that is easily treatable? For example diabetes. Would they take insulin or just die?

What are some of their core beliefs?
Christian Scientists are followers of Mary Baker Eddy, who wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She believed that God had given her special insight into the ‘lost’ knowledge of the Bible by which Jesus and the Apostles were able to heal. She developed (some claim she plagiarized) and very complex metaphysical sytem of interpreting the Bible, one which essentially denies the Divinity of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost. They deny that sin, sickness, or evil are real, and believe that it was Christ’s mission on earth to expose these concepts as illusions. Christian Scientists believe they have within the framework of Science and Health a complete methodology for overcoming all sickness. In the event of any sort of serius illness, Christian Scientists would consult with minister of Christian Science, known as a Christian Science Practitioner. The Practioner would seek to help them understand the false illusions they need to repudiate in order to be restored to wholeness. In general, if a Christian Scientist cannot excercise sufficient faith to overcome an illness, they will seek out medical help. There have been cases where Christian Scientists have refused medical help for themselves or for their children; in the latter cases, courts have often stepped in to force the parents to give their children proper medical care.
 
On first glance, it seems like a very effectictive way to ‘get rid’ of those who have ‘undesirable’ genetic traits. But it appears your explanation would allow a diabetic to get their insulin, eventually. Or would it?

Do their kids have to get the shots required to attend school, or are they exempt? Can they seek dental care? If so, does it allow for the use of pain killers, or do they just tough it out?

It’s difficult for me to understand why anyone would not avail themselves, or their loved ones to basic medical care.
 
Christian Scientists often ignore what Eddy actually wrote, said, and did, regarding the use of medical intervention. By the time Eddy died, she had moved away from a rejection of medicine, to supporting the use of medicine if prayer failed.

After she died, the leadership of the Christian Science church took a “hardline” against medicine (ignoring the fact that Eddy herself took advantage of medical attention in her latter years). And the members of the Church in general followed suite and tried to practice what they thought Eddy taught.

Now, there’s a movement in Christian Science to return to the writings of Eddy, to recognize that she didn’t ultimately forbid the use of medicine, and to dissolve some of the rigidity of the post-Eddy Christian Science church.
 
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cargopilot:
On first glance, it seems like a very effectictive way to ‘get rid’ of those who have ‘undesirable’ genetic traits. But it appears your explanation would allow a diabetic to get their insulin, eventually. Or would it?

Do their kids have to get the shots required to attend school, or are they exempt? Can they seek dental care? If so, does it allow for the use of pain killers, or do they just tough it out?

It’s difficult for me to understand why anyone would not avail themselves, or their loved ones to basic medical care.
In general, Christian Scientists who feel their faith is not strong enough to heal them can and do seek medical care, including dental care. At last report, Christian Scientists are among the most prosperous and well-educated members of most societies, so I don’t know that they could be deemed to have ‘undesirable’ genetic traits. I’m not a big fan of euthanasia even if it is self-induced by one’s religious faith, in any case.

In most US states, I do believe that CS children are exempted from imunizations (there were some heated court battles over this). In other countries this varies: in some countries there is no latitude for conscientious objection to immunizations. You understand that if a sufficient percentage of the population of an area is immunized, the risk of an epidemic breaking out among the non-immunized is vastly reduced.

What you are missing from the tone of your questions is the idea that Christian Scientists are seeking to be healed by means other than traditional medicine. And, to judge from the testmonies of the Christian Science Sentinal, at least some adherents ARE healed. (The Sentinal, a religious periodical which always includes testmonials of those who have been healed, is one of two periodical publications of the *Church of Christ, Scientist. *The other is the Christian Science Monitor, a newspaper well-known for the quality of its’ journalism. Christian Scientists operate Reading Rooms–a sort of combination of free private library and bookstore–in most metropolitan areas. They give away outdated editions of their publications upon request). Of course, Christian Scientists rarely if ever subject themselves to rigorous scientific scrutiny to verify that, yes, a serious malady WAS originally detected, and yes this malady does indeed appear to have been resolved by some means other than normal healing processed or the intervention of medical care.

See the following link:

tfccs.com/index.jhtml;jsessionid=BEKMTNEOP5U5HKGL4L2SFEQ
 
There are definitely healings in Christian Science. There are healings in New Age, in Buddhism, Islam and Christianity so, IMO, the healing obvioulsy transcends the particular belief. Something larger is going on.

CS gets conversions mainly from Jewish and Catholic folks. I have a good friend who converted from Catholicsim to CS in her 40(s) and has experienced a healing with an eye problem using her practitioner.

The CS church is easy for many Jews to convert to as the divinity of Christ, as I understand CS, is somewhat muted in the CS church teachings.
 
Here we go. I shall attempt to condense the whole of CS theology into one smiley face.

:whacky:
 
There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.468:9

DEATH. An illusion, the lie of life in matter; the un-
real and untrue; the opposite of Life.

I AM. God; incorporeal and eternal Mind; divine
Principle; the only Ego

rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/science.htm
 
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cargopilot:
What are Christian Scientists?

I have some as neighbors, and would like to understand some of their ways. Is it true they don’t visit the Doctor or take medications? What would they do in the face of a serious, life-threatning disease that is easily treatable? For example diabetes. Would they take insulin or just die?

What are some of their core beliefs?

Christian Science is an approach to life which is much like the New Thought and mind-cure movements of the early 1900s; it’s a form of “positive thinking”, but with more Christian vocabulary.​

These are Mrs. Eddy’s own words:
God is all in all.
God is good, good is mind.
Spirit being all, nothing is matter.
Life, God, omnipotent, good, deny death, evil, sin, disease —Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipotent, God, life.

According to her, they are true both forwards and backwards. So: “Spirit being all, nothing is matter” becomes “Matter is nothing, all being spirit” - which is highly problematic, to say the least of it: for if Christ was not truly incarnate in a human body, “[we] are still in our sins” - and Christian faith collapses.

mbeinstitute.org/SAH/SAH.htm ##
 
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