Christian Science and Censorship
Christian Science, founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the late 19th century, emphasizes the healing power of biblical truths. Eddy's key work, *Science and Health*, outlines her beliefs, which led to the establishment of the Church of Christ, Scientist, and its Mother Church in Boston. The church has a structured governance system detailed in Eddy's *Manual of the Mother Church*, which sets strict guidelines for membership and church activities, including prohibitions against circulating unapproved religious materials. This governance has historically led to tensions within the community, with dissenters sometimes being expelled or forming independent groups. Furthermore, the church has faced external controversies, including lawsuits related to its practices and financial decisions. Critics argue that the church's stringent policies and aging membership pose challenges for its future, while proponents highlight ongoing renovations and expanded outreach efforts as signs of vitality. Overall, the interplay between adherence to doctrine and the need for adaptation reflects the complexities within the Christian Science movement.
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Christian Science and Censorship
Founded: 1879
Type of organization: Boston-based worldwide Christian denomination that believes sickness, sin, and death can be overcome through mastery of the principles of Jesus Christ’s original teachings
Significance: The church has assumed the public spotlight many times as a minority of members have complained about its founder’s system of governance, which forbids dissent over church management and doctrine, and forbids “unauthorized” publication of religious literature
Mary Baker Eddy founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, to propagate the biblical truths that she claimed were responsible for her life-saving healing in 1866. She published her beliefs in the book Science and Health in 1875. Four years later she established the Mother Church, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, and then fostered the growth of branch churches worldwide. The Christian Science Publishing Society, a variety of broadcast operations, and The Christian Science Monitor newspaper also became part of the denominational structure.
An intelligent and articulate woman, Eddy was frequently involved in protracted personal disputes with followers in the early years, as she fought to manage the growth of her movement’s churches, religious rhetoric, and publications. Members who disagreed with her aims sometimes characterized her as a jealous and irritable tyrant. Often these members left the fold, or were expelled for their unfaithfulness. Eddy accused dissenters of carrying out mental “mesmerism” to bring evil influence against her or her church.
At the root of most complaints over the years has been The Manual of the Mother Church, a 138-page document written by Eddy and modified regularly until her death in 1910. The manual established rigid guidelines for church governance, election of officers, admission of members, and organization of services. It barred church-sanctioned social gatherings, established “taxation” of members, and presented guidelines for the private, personal conduct of Christian Scientists. The manual also states members may not “buy, sell, nor circulate” any religious materials not sanctioned by the official Christian Science Publishing Society. In the view of a severe critic of Eddy, Mark Twain, the manual allowed Christian Scientists “no more voice in the management of the church than has the audience in the management of a theater.”
Despite the church manual’s stern warnings, dissenting Christian Scientists became more outspoken in the late twentieth century, even to the extent of forming an independent society that publishes Christian Science works written by Eddy and others in direct opposition to Eddy’s wishes. In 1993 pressure from some Christian Scientists, along with a conditional $50 million bequest, resulted in the Publishing Society’s agreement to release The Destiny of the Mother Church, a hagiography that compares the church’s “discoverer and founder” to Jesus Christ. Though written by a former trustee of the Mother Church, the book takes a position on Eddy’s role that Eddy herself would not have approved.
During the 1990s the church was forced to defend itself against a lawsuit filed by members who claimed that the church hierarchy “recklessly and wrongfully” spent $450 million dollars in a failed bid to establish a satellite television network. Two Monitor Radio reporters were dismissed after refusing to apologize for a news story on AIDS that was judged theologically inconsistent with church teachings. Unrelated lawsuits were filed, alleging that the church was partially responsible for the deaths of gravely ill children who were under the care of Christian Science prayer treatment.
To some, the future of Christian Science has seemed to be limited by its aging membership and church prohibitions against the types of recruitment and social and charitable agendas carried out by most other Christian denominations. However, others point to growing endowments, a multimillion dollar renovation of the Mother Church, expansion of Monitor Radio news broadcasts, and new church publications as evidence that the movement has continued to address the world’s spiritual needs.
Bibliography
Gottschalk, Stephen. Rolling Away the Stone : Mary Baker Eddy’s Challenge to Materialism. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2006. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
Koestler-Grack, Rachel A. Mary Baker Eddy. New York: Chelsea House, 2013. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
Mussey, Henry Raymond. “The Christian Science Censor: IV. The Siege of Fort Scribner.” Nation 12 Mar. 1930: 291–93. EBSCO Discovery Service. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
“Plaza Architecture and Grounds.” Christian Science. Christian Science Board of Directors, 2015. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
Schhrager, Cynthia D. “Mark Twain and Mary Baker Eddy: Gendering the Transpersonal Subject.” American Literature 70.1 (1998): 29+. EBSCO Discovery Service. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
Schoepflin, Rennie B. Christian Science On Trial : Religious Healing In America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2003. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
Twain, Mark. Christian Science. (1907). Lanham: Start Classics, 2013. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 19 Nov. 2015.