“Somewhere over the rainbow way up high
There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”
~From the movie “The Wizard of Oz” (music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E. Y. Harburg)
Praying for a healing in Christian Science is sort of like chasing a rainbow. You feel like you can almost touch it, get close to it, but it remains ever elusive. Continue reading
In conjunction with my friend Kat, a fellow former Christian Scientist who blogs at Kindism, I’ll be posting a series of posts we’ll be writing that deal with how Christian Science has, and continues to masquerade as something it’s not. These posts will appear simultaneously on Kindism and here on Emerging Gently. Today, Kat writes about Christian Science nursing. You can find this series of posts under the category “Christian Science Masquerade Ball”.
I was going to write a post comparing and contrasting Christian Science Nursing with modern medical nursing until I came to the Church’s own page about the topic and read what Christian Science Nursing actually entails, and my desire to write a polite analysis went out the window and I had an overwhelming desire to smash my head repeatedly into a wall.
Image credit: Imgarcade (www.imgarcade.com).
This is another in an occasional series of posts dealing with contradictions within the practice and/or culture of Christian Science. For other posts, check out the topic Contradictions.
Among my ex-Christian Scientist friends, I’ve seen discussion of the “No True Scotsman” informal fallacy as it relates to Christian Science, Christian Scientists, and of interest to me–ex-Christian Scientists. This discussion also applies to former Christians (of any other Christian denomination) as well, and you can read an excellent discussion of that here. Continue reading
Image credit: The Mind Unleashed (Facebook Page).
I’ve found all too often, based on my own personal contact with highly religious people, and my observations of public figures who are highly religious, that they tend to be among the most closed-minded people around. They think that their way is the only way, and everybody else is wrong, and they’re going to Hell (I’d care about that if I actually believed in Hell). Continue reading
Image Credit: American Humanist Association (Facebook Page) (https://www.facebook.com/americanhumanist?pnref=story)
The attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices in Paris this past week have gotten me thinking about stuff, religious stuff. The good folks at Charlie Hebdo make a habit, some might say a bad habit, of skewering religion in the most pointed and harsh way possible. I can definitely say that from what I’ve seen their cartoons are at best irreverent. At worst, I think they may border on racism. Either way, however, I think the criticism of religion, like all other ideas, is a fundamental right that should never be abridged, by anyone. Continue reading
This is #10 in a series of posts looking at the 26 Christian Science Weekly Bible Lesson subjects, chosen by Mary Baker Eddy, and rotated twice per year. These lessons are the sermon at each Christian Science church worldwide, and are read by Christian Scientists daily. Today’s subject is “Love”. Look for other posts in the category “Lesson Sermon Subjects“.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. I like stats monkeys…
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 20,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Emerging Gently 