 Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 8:24 AM
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| When a child is born with a birth defect to a CS mother, whose error is it?
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Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 9:06 AM
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Priscilla,
It is mortal mind's error.
tmcl
tmcl
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Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 9:17 AM
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| Sorry, I am confused. I am not an ex-CSer but have family who were so my understanding is limited. My question was more to whose mortal mind, the mother or the child. It seemed that I read an article in a quarterly that attributed the blame to the mother. Would that be accurate? Do they believe that birth defects are reversable?
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Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 9:25 AM
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Priscilla,
Christian Science teaches that ultimately there is only one mortal mind, and that "mortal minds" (plural) are individualized expressions of this one mortal mind. Because mortal mind counterfeits and inverts the order, beauty, and harmony of God's creation, it can objectify these inversions as birth defects due to various factors such as random DNA mutations, injuries, etc. Christian Science does not blame the mother or child for these and does teach that they can be healed as mortal mind yields to God's power and the consciousness of the original harmony and order of God's creation displaces the "error" of the birth defect.
tmcl
tmcl
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Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 10:27 AM
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Priscilla,
When a child is born with a birth defect to a CS mother, whose error is it?
Jesus was asked a similar question:
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. - John 9:1-7 (ESV)
When I was in CS, this story was told mixed with the story of the healing of the blind man in
Mark 8:22-26. In Mark, the man gets a physical treatment by Jesus then says, "I see men, but they look like trees, walking." That was interpreted to mean men appeared blurry and therefore the treatment was less effective (blind to nearsighted was considered an incomplete healing). Jesus' followup treatment did provide full healing.
Rather than focusing on the aspect of healing being to God's Glory, CSists (including my CS teacher) used these passages as an example of the ineffectiveness of mixing material with spiritual healing.
Do Go Be Man
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Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 10:43 AM
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Do Go,
Interesting how CS teachers teach different things. My own CS teacher indicated the point of this story is that the patient is not to blame for the illness, but that the situation is an opportunity for God to be glorified.
tmcl
tmcl
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Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 11:55 AM
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tmcl,
You probably don't want to name your teacher, but it would be interesting to know what year he or she completed Normal class.
Do Go Be Man
<><
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Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 12:39 PM
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MBE did say that parents' thinking had an effect on their children's health. For example, she said in Science and Health:
"Mind regulates the condition of the stomach, bowels, and food, the temperature of children and of men, and matter does not. The wise or unwise views of parents and other persons on these subjects produces good or bad effects on the health of children." (S&H 413: 7-11)
Consistent with this, I and other CSists I knew grew up being taught that parents' thoughts could affect their children's health. This is also mentioned by one of MBE's students, Emma Newmann, in the "We Knew MBE" series when she tells about one of MBE's students asking MBE why his child had caught a cold. MBE's response to the man was that the man had caught cold for his son.
If one extrapolates MBE's statements and CS teachings to parents' thoughts about their unborn children, I can see why people might think that their thoughts could cause birth defects in their children. Right or wrong, it's a natural conclusion to reach.
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Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 1:03 PM
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Thank you all for being patient with me.
So would a parent of a child with a birth defect experience guilt 1. over the condition and 2. over the lack of healing? Or does it depend on the teacher they have had? If the child has not the mental capacity to recognize the error or understand CS, how can a healing occur? How can you work out your salvation if you can't think to work it out?
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Posted Monday, August 07, 2006 1:11 PM
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Priscilla,
1. The parent of a child with a birth defect should not experience guilt over this condition.
2. The healing does not depend on any thinking that the child is either capable or incapable of doing. The healing comes from the power of God, not from any power in the human thought of either adults or children.
tmcl
tmcl
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