Recently a friend asked me to attend her Christian Science church service. The Bible lesson was on “Doctrine of Atonement.” Twice a year for forty years, prior to leaving Science, (more…)

“What would you have me do, Lord?” Saul’s question to Jesus burdens me after a spiritual feast with old and new friends at the third national conference of the Fellowship of Former Christian Scientists, August 4-6 in St. Louis. (more…)

Mary Baker Eddy invites us to put her and her book to the test, “and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct interpretation of Scripture” (Science and Health, 547:7). We should do just that, with our eyes wide open to the divergence (more…)

Why would any intelligent adult have to ask someone else’s permission before making up their mind about whether the Bible is true? They shouldn’t. There’s no need. (more…)

My mother was a devout Christian Scientist as were my grandparents on both sides. My father tacitly endorsed the CS line but was more consumed by material success than spiritual journeys. They would drop my brothers and me off (more…)

“To the Son of God alone faith ought to look; on him it relies; in him it rests and terminates. If it proceed farther, it will disappear, and will no longer be faith, but a delusion.” (more…)

Do you have a lifetime theme verse from the Bible? Reflecting on this is a way of seeing into your spiritual autobiography, the arc of what God is doing with your life story. Our pastor recently asked about mine, and I realized (more…)

At Christmas when we sing, “O come let us adore him,” who are we talking about? Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Messiah, right? Are we talking about an idea or a concept or a spirit-being (more…)

Up to my mid-thirties I was a Christian Scientist following Mary Baker Eddy instead of Jesus. Then for a dozen years I was a Christian Scientist following Jesus and Mrs. Eddy both. Finally things reached a breaking point, (more…)

Here’s the other side of the coin, and a much happier side, from my previous post, “If not on this rock, where?” That one looks at the tendency of some people to assume that if Christian Science with its claim to be the final revelation (more…)

“I was free born.” With these words in Acts 22:28, the Apostle Paul is making a purely political point. He is comparing notes with the centurion, a naturalized Roman, on how the two obtained their citizenship. (more…)

Participating in the Fellowship of Former Christian Scientists with new friends from 8 states in St. Louis this weekend (for which, kudos to FFCS director Katherine Beim-Esche), I shared with them (more…)

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” All of us who have studied daily from the Christian Science textbook can probably recognize those words from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (see Act 2, Sc. 2, line 255). They appear in Science and Health (more…)

Mary Baker Eddy made some significant truth claims about the Bible, Jesus, the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and matter. Yet these claims seem to be in contradistinction to what the Bible says, what Jesus said, and what the Holy Spirit said. Readers are encouraged to examine (more…)

Wouldn’t you want the whole Bible, every verse of its truth, every word of its love, and not just parts of it? Wouldn’t you want all of Christ Jesus, Jesus in his fulness (more…)

Will Jesus return? Christians expect him to, based on the Bible. Christian Scientists don’t, based on Mary Baker Eddy’s writings. Her own appearing and lifework, she indicates, fulfilled (more…)

How can impersonal Mind or Principle be “my best friend”? Why do I need a Savior to “make my heaven secure,” if heaven is the unchanging reign of Spirit or atmosphere of Soul? (more…)

A Christian Scientist whom I first met some years ago, a younger man we’ll call Mike, recently asked me why I left Christian Science. I sensed he was open to a full and honest explanation. (more…)

Who did Mary Baker Eddy think she was?  Who did she think Jesus was?  What was the Trinity to her?  What was the Bible’s authority to her?  What did she think was God’s plan (more…)

Colorado this weekend hosts a “Spirituality Conference” celebrating the oneness of all things and, it would seem, damning Christianity with faint praise. (more…)