Christian Science Reading Room - Olympia, WA - Febuary 12th 2011

     Church of Christ, Scientist. That is the name of the faith. Who are the Christian Scientists? The Christian Scientists came from the religion founded by Mary Baker Eddy. She was injured and after reading a Biblical passage about Jesus healing found her injury healed. She then founded the religion in 1866. From there she wrote "Science and Health with Keys to the Scripture." This book's commentary on the Bible are the basis to this faith I discovered in my visit to their reading room.

      The people who work there are volunteers. I talked to an older woman and an older man. They were both very sweet and gave me a card for visiting their Church, and where it was located. 

    The Christian Science reading room is a great resource for a lot of information in regards to information about the Faith and the Christian Science Monitor, which is actually a magazine of pretty good quality. The other magazine called The Christian Science Sentinel on the other hand...not so much. The miracle faith healings don't seem to be that much of miracles and are not based in science. Someone felt pain on a certain part of their body...and it went away, it seems like time and focus could have easily healed it then divine intervention (especially when compared to the miracles in the Bible proper). The high mortality rate among Christian Scientists also doesn't give me much credence to it actually working. Of course there is always the possibility it does. Here is a good article on them and their rejection of modern medicine:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/nyregion/24heal.html

What made me most uncomfortable about the reading though was it's focus on Mary Baker Eddy. Everytime the Bible is quoted it is quoted on "Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health with Keys to the Scripture..." It seemed less about the Bible proper and more about Mary Baker Eddy and what she revealed...

       This is something I've noticed with a lot of new movements in regards to Christianity though. Mormonism at times is more about Joseph Smith then Jesus, Mars Hill is all about what Mark Driscoll says about the Bible, just like Christian Science is about Mary Baker Eddy and what she says about the Bible...when do religions become more about the founders of the sects then the message of the faith? Throughout the Awakenings in Europe and America this ended up becoming a great factor I found. I think every religion has this danger though. Catholicism can do this with the Pope, and depending on the charisma of a Father the Orthodox Church can be just as guilty. It becomes more about the individual doing commentary on the message then the message itself.

       It's this I think that turns me away from me any religion as well, and why I tend to find more connection with my friends who are followers of the faiths, then many of the leaders (with the exception of smaller more local leaders). Because of a religion becoming more about the founder of the sect or current leader, what then becomes the question is: Are people just reinventing God in their own image?