 Posted Saturday, June 28, 2008 7:31 AM
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Is anyone familiar with Robert Y. Ellis, a former Christian Scientist who has written a self published book about his experiences entitled "A Collision of Truths"? More information is available at his website at http://acollisionoftruths.com/. Also, he was recently interviewed in the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/06/22/a_talk_with_robert_y_ellis/).
I wonder if he has ever heard of Christian Way?
John
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Posted Saturday, June 28, 2008 9:42 AM
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Posted Saturday, June 28, 2008 6:42 PM
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| I am just finishing his book. I honestly don't know how to report on it, except to say that Mr. Ellis was certainly a very dedicated Christian Scientist who took a great deal of comfort from his religion until....... His father was murdered, and although he was somewhat estranged from him because of his fathers complete UNacceptance of CS, he loved his father very much. Then his much loved practitioner mother died a horrible, painfully drawn out death. These things turned him away from Christian Science. He, like many former Christian Scientists began a journey of searching for answers. Mr. Ellis seems to look towards quantum physics, rather than scripture and I would say has become pretty much of a religious agnostic. If anyone else reads the book and comes up with a better report on it, I would love to read it. I need to re-read his last couple of chapters, but that is my take on the book right now. Sharon
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Posted Saturday, June 28, 2008 7:41 PM
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| I enjoyed the book! He is so credible because he was raised in it, practiced it for many years, and served the church and Monitor. I didn't come away with the impression that he was agnostic though. I think he was discussing quantum physics in relation to the whole "matter isn't real" delimma we see in Christian Science. I wish he had discussed it more, but I can see how a topic like quantum physics could lose a reader fast. I liked his first few chapters but the later ones really dug more into the aspects of why he left Christian Science. I could relate to it so well. As we have seen people say so many times on this site. . its so good to know I am not the only one that feels and/or felt that way and I never knew so many of us are out there!
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Posted Sunday, June 29, 2008 7:19 PM
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| Gentle Dove, I also enjoyed the book. I kind of lost the "gist" of it at the end. But I guess he is really searching like so many of us. I also got out of it the fact that I need not throw out every single thing about Christian Science just because of my experience with my mother. I guess I labeled him agnostic because of his declaration while watching his mother die..."There is no God". It's an interesting book and a comforting one in many ways. I loved that he got the anti-Catholic stuff in there. That was sure something I grew up with. As a child I was relatively sure that Catholic churches had groups on nuns in their basements working against Christian Science. Sharon
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Posted Monday, June 30, 2008 3:36 AM
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| Yes, I remember being brought up with a large dose of anti-Catholism except I wasn't told it was a basement of nuns but a bunch of jesuit priests! I wouldn't be surprised if it was partially true though.
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Posted Wednesday, July 09, 2008 5:36 PM
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| I found this on a site about Christian Science. It is class notes from a teacher who was trained by Kimball. This is from something called the blue book and contains a watch list. One of the items is about knowing that Catholic prayers can't hurt them. Apparently, there is some truth to their fear of Catholics. http://christiansciencecct.org/docs/BLUE%20BOOK%20COMPLETE.pdf
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Posted Saturday, July 12, 2008 1:27 PM
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| Wow! Just go to that web site and read some of that stuff. I did a search through the document just on the word catholic and it is unbelievable how much anti-catholic stuff Mrs. Eddy taught. No wonder I had that drilled into me non-stop. I tried to date a Catholic boy once and you wouldn't believe what went on in reaction to that. I was threatened with boarding school and every other thing you can imagine. Sharon
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Posted Saturday, July 12, 2008 2:59 PM
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'Wow' is right! I'm surprised no one has commented on this before today! This material is very strange...full of paranoia, and obsession with the weather and Roman Catholicism.
Mrs. Eddy claimed her monthly periods left her the moment she came to see Christian Science, and she never saw that 'claim' again? Sexuality is death? There are so many bizarre statements in this collection. I am not surprised today's Christian Science 'culture' would want to distance itself from some of this.
Do we know the authenticity of the material?
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Posted Saturday, July 12, 2008 6:54 PM
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| The website had a section to e-mail any questions or comments. The content seemed to be in-line with what I was taught. With the internet, I imagine we are going to be seeing alot more of the information regarding the beliefs that have been held and taught but not discussed in a forum such as the internet until now. I would assume these writings were not readily available without the net unless someone had the time to really research. Maybe some of this is why they are supposed to keep their class notes so secret.
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