Clarifying Some Points and Revisiting History

[rv.ros...@gmail.com]

A copy of a message I recently wrote,

Dear ___________,

A lot of thought in your message! The infiltration
idea was introduced in the early portion of the last
decade. A Reading Room attendant shared the following,

"The Reading Room hours at the Seneca Falls Reading
Room are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and 12 noon to 5 p.m.
on Sundays. The hours brought up the question of how
the two managers, who were our trainers, attended
church and then opened at noon on Sundays. We were told
that the nearest church was one hour away, and the
trainers could not attend and open the exhibit at noon.
They decided that it is better to attend churches of
other denominations in town than not attend at all.
Since their goal was to get out into the community and
meet the city officials, businessmen, doctors, nurses,
and ministers, they went from church to church, meeting
everyone and making friends at all the churches. This
is a direct quote from one of the trainers: "And the
sermons are beautiful." I wanted to ask if they were
as good as a "divinely authorized" sermon, but
I didn't."

It is the fifth paragraph down in an article I will herein
paste, dated from July 2002,

* * * begin paste * * *

Boston's Plans For Christian Science Reading Rooms
From an attendant at last year's conference at Seneca
Falls, New York.

Here are excerpts from a three day meeting, showing that
the field needs to be alert to protect their Reading Rooms
to keep them safe havens for prayer and quiet study, and
watch that their bound volumes not suddenly disappear.

BREAKING WITH TRADITION

"The trainer read from the Manual, Article XXI, Sect. 3.
It begins: "The literature sold or exhibited in the
Reading Rooms of Christian Science Churches..." She wrote
the words "sell" and "exhibited" on a display board, and
then said that the Reading Room, according to Mrs. Eddy,
was to sell and/or exhibit. She went on to say that the
present Reading Rooms are doing other things, NOT
required in the Manual.

She asked what things they are doing. Several persons
gave answers. The trainer made a list of these
(according to her interpretation) NOT REQUIRED
ITEMS: She said that a non-traditional Reading Room
will not have these. Then she asked the group if there
had to be prayer or quiet study. The answer was no. The
Manual does not say there should be prayer or chalk
citations for study. She stated that lending books
would not create sales, but that activity and
conversation are necessary to have sales. Further,
she said that bound volumes just take up valuable shelf
space that could be used for products for sale. We were
also told to rethink our announcements from the desk,
and to tone down the reference to "quiet study."

"We were advised not to let the members of our branch
churches know all at once the changes that are proposed.
We might find opposition from older members who are
rooted in the traditional Reading Room. We were told to
advise our executive boards gradually, a small change by
a small change.

"The trainer described the other type of Reading Room
as an exhibit Reading Room. For now these exhibits will be
set up by The Mother Church at permanent locations. The
trainer explained that the branch churches' Reading Rooms
have a new additional duty--that is, to call as many
places as one can imagine that would accept the display,
advertise it as a special event, and have personnel on
hand to talk about Mrs. Eddy's life. We were to include an
explanation of the woman's rights movement and how
Mrs. Eddy's life related to it. We were told that it is
necessary to know who the people were in the woman's
rights movement so we could point out the similarity.

"The trainers told how they have been successful
in Seneca Falls. These organizations and individuals
agreed to have or have had an event. Planned Parenthood,
a chiropractic college, several schools, nurses and
doctors' meetings. Nurses and doctors are approached
by telling them, "We are in the healing business,
too." In these instances, stress SCIENCE AND HEALTH
[note - the whole title of the book is not being
given, and not given by questionable design]
as a book about an alternative healing method. In a
public school or government building do not mention
God, Christian Science, or religion. We were told
not to intrude upon a non-Scientists' belief, to
avoid mentioning our Church, and not to be
"churchy."

"The Reading Room hours at the Seneca Falls
Reading Room are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
and 12 noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. The hours
brought up the question of how the two
managers, who were our trainers, attended church
and then opened at noon on Sundays.
We were told that the nearest church was one
hour away, and the trainers could not attend and
open the exhibit at noon. They decided that it
is better to attend churches of other denominations
in town than not attend at all. Since their goal
was to get out into the community and meet the
city officials, businessmen, doctors, nurses, and
ministers, they went from church to church, meeting
everyone and making friends at all the churches.
This is a direct quote from one of the trainers:
"And the sermons are beautiful." I wanted to ask if
they were as good as a "divinely authorized"
sermon, but I didn't.

"As the training continued, I began to see that the
entire message of the meeting was as follows: Church
is not important, is not necessary to learn and practice
healing, and should not be presented in connection with
Mrs. Eddy's life. If the subject of church is
presented, it should be done so only incidentally. During
the conference, we were often told that Mrs. Eddy founded
a church only because other churches did not adopt her
method of healing, but now they are adopting it.

