Feel I must comment about Christian Science

The current head of the Christian Science church died suddenly. Since an event like this highlights a topic for at least one news cycle, I think I need to blog my thoughts about Christian Science.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Science

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I am not a fan. How a woman (Mary Eddy) (or a man for that matter) who, no matter how devout she is, decides to "found a church" just because she prayed and an injury was healed is absolutely beyond me. I mean, duh, recovery after prayer is not the discovery of the century. Further, how she thought she was now able to decide what parts of the Bible are real and which are "symbolic," and to decide she "knows" what God is like is just incredible. Usually I am more charitable toward Christian sects and denominations if they are manifest with love of Jesus. But you cannot love Jesus and identity steal him and minimize who he is and who God is. That's not love, that's arrogance. So I'm not going to bother to critique every error and heresy because it's on such a inflated foundation of error that there's no point. What human nature it is through the centuries though, for some people, who are so inflated they decide they have the "true answers" and break away from the Church just because some itch of theirs got scratched.

However, I thought about a way to help people who are as scandalized, as I am, at the cases where lives have been lost, especially children, due to refusing all medical treatment. In fact, those of you of the institutional Christian church, do not be shy about evangelizing to Christian Scientists if you have a charitable opportunity and any chance of them listening. I know that's not a politically correct thing to say, but there's a real need for truth about God, especially when it impacts the health of children.

Whether you believe in the Bible literally or as these people "symbolically," you cannot miss that there is only one time that God commands the sacrifice of a child. In Genesis 22 you can read how God tested the faith and obedience of Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. Just as Abraham was about to obey the angel of the Lord stayed his hand and halted Abraham before Isaac was harmed. As a result of Abraham passing that extreme test, the angel of the Lord, speaking for God, told him:

Genesis 22:16-18
..."I swear by myself, says the Lord, since you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will indeed bless you, and will surely multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, as the sands on the seashore. Your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemies. In your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

Because Abraham was willing to sacrifice the very beloved son that God himself had given to him and Sara in their old age, Abraham became the father of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths through his descendants.

If there was ever to be a hint that allowing a child to actually be mortally harmed, either through human activity or illness, this event would have transpired differently. Abraham would have stabbed his son, and God "would have miraculously heal him." But that is not God's nature. God does not want a single child to ever suffer or be harmed, as Jesus made very plain in the scriptures. So if there had been any truth to a belief that God would put Jesus "in charge of curing the faithful who pray to them rather than seek medical treatment," I mean think about it, duh, there would have been at least a "symbolic" story in the Bible relating that.

So I have always shared the outrage that the healing ministry of Jesus when he lived, and prayer to Jesus and God since then, have been twisted by some to put the onus on Jesus for a child dying or not. Think about it. Is that not the ultimate cop out? You say, "Oh well, Jesus didn't cure my child; guess our faith was not strong enough or God wanted the child in heaven!" So here is a faith that makes it Jesus' option or fault if a child is miraculously cured or not. What is a miracle is so many kids grew up healthy without medical care in general! (I'm being a tad sarcastic there). I'm not speaking hypothetically, I grew up with Christian Science neighbors. People, it really is not cool. It's a theological nightmare, but it's also absolutely totally not cool to try to "force Jesus" to "intervene" and "decide" if a child who is totally deprived of medical care is going to live or not. I thought they were freaks when I was five years old, for that very reason.

Now I'm not trying to demonize them or promote hate. But they sure have had a lot of free pass press over the decades about the "strength of their faith" that just is not right, for the two reasons I give above. So I'm hoping that people who might have bought into this bogus belief will read this and understand the clarity with which I am speaking. Reason one: If God intended that dire medical peril should be allowed to come to children just so Jesus can decide who to cure and who to not cure, there would have been even "symbolic" reinforcement of this somewhere in the Bible, and in fact, the opposite is true. Not only are children and adults to receive medical care in addition to prayer, but one of the Gospels is written by a physician, St. Luke. St. Luke would certainly have written, "Oh, and guess what we learned! We doctors are not supposed to give medical care anymore because Jesus will decide based on prayer whether they live or die." Reason two: God told Adam and Eve and has repeated the message that humans must "toil" and they have free will. Toiling includes medicine. How do we know that? Just one example is found in Tobias when the angel Rafael teaches the son how to find a substance in a fish that cures his father's blindness. There is a biblical example of where a medical treatment is taught to a human by an angel as a reward for the lifetime of faith of the father, not because the father refused medical treatment when he went blind and prayed instead. The Bible is not subtle. The point would have been made if humans were not to practice medicine and poor Jesus would have to 'pick and choose' who of the untreated lived and died. That is so outrageous that not a lot of Biblical scholarship is needed to refute it, as I have here quite thoroughly.

Anyway, you should have seen how I've ranted when famous cases of untreated children have hit the news waves over the past decades. But like I said, I also knew from close up and not friendly personal experience with childhood neighbors.

I hope those of you who have pondered this "belief" system find this helpful.