02-18-2010, 01:51 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-18-2010, 01:59 PM by Questioner.)
I was really excited to discover, a year after I found the Law of One material, that this is a similarity. In his teens, Don realized he had no interest in hearing anything more about Mrs. Eddy's point of view! Now that's something that's easy for me to respect.
I'm still processing the wonderful comments here, but I can say some more about CS and its appeal to my parents.
My parents' turn to Christian Science didn't come about in a vacuum.
My uncle (Mom's brother) told me that when he and my Mom were growing up, their parents had this arrangement: Once a week, the parents would have a conversation about what was important to them. The parents agreed together on their priorities and plans for the week. Then, throughout the week, their mother would direct the family's activities and run the household according to that agreement.
My uncle told me he wondered if my Mom was simply unaware of their parents' weekly discussions to agree and negotiate priorities together. He wondered if she thought that their mother made up her own decisions about what everyone should desire and do. He said that after their mother died, Mom became quite a bit bossier and tried to take over an unwelcome role of telling everyone what to do. I can see how some of that behavior of hers might have come about from the kind of misunderstanding he wondered about.
My Mom and uncle had another brother. The three kids were all born within a few years of each other. As they grew up, the family went to the Methodist church. Apparently, even back then it was more of a liberal do-gooders' social club than an institution devoted to any particular creed. (I don't say this to criticize, just to observe.)
The other brother was killed in an accident while on a bus ride with the church youth group. The church was apparently totally clueless about how to be supportive to the family, ill-equipped to provide any meaningful counsel or solace.
My uncle said that at the memorial service, he felt absolutely certain to the core of his being that life continues spiritually after physical death. He later joined the Unity church, which has some of the same metaphysical New Thought approach as CS, but without the nutty cult leader or the prohibition on doctors. I have a lot of respect for the Unity church and its adherents.
Mom was interested in Ernest Holmes's Science of Mind and some other intellectual approaches to finding meaning in life. It was because of the books at the house that I learned of Viktor Frankl and Albert Schweitzer, and for that matter of Mark Twain and Willa Cather. Both parents loved Twain's work and Cather was one of my Mom's favorite authors.
My uncle's suspicion is that Dad simply went along with whatever philosophy captured Mom's interest. My uncle thinks that Dad would have had no reason to step into a CS church or reading room, or to know who Mrs. Eddy was, if not for the marriage. I feel this is probably accurate.
Mrs. Eddy was a hit with the New England intelligentsia of her day. Many of her early following came from established, wealthy and powerful heritage. Her church was soon able to present an appearance of a highly philosophical, literate, abstract yet personally comforting form of spirituality that rejected any other creed, legacy, or hierarchy. In that way it had some similiarities with the whole New Thought movement's growing popularity at the time.
Mrs. Eddy also tapped into some of the same appeal of Yankee independent philosophy that found a welcome audience for Emerson, Thoreau, intentional communities like Oneida, and discussion centers like Chautauqua. The architecture, publishing, music and structure of the services, even the Reading Rooms system, all present an imposing grandeur that seems to present deep concepts in formal, elegant ways.
The CS Monitor is to this day one of the most respected newspapers; CS is only used as the basis for the daily religious page. The Reading Room in most towns with a CS church is an elegant and extremely quiet place to sit and read. I don't think they'd welcome a visitor pulling out a copy of The Mask of Christian Science, but quietly reading one's own notes or the assortment of CS and metaphysical material they offer for sale is always welcomed.
For someone who wanted to find some greater meaning in life, who felt traditional Christianity had led to arrogant power structures that recklessly killed her brother and never even really apologized, considered herself an intellectual driven to find the Right Answers to dictate conduct, and was ignorant of other alternatives, CS had a lot to offer.
All the questions and uncertainty could be thrown overboard at last. Answers would be found amid a community of people looking at the intellectual aspects of a charismatic leader's flowery language. One on one counsel was available (for a fee) from officially trained CS practitioners. Remember that my parents were unskilled at handling emotions, preferring to live in their minds as much as possible - even when rejection of emotion made no sense!
I can speculate that all of this may have been some of the appeal, and if I'm right, I can sympathize. The part I object to is that after asking, at some level, "Is this appealing system the truth that's right for me?" she didn't quickly answer, "Hell no!" I don't object to Dad saying something like, "If this spirituality of Mrs. Eddy's means so much to you, I'll check it out with you." I do object to his not quickly saying, "I don't like this, we're not going to devote our lives to it, and we won't raise our kids by it!"
I could contribute a separate thread about Christian Science if people would like. The thread might expand to an overall discussion of cults, which I think we don't have a good discussion about here. After this detour, I want to continue on with some other aspects of my story. Here are some starting points I recommend for those who'd like to research more about CS.
The CS textbook is Mrs. Eddy's book "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures."
It's available as a pdf at http://christianscience.com/science-and-health.html.
It's available to read online, with an excellent keyword search engine, at http://www.spirituality.com/dt/toc_sh.jhtml.
The hanging words to the side of the main text are section headings in the published book.
Mrs. Eddy's autobiography is "Retrospection and Introspection," available at the same site.
The Mother Church, in Boston, provides weekly readings consisting of alternating passages from the Bible, and from Science and Health. These are published quarterly and used in CS Sunday services: "The following citations comprise our sermon."
Notice that a stopped clock is right twice a day, and a randomly changing clock is right occasionally. I don't deny that there are some solid good ideas, poetically phrased, sprinkled throughout Mrs. Eddy's material. But I see them as bait on hooks that are not healthy to take in with a big bite.
A scathing summary of the opposition to Christian Science:
http://www.atheists.org/Mary_Faker_Eddy_...an_Science
Mark Twain's book "Christian Science" starts with his typical bitingly cynical wit, then gets serious.
http://www.classicreader.com/book/1286/
Willa Cather's book "The Life of Mary Baker Eddy" is available at http://books.google.com/books?id=bfUVPgvoNCkC.
Francis Edward Marsten's book "The Mask of Christian Science" is available at http://books.google.com/books?id=d8QPAAAAIAAJ.
Articles critically evaluating Mrs. Eddy's connection with her former mentor, Phineas Quimby:
http://www.ppquimby.com/anderson/founder.htm
I'm really surprised that nobody has made a great biographical movie about Mrs. Eddy, as far as I know. It could be a wonderful conversation starter, and an Oscar turn for the actors.
An example of legislation criminalizing parents who use only Christian Science practice to treat their ill or injured children, declining available medical care because of their faith, and the controversy about such laws:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn..._n9983258/
http://www.religioustolerance.org/medical1.htm
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/news1/an011109-01.html
The change in Colorado law, search for 1286: http://www.leg.state.co.us/2001/pubhome.nsf.
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/faith-healing-c...812&page=2 (Note that some of the parents here were not Christian Scientists, but the same legal questions apply.)
I tried to figure out whether Mrs. Eddy was sincere but really, really confused, or whether she was a deliberate liar and manipulator. After reading the Law of One material, I think she may have been a channel for a negative spiritual force that used a sugar-coasted frosting of spiritual truth to lure people into a manipulative abdication of thought and responsibility.
I don't have the reference handy, but there's also some research that asks the question about whether medically prescribed morphine may have been part of the explanation for the inconsistencies in her thought process.
This is enough to get a flavor of what Mrs. Eddy had to offer and why I decline her offer.
By the way, my dislike of "A Course in Miracles" is because so much of it is like CS at its worst. One of the original people behind the Course grew up in CS. I believe that whether through conscious editing or unconscious association or channeling the same type of negative sources, he brought a very strong CS influence into the Course. However, that will be a topic for another thread.
As I continue to contemplate the wonderful messages of others on this thread, I'll finish responding to them. Once caught up, I'll then proceed on to the next part of my story.
I'm still processing the wonderful comments here, but I can say some more about CS and its appeal to my parents.
My parents' turn to Christian Science didn't come about in a vacuum.
My uncle (Mom's brother) told me that when he and my Mom were growing up, their parents had this arrangement: Once a week, the parents would have a conversation about what was important to them. The parents agreed together on their priorities and plans for the week. Then, throughout the week, their mother would direct the family's activities and run the household according to that agreement.
My uncle told me he wondered if my Mom was simply unaware of their parents' weekly discussions to agree and negotiate priorities together. He wondered if she thought that their mother made up her own decisions about what everyone should desire and do. He said that after their mother died, Mom became quite a bit bossier and tried to take over an unwelcome role of telling everyone what to do. I can see how some of that behavior of hers might have come about from the kind of misunderstanding he wondered about.
My Mom and uncle had another brother. The three kids were all born within a few years of each other. As they grew up, the family went to the Methodist church. Apparently, even back then it was more of a liberal do-gooders' social club than an institution devoted to any particular creed. (I don't say this to criticize, just to observe.)
The other brother was killed in an accident while on a bus ride with the church youth group. The church was apparently totally clueless about how to be supportive to the family, ill-equipped to provide any meaningful counsel or solace.
My uncle said that at the memorial service, he felt absolutely certain to the core of his being that life continues spiritually after physical death. He later joined the Unity church, which has some of the same metaphysical New Thought approach as CS, but without the nutty cult leader or the prohibition on doctors. I have a lot of respect for the Unity church and its adherents.
Mom was interested in Ernest Holmes's Science of Mind and some other intellectual approaches to finding meaning in life. It was because of the books at the house that I learned of Viktor Frankl and Albert Schweitzer, and for that matter of Mark Twain and Willa Cather. Both parents loved Twain's work and Cather was one of my Mom's favorite authors.
My uncle's suspicion is that Dad simply went along with whatever philosophy captured Mom's interest. My uncle thinks that Dad would have had no reason to step into a CS church or reading room, or to know who Mrs. Eddy was, if not for the marriage. I feel this is probably accurate.
Mrs. Eddy was a hit with the New England intelligentsia of her day. Many of her early following came from established, wealthy and powerful heritage. Her church was soon able to present an appearance of a highly philosophical, literate, abstract yet personally comforting form of spirituality that rejected any other creed, legacy, or hierarchy. In that way it had some similiarities with the whole New Thought movement's growing popularity at the time.
