zoarean

But I am old enough to have seen that too often "what goes around comes around".  Those who pointed the finger at others for seeking medical attention found themselves in the same position, with the overwhelming health problem that they could not begin to cope with. Those who so coldly refused to pray for another human being under medical care found themselves in a hospital with no one to pray for them, but maybe family members who would now make an exception, who now scrabbled to find and study the words of respected Christian Scientists who wrote articles about how it WOULD be OK to pray.  

The statement at the end of the article referenced...about medical care being "a convenient fig leaf should the need arise" just stuns me.  It is obviously coming from the mouth of someone who has never had an extrememly serious health issue and who is so out of it they cant perceive it happening to a Christian Scientist.  This DOES happen to people, even good, class taught life long Christian Scientists, and even practitioners and teachers.  Maybe they cant breathe from pheumonia or they get in an accident where their life blood is pouring out of them.  People get their arms lopped off in farm equipment and their legs crushed into 100 pieces in car accidents. People have unimaginable pain from some cancers. So they go to the hospital and they have grabbed a "convenient fig leaf"?   He writes these people off as not being "loyal and true Christian Scientists"?  HOw crass!!!  I DO wonder if HE found himself in a situation where he could not breathe....say his house was burning down and he had smoke inhalation...as he was gasping for breath....would he stop and "know the truth"  or would he grab some oxygen from the tank in the ambulance? The scary thing is, Im not sure.  While I have seen so many of them get medical attention in desperate times, I have also seen them sacrifice themselves, and DIE. 

If I am overly passionate about my disgust for Christian Science you all must forgive me.  I was not raised a Christian Scientist so it is not a philosophy instilled in me by my parents. But I have lived with it for more than 50 years and I have watched someone I love DIE for no good reason other than their dedication to the concept of radical reliance.  While I used to just roll my eyeballs at ridiculous statements, or hide my stunned reactions to outrageous behavior, I came to the end of the line when I witnessed this death. I was not going to ENABLE the Christian Scientists in my life to continue their CS SPEAK/BEHAVIOR around me and act like it was normal and acceptable. I have put Christian Science out of my life... ended decades long relationships with Christian Science friends and I have thrown my radical reliance, S&H toting, Christian Science husband out of the house.

While this site has given me a lot of validation for what I feel, its frustrating and aggrivating when active CSers come here and speak the same old gobbeldygook.  I find it SO hard to comprehend how this just goes on and on and they cannot see the forest for looking at one square inch of bark on one tree. And its a life and death issue. People's LIVES hang in the balance.  My own husband has clung to radical reliance when his very life was in the balance, even though he witnessed the same failure of Christian Science healing as I have, among our friends and his family over an entire lifetime. He still sat there and said in no uncertain terms  "IT WORKS!"  I have tried to say to him, dont go by what you read in books or periodicals, dont go by what people have told you, just go by your own experience, what you have seen with your own eyes...its just no use.  *sigh*

His CS sister fell and hurt her ankle recently.  A day later I remember her saying she was healed of the swelling but not of the pain.  Healing the pain took several weeks.  This is such a good example of how a Christian Scientist thinks and interprets health issues.  She totally does not comprehend that: 1) swelling goes down if its not broken 2) if one thing was healed why not the other? 3) if it took weeks it was not a healing, it just got better

Square Peg

Remember that Christian Science fits most of Robert J. Lifton's criteria for thought reform (mind control). The CS mindset and behavior patterns are much easier to understand if viewed in light of these criteria (as in my book). I feel and understand your frustration -- it's frustrating to watch someone suffer needlessly.