"The conference closed with a talk by a woman who came
from the Reading Room Department in Boston. She shared
a message from the Board of Directors which included the
thought that every member is truly loved by the Board.
We were reminded not to share at once all of the new
ideas we had received at the conference because they
include much in the way of broken tradition. We are
to proceed slowly in presenting these changes to branch
church members and to be in touch with our Reading Room
reps as to how to introduce these changes in the
Reading Rooms and the new duty of showing the exhibit
"This is Woman's Hour" at events."

* * * end of paste * * *

Re reading that article caught my attention, especially
paragraph four,

"The trainers told how they have been successful in
Seneca Falls. These organizations and individuals agreed
to have or have had an event. Planned Parenthood, a
chiropractic college, several schools, nurses and
doctors' meetings. Nurses and doctors are approached by
telling them, "We are in the healing business, too."
In these instances, stress SCIENCE AND HEALTH as a book
about an alternative healing method. In a public school
or government building do not mention God, Christian
Science, or religion. We were told not to intrude upon
a non-Scientists' belief, to avoid mentioning our
Church, and not to be "churchy."

In retrospect that direction is so troubling and we see
evidence of it still today on that terrible trade edition
still out -- of the Christian Science textbook which
entirely lacks the Christian Science emblem from its
designated (by Mary Baker Eddy) *central* place on the
front of the cover.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote several times indicating the
significance of the *central* place of the cross alone,
and or the cross and healing, the latter by which
Christian Scientists identify with the Crown over the
Cross, their emblem. That trademark edition abandoning
her design for the cover is an outright abomination and
heresy.

It was and is deceptive to remove the Christian
Science emblem front and center from the cover in the
apparent hope to engage New Age thought. Confusing
the thought of those so addressed is not helpful.
Removing the *central* indication that this is a
Christian book from the place designated by the
Leader is dishonest. In fact Mary Baker Eddy wrote
the following as regards the Science:

"Christian Science may absorb the attention
of sage and philosopher, but the Christian alone can
fathom it." See Science and Health With Key To
The Scriptures, page 556:14-15.

Concerning the importance of the reason behind its
central place, Mary Baker Eddy has the following
to say --

From Unity of Good, page 57:9-10, she writes,
"The cross is the central emblem of human history.
Without it there is neither temptation nor glory."

In "Miscellaneous Writings", page 357:12, in her article
entitled "The Way", she gives us this -
"Without the cross and healing, Christianity has
no central emblem, no history."

In Science and Health With Key To The Scriptures, Mary
Baker Eddy writes, page 224:16-17, "Of old the cross
was truth's central sign and it is to-day."

And also in the textbook, on page 238:31-1, we find
her words stating:

"The cross is the central emblem of history. It is the
lodestar in the demonstration of Christian healing, --
the demonstration by which sin and sickness are destroyed."

I will not address all your points, ______. Excepting
that it should be clear that the Discoverer, Founder,
and *Leader* of Christian Science is the Pastor Emeritus,
Mary Baker Eddy. Prior to the Woodbury trial Mrs. Eddy
was lovingly referred to as Mother, and regarded to this
day by some as our Mother in Israel. In fact she considered
her church as not the Board of Director's church or the
members' church, but as *her* church - Mother's church.
This continued through the latter part of the 1800's
and through the beginning of the nineteenth century's
first decade until she decreed in the Church Manual that
the title Mother give way to that of Leader.

On page 64, RELATION AND DUTIES OF MEMBERS TO
PASTOR EMERITUS, Article XXII, line 13, Mary Baker
Eddy directs,

"The Title of Mother Changed. Section 1.
In the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, loyal
Christian Scientists had given to the author of
their textbook, the Founder of Christian Science,
the individual, endearing term Mother. At first
Mrs. Eddy objected to being called thus, but
afterward consented on the ground that this
appellative in the Church meant nothing more than
a tender term such as sister or brother. In the
year nineteen hundred and three and after, owing
to the public misunderstanding of this name, it is
the duty of Christian Scientists to drop the word
mother and to substitute Leader, already used in
our periodicals."

Under the same article on page 65, in the Church
Manual, Mary Baker Eddy gives this,

"A Member not a Leader. Sect. 2. A
member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist,
in Boston, Mass., shall not be called Leader
by members of this Church, when this term is
used in connection with Christian Science."

In all her writings, in reference to Mary Baker
Eddy as Leader in the Church Manual as well as other
places in Prose Works, we find the designated term,
Leader, mentioned more than eighty-eight times.

It is not unusual for you, _______, to be unclear
regarding the Leadership in Christian Science when
it is my understanding that there are personalities
in Boston today who I have been told have put forth
the thought that they themselves are leaders. However,
a little review of what has been written about and
especially by Mary Baker Eddy herself shows quite
the opposite.

Paula