First Church of Christ, Scientist

Well, I had an interesting experience yesterday. A close friend of mine had to attend a "cult" service for a class (guess what he was studying in the class...). So Terra and I said we'd go with him for "moral" support, so he wouldn't have to do it alone - and yeah, we were both curious and wanted to see what it was like.

For various reasons we decided to attend a Christian Science service (The First Church of Christ, Science of Raleigh). In our massive amount of luck, we hit one of two communion services they have per year. What're the odds of that?

It was very interesting. They do seem to have a belief (at least stated) that supports the inerrancy and divine inspiration of the Bible. Unfortunately, they also firmly believe that the bible cannot be properly interpreted without using the works of Mary Baker Eddy. So the service consisted of "readings" of scripture and then the "proper interpretation" being read. There were no pastors, but there are elected 'readers' who lead the service.

A few themes emerged over the course of the service. They largely viewed Christ's coming, sacrifice, and resurrection as the enactment/example of living out science in its truest form. Their concept of science seems to have no correlation to what I learned in school (I learned it to be basically the study of the physical universe). Christ's actions, according to Mary Baker Eddy, freed us from sin and thusly sin is nonexistent, though apparently if you believe in sin then God will still punish you for it (I think the internal contradictions of that understanding should be self-aparent, as well as how such a belief might impinge upon God's impassibility, among other attributes).

They also believed the material world (all matter) was nonexistent. This, to me, was contradicted by a primary belief/thrust of their service upon the use of prayer for healing. The members of the church seemed to genuinely desire healing for themselves and to be able to effect that healing in the world at large. As good as this desire is, how can any physical form of healing be consistent with a belief that matter doesn't really exist?

Finally, one other belief that stuck out to me was their emphasis upon love and truth. These also, according to their 'interpretive readings' enable and effect healing in one's life. Though they used the term "Christian" over and over again, this understanding is quite contrary to scripture. Take the story of blind Bartemaeus, for when healing his blindness, Jesus proclaimed that his faith had healed him - though Jesus was acting in love, the healing was linked by Christ to faith not love. Interesting. The huge "word of faith" movement and others have played this concept way out of proportion, but faith remains central to true Christianity.

In retrospect, I find it interesting that they didn't seem to mention faith at all. But Christianity hinges on faith. Check out these words from Paul:
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22-24)

To me, it seems quite obvious that God wants us to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled from our sinful state to him through Christ. I'm sure Mary Baker Eddy has some "spiritual" and "scientific" understanding for this passage, but in the words of some character whom I can't remember, her interpretations are "hogwash." The bible itself excludes other works as divine and presents only one way to know God: through Christ. And that, my friends, is something you can bet your life on.