Mrs. Eddy also tapped into some of the same appeal of Yankee independent philosophy that found a welcome audience for Emerson, Thoreau, intentional communities like Oneida, and discussion centers like Chautauqua. The architecture, publishing, music and structure of the services, even the Reading Rooms system, all present an imposing grandeur that seems to present deep concepts in formal, elegant ways.
The CS Monitor is to this day one of the most respected newspapers; CS is only used as the basis for the daily religious page. The Reading Room in most towns with a CS church is an elegant and extremely quiet place to sit and read. I don't think they'd welcome a visitor pulling out a copy of The Mask of Christian Science, but quietly reading one's own notes or the assortment of CS and metaphysical material they offer for sale is always welcomed.
For someone who wanted to find some greater meaning in life, who felt traditional Christianity had led to arrogant power structures that recklessly killed her brother and never even really apologized, considered herself an intellectual driven to find the Right Answers to dictate conduct, and was ignorant of other alternatives, CS had a lot to offer.
All the questions and uncertainty could be thrown overboard at last. Answers would be found amid a community of people looking at the intellectual aspects of a charismatic leader's flowery language. One on one counsel was available (for a fee) from officially trained CS practitioners. Remember that my parents were unskilled at handling emotions, preferring to live in their minds as much as possible - even when rejection of emotion made no sense!
I can speculate that all of this may have been some of the appeal, and if I'm right, I can sympathize. The part I object to is that after asking, at some level, "Is this appealing system the truth that's right for me?" she didn't quickly answer, "Hell no!" I don't object to Dad saying something like, "If this spirituality of Mrs. Eddy's means so much to you, I'll check it out with you." I do object to his not quickly saying, "I don't like this, we're not going to devote our lives to it, and we won't raise our kids by it!"
I could contribute a separate thread about Christian Science if people would like. The thread might expand to an overall discussion of cults, which I think we don't have a good discussion about here. After this detour, I want to continue on with some other aspects of my story. Here are some starting points I recommend for those who'd like to research more about CS.
The CS textbook is Mrs. Eddy's book "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures."
It's available as a pdf at http://christianscience.com/science-and-health.html.
It's available to read online, with an excellent keyword search engine, at http://www.spirituality.com/dt/toc_sh.jhtml.
The hanging words to the side of the main text are section headings in the published book.
Mrs. Eddy's autobiography is "Retrospection and Introspection," available at the same site.
The Mother Church, in Boston, provides weekly readings consisting of alternating passages from the Bible, and from Science and Health. These are published quarterly and used in CS Sunday services: "The following citations comprise our sermon."
Notice that a stopped clock is right twice a day, and a randomly changing clock is right occasionally. I don't deny that there are some solid good ideas, poetically phrased, sprinkled throughout Mrs. Eddy's material. But I see them as bait on hooks that are not healthy to take in with a big bite.
A scathing summary of the opposition to Christian Science:
http://www.atheists.org/Mary_Faker_Eddy_...an_Science
Mark Twain's book "Christian Science" starts with his typical bitingly cynical wit, then gets serious.
http://www.classicreader.com/book/1286/
Willa Cather's book "The Life of Mary Baker Eddy" is available at http://books.google.com/books?id=bfUVPgvoNCkC.
Francis Edward Marsten's book "The Mask of Christian Science" is available at http://books.google.com/books?id=d8QPAAAAIAAJ.
Articles critically evaluating Mrs. Eddy's connection with her former mentor, Phineas Quimby:
http://www.ppquimby.com/anderson/founder.htm
I'm really surprised that nobody has made a great biographical movie about Mrs. Eddy, as far as I know. It could be a wonderful conversation starter, and an Oscar turn for the actors.
An example of legislation criminalizing parents who use only Christian Science practice to treat their ill or injured children, declining available medical care because of their faith, and the controversy about such laws:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn..._n9983258/
http://www.religioustolerance.org/medical1.htm
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/news1/an011109-01.html
The change in Colorado law, search for 1286: http://www.leg.state.co.us/2001/pubhome.nsf.
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/faith-healing-c...812&page=2 (Note that some of the parents here were not Christian Scientists, but the same legal questions apply.)
I tried to figure out whether Mrs. Eddy was sincere but really, really confused, or whether she was a deliberate liar and manipulator. After reading the Law of One material, I think she may have been a channel for a negative spiritual force that used a sugar-coasted frosting of spiritual truth to lure people into a manipulative abdication of thought and responsibility.
I don't have the reference handy, but there's also some research that asks the question about whether medically prescribed morphine may have been part of the explanation for the inconsistencies in her thought process.
This is enough to get a flavor of what Mrs. Eddy had to offer and why I decline her offer.
By the way, my dislike of "A Course in Miracles" is because so much of it is like CS at its worst. One of the original people behind the Course grew up in CS. I believe that whether through conscious editing or unconscious association or channeling the same type of negative sources, he brought a very strong CS influence into the Course. However, that will be a topic for another thread.
As I continue to contemplate the wonderful messages of others on this thread, I'll finish responding to them. Once caught up, I'll then proceed on to the next part of my story.