I was raised in Christian Science. It's pretty much a cult. I left it back in high school, but I'm writing about it now to make others still in it aware of how bad it is. It eats at me often. I watched my Grandma die because of it. I watched my mom die because of it. It robs your soul. It makes you question your self and your God. It should not be able to put the word "Christian" in front of it. It's so NOT what Christianity is about. I don't even know where to begin, but I still get so riled up when I talk about it, I must still need to debrief after leaving it. You know when people go through tragedy and they have to seek help to talk it out or it stays with them forever and eats at them until the day they die. I don't want to always be angry about it, but I still am. So, welcome to my debriefing.
Imagine if you could heal yourself. Or avoid disease by just not naming it. Ridiculous, right? But that's what you do in Christian Science. You don't go to doctors. You don't take medicine. God forbid you are ever in a serious accident like a car wreck. You'd bleed to death while you read "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures". That is the book written by the founder, Mary Baker Eddy. It's supposed to interpret the Bible. Yeah, she's burning in hell right now.
She came up with her "religion" after apparently falling on the ice and breaking her back. Christian Scientists believe that sickness is the result of fear, ignorance and sin and that when the erroneous belief is corrected, the sickness will disappear. She said after she realized this, she was healed. Metaphysical healing is what she's talking about.
Imagine being sick and instead of calling a doctor, you call a Christian Science Practitioner. Someone that will intercede for you by prayer. Oh, and you have to pay them to pray for you. You just look them up in the back of the quarterly - a monthly publication for Christian Scientists- and cold call them.
By the grace of God, my brother and I never had a serious illness. We were lucky, because as much as my mom loved us, I honestly don't know what she would have done had we actually needed medical intervention. The crazy thing is, she wore contacts. So that meant she had to see an eye DOCTOR. Hmmmmm...... oh, and we did go to the dentist. A slight disconnect.
Long story short, my grandma died of breast cancer (we're guessing) in 1994 without ever seeing a doctor. EVER. She was in a place where Christian Scientists go to die. It's called The Leaves and it's a nursing home- without the nurses. I visited her during the six months she was there. I don't remember much about it, except it looked like a small hospital, but it wasn't.
Two and a half years later, in 1996, my mom was dead...of breast cancer. For which she didn't see a doctor until it was too late. She was a tortured soul most of her adult life because of Christian Science and this sent her mind reeling. She couldn't understand that the disease was not the result of something she had done wrong. But that's what she thought. It was awful.
I found real Christianity when I was 21. Thank God. But I still struggle with the effects of the craziness I was raised in.
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3 comments:
I love Matchbox 20 :) The Lord is continuously and faithfully working in your life! What a true blessing that he doesn't stop pushing you even further in your walk with Him. Just keep daily putting your Trust in Him who is in charge anyway. I know it's still so painful to see what the Lord hasn't revealed to others and we want them to see so bad and have that freedom. But everything happens in the Lord's time (Eph 3:11). I'm praying for you! Keep praying for me :) I guess we're all a little "unwell", haha!
Okay, now that I remembered my password to my account I'm commenting. Sorry.
Very nice blog, sis. You pretty much summed it up. It's still hard for me to think about how I was such a follower of this thing (20 years) that even when Mom was exiting this world and searching for other answers I was still spitting out Mary Baker Eddy BS to make sense of it all...even though it doesn't make sense. Ever. I find it painfully ironic that our mother and grandparents (who introduced us to this...by default) are showing us how off the mark their faith was by dying of things they never were supposed to die of, according to the Christian Science doctrine. The one thing I hold onto that allows me to sleep at night is that I know Mom was searching and that she wasn't confident in Christian Science. She would question it all the time and I saw her moving away from it but I was still so "in the middle" of it all. But I hold onto that, you know? Like in the end her eyes were opened to what she was searching for her entire life. And she is waiting to see us again!
Although I can't be happy about your presidential pick.....this makes me so happy! I spent many years praying for you all. If it is any comfort to you to know, I talked to your Mom a lot about Jesus in her last visit to our home. The day she died in the hospital she asked me if she was dying and I prayed with her and told her to call out to Jesus and he would save her. At that moment she took a big deep breath and realaxed. She died just three hours later or so after that, and I know in my heart that she did call on him and he delivered her from all her suffering and pain and yes she is waiting for your happy reunion!!!
I am so proud of you and your family and I think all the time how proud she would be of you and Chris and her grandkids!
Aunt Mary
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