Update to an earlier post

Just over a year ago I wrote this post, regarding Linda Osmundson, a prominent resident of the St. Petersburg, Florida area, who was the founder of a local organization dedicated to helping victims of domestic violence. She was also a Christian Scientist, and was forced to resign her position with the organization she founded due to a very obvious health concern in the form of a growth on her face. Sadly, I have recently learned that she has succumbed to whatever her illness was (she apparently did have a diagnosis, but never shared it publicly).

What Would Make Me Go Back?

I have sometimes wondered what might ever make me go back to Christian Science; if I ever would go back; and what it might be like if I did. Some of us in the ex-Christian Scientist groups fear that when we grow older and potentially slip into dementia, we might inadvertently revert back to Christian Science in the mental fog of dementia, and I honestly think that’s probably the only way I can see it that I would go back at this point, since the only other thing that would send me back is unlikely to ever happen. And…that brings me to the topic of this post. 

I Am a Sensitive Guy

It’s official: I’m a sensitive guy. I received that diagnosis recently during a visit to the emergency room at the local hospital. This visit was occasioned by a sudden, unpleasant, and quite alarming rash that broke out all over my body; and given that it was late in the evening on a Sunday, going to a walk-in clinic or my own doctor were not going to be options, so I went to the ER. The rash had arisen the day before in a much milder form, and had somewhat subsided overnight, but now it reared its ugly head in a much more alarming form, worse than I had experienced such a rash in the past.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

“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.

Just Because You Can, Should You?

Morality can be a shifting line, and there are definitely some gray areas. For some, living in a sexual relationship outside of marriage is absolutely immoral, for many others, it’s not. It’s not illegal to have sex outside of marriage, or for couples in relationships to live together outside of marriage, but just because it’s not illegal, is it right to do this? Many will argue that it’s not ok. Personally, I don’t care either way on that issue. But, I have a different issue in mind with this post. My issue relates to the raising and protecting of children.

Ignoring the gorilla in the room

Recently, this news story came across my Facebook newsfeed courtesy of one of the ex-Christian Scientist groups I’m in. I ask that you give it a read before continuing with this post. Go ahead…I’ll wait.

There–finished the article? Great! What did you think? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, via e-mail–or if you’re up to it, go ahead and write a guest post. I’ll take a few moments now to share some of my thoughts, since this is my blog, after all.

Thoughts On Fathers’ Day

Today is Fathers’ Day. As many on Facebook have done, I posted as my profile pic, a picture of my Dad. Unlike many others I’ve seen posted, I don’t share the camera space with him. My cousin does. It was taken during a visit she and her husband had with him the summer before he died. It is also the last known picture that was ever taken of Dad. He died later that same year. I’ve looked at this picture often, and even posted it last year on Fathers’ Day. Even nearly five years since his death, it still brings a tear to my eye when I look at it.

Non-effect of Christian Science

As I write this, it’s a few days after Christmas, the Boxing Week sales are in full effect, and I am slowly recovering from a holiday battle with a flu virus that finally caught up to me. It started innocently enough as a little scratch in the throat, but snowballed from there and has laid me flat for the last three days. Since Tuesday, when I battled through it to drive to my cousins’ place where I usually spend Christmas, I’ve been virtually a recluse on their downstairs family room couch. Christmas dinner, with the failure of the oven, was an entertaining (for all of us) comedy of errors, all adding up to a holiday few of us will forget. It was the only moment I made an appearance that day.

Does Christian Science Work?

I’ve said it time and time again in various posts here that I do not believe that Christian Science works. Yes, Christian Scientists like to point to a “well documented record of healing” a lot when refuting those of us who claim that it doesn’t work. The problem is, that “well documented record of healing” is anecdotal evidence at best–and it’s not particularly good anecdotal evidence anyway. All that is required for a testimony to be ‘documented’ (published in the Christian Science periodicals) is for verification from three people who have witnessed the so-called ‘healing’ or who can vouch for the integrity of the testifier. Usually, those who vouch for testifiers are Christian Scientists themselves–hence, as I see it, a large credibility gap. Independent, impartial verification would engender more faith in the testimony for me nowadays. So, today I’ll explore some of my own reasons why I don’t believe that Christian Science works. These are my proofs. These are my truths.

Perilous Denial

Artwork by Isabella Bannerman.

Denial…spend any time talking to a former Christian Scientist and you’ll get an earful on the subject–I’ve interwoven the subject throughout many posts on this blog. If you talk to a practicing Christian Scientist, you’ll find that denial is a perfectly legitimate way to address almost any problem. Christian Science denies problems, it denies grief, denies anything “bad”, and therefore claims that by this process, the problem (which they claim never existed anyway) is solved. Confused yet? If you are, I don’t blame you. Explaining Christian Science and the requisite mental gymnastics required to practice it to someone who knows little or nothing about it, is like describing colour to someone who has been blind from birth.