Christian Science Church Seeks Truce on Medicine

[ZombieHorde]

By PAUL VITELLO
Published: March 23, 2010

Since the founding of their church 131 years ago, Christian Scientists have been taught to avoid doctors at all cost. It is a conviction rooted so deeply in church dogma that dozens of members have endured criminal prosecution rather than surrender an ailing person to what they see as the quackery of medical science.

But faced with dwindling membership and blows to their church’s reputation caused by its intransigence concerning medical treatment, even for children with grave illnesses, Christian Science leaders have recently found a new tolerance for medical care. For more than a year, leaders say, they have been encouraging members to see a physician if they feel it is necessary.

Perhaps more significantly, they have begun a public campaign to redefine their methods as a form of care that the broader public should consider as a supplement rather than a substitute for conventional treatment, like biofeedback, chiropractic or homeopathic care.

In recent years, the church has been lobbying to convince lawmakers that its approach is an alternative way of tending to the sick, and that its costs should be covered by insurance companies and included in health care legislation. Lobbyists succeeded in getting provisions that encourage private insurance coverage of Christian Science care into both the 2006 legislation overhauling health care in Massachusetts and the United States Senate version of the health care overhaul; both measures were removed in negotiations. Church officials say they intend to keep trying, at both the state and federal level.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/nyregion/24heal.html?src=me">Link to the rest of the New York Times article.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

1. If your religion is so f'ed up that you consider homeopathy "conventional"

Then there's really something wrong with what you believe.

[paulsby]

3. i believe you are parsing it wrong

i read it as saying that homeopathy (which imo is quackery) is a SUPPLEMENT to conventional medicine.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

4. Maybe so

If that's the case, then it's a really poorly written sentence.

[paulsby]

7. i agree

that was my first parse, and it seems to make more sense in context. iow, they are saying christian science "methods' should be viewed as similar to other methods that are considered supplements to conventional medicine e.g. chiro, etc.

[madrchsod]

2. a step in the right direction....

my grandmother had relatives who were christian scientists that died of curable diseases.

[The River]

5. The No Doctor/Med Rule

is what's killing the Church and they know it.
Otherwise it's very enlightened "religion".

[nickinSTL]

6. apparently some Christian Scientists are less extreme than others

I have a friend whose parents are/were Christian Scientists.

My understanding from him was that while they avoided medical intervention, there was a point at which they would seek medical treatment.

Apparently treatment for broken bones is ok, and if an illness progressed to a certain point, they could seek treatment.

Unfortunately for my friend, his mother sought medical treatment too late for her cancer.

I don't know what type of cancer it was, and neither does he, so it's not clear whether it would have been treatable if caught earlier, but waiting as long as she did ensured that she died young (I'd guess mid-50s to early 60s).

[DeSwiss]

8. So.

Did these Christian Science "leaders" (as opposed to, I don't know.... Saints? Prophets? Disciples? Gurus?), get this new holy directive about the new sanctity of medicine from at least get some kinda vision? Or another burning bush? And if not a burnt-to-a-crisp bush, then did god at least speak to them out of slightly singed shrubs? I mean this is major theological {clear's throat} adjustment in their theology for it not to have at least been spurred on by divine intervention! Okay!?!?!


- Otherwise, we'd be left to think that these guys just came up with this shit on their own.......

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. I have an aunt that's one of those.

She's about 90 years old and has always had a bad temper--volatile--nice one minute, screaming at me the next. I no longer speak to her after my last visit there. I opened her front door to get some fresh air when I was there during a record snowfall, (this is near Akron) and she screamed at me about her heating bill which left me in tears for about an hour. I decided I didn't need her company that badly.

She has been a CS Practitioner for decades. She said sometimes prayer works and sometimes it doesn't. She's always been in excellent health, has a lot more energy than I do, and is crazier than a shithouse rat. She is Polish and also hates Catholics for some reason.

She used to rant about how people didn't follow "God's plan" and if they followed God's plan, everything would be great.

So mon asked her hubby, who was a Socialist Atheist, what that meant, and uncle said, "Damn if I know!!"

:rofl: