Over the course of this channel’s existence,
I’ve become something of a scholar of American-born religions, and one in particular seems to
keep popping up in those discussions. So, today – Hey! The people have spoken, it’s time for
another religion video. You’re on my TV now? I thought I collapsed
your timeline. Yeah, I figured out a way around that. [Sigh] Anyway, yeah, my audience has been
strangely insistent on a religion video for some reason. So, that’s what I’m doing. Hah, that actually worked? Well, good, I’ve
wanted you to make a video about the Seventh Day Adventists for like, over a year now. I’m actually talking about Christian Scientists
today. I’ve already put in a lot of work and sacrificed way too much for this topic.
I’m not changing now. But… [Sigh] How are you going to make a
religion video about a bunch of biologists and chemists? This isn’t a science channel. No, not scientists who happen to be Christians.
Christian Science is its own separate religion. … You mean Scientology? What? No, I’ve already talked about that,
that was the first religion video on this channel, actually. Christian Science is completely
different, it was created back in the 1870s. Pfft! I’ve never heard of it. Well, you should’ve! It’s affected the
lives of literally every American… Including yours, in multiple ways. … Wait, aren’t you from the future? You
should know all this already assuming this video came out. … Are we even from the same timeline? Uhh [fake static noises] What’s that? [More
fake static noises] Are you serious? You’re… [Static] breaking up… [Static]
I’ll – [Static] [Intro music] This video was brought to you by Henson Shaving. Well, super glad to have him back in my life.
That’ll be fun. So, while making this video, most of the people
I spoke to about Christian Science reacted in much the same way he did. They either didn’t
know about the religion at all, or they confused it with another one like Scientology or the
Jehovah’s Witnesses. I’ve made videos about both of those religions,
as well as the Mormons. While there are a lot of parallels, Christian Science is a completely
separate entity. It was created during the Third Great Awakening
in the late 1800s by a woman named Mary Baker Eddy. She was a supporter of abolition, women’s
rights, and the Temperance Movement – the one against alcohol and tobacco. In fact, on her way to a Temperance meeting
in Massachusetts, she slipped on the ice and injured herself so badly that it seemed like
she may never walk again. Three days into her recovery, she read the
story from the Bible about the time Jesus healed a paralyzed man and became inspired
by the Holy Spirit. Mary then rose from her bed and walked into the next room to everyone’s
astonishment. That instantaneous healing inspired her to
start writing Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which became the foundational
text for the Christian Science religion soon afterwards. In this book, she states that you should not
consume alcohol, tobacco, or caffeine. A lot of religions born during this time period
have similar rules, for example, the Mormons. But then she takes it a step further by saying
you shouldn’t put *any* drugs into your body, including medicine, and you shouldn't
go to doctors or hospitals. For that reason, Christian Scientists are
often confused with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but that religion just refuses blood transfusions,
not… everything else. Now, nobody cares if you don’t smoke or
drink, or go to the doctor, or take medication. That’s your right as an adult, religious
or not, in pretty much every country… The problem is when you force that decision onto
your kids. Christian Science has occasionally popped
up in the news for that exact reason and we will be talking about a few of those cases
over the course of this video… Starting now. In 1896, Samuel Clemens sought a Christian
Science practitioner to treat his daughter Suzy, who was dying of spinal meningitis.
I’ll get to what a practitioner does later on, but he quickly gave up on that treatment
and took her to a medical doctor. Unfortunately, she died later that year. Samuel held a grudge against Christian Science
for the rest of his life, not because the practitioner failed to cure his daughter,
but for the false hope they gave him. More recently, in 1977, Rita Swan hired a
practitioner to treat her son, who had an unusually high fever. After a few days without
any improvement, she wanted to take him to a doctor but was discouraged from doing so
by the practitioner. Almost two weeks went by before she took him
to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and died a few days later. Rita withdrew her membership and also held
a grudge against the Church for the rest of her life. Now, I knew most of that before I started
working on this video. My approach to this topic was going to be, “What if Temperance
became a Religion?” What would happen if people took that idea to the extreme? But since the other religions I’ve talked
about have similar restrictions, I figured I needed something to make this video stand
out from my past projects. So, I thought it might be fun to live as a
Christian Scientist throughout this entire production and vlog the experience. The rules were simple: No alcohol, no tobacco
– which was never a problem for me anyway. No caffeine – which I now realize *is* a
problem for me. No recreational drugs of any kind, no vitamins or supplements, and no medications. I bent that last rule a bit because I do have
a few prescriptions and I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my long term health for a video
gimmick. So, I decided that I couldn’t take anything
that wasn’t prescribed to me by my doctor. My inhalers and mental health medications
were okay, but ibuprofen, tylenol, tums, and any other over-the-counter medications was
not. My doctor seemed much more excited about this
challenge than I was. She scheduled me for some bloodwork and we set up another lab draw
at the 90 day mark just to see what would happen. I started the challenge on February 1 and
announced it to my community Discord. About 20 people joined to suffer along with me.
It was kind of fun, we had a whole support group thing going. Shameless plug to support the channel if you
want to get in on the next one. That challenge should be much more difficult. The first week was pretty rough. I didn’t
realize how addicted to caffeine I was and I had some pretty major headaches, made even
worse by the fact that I couldn’t take anything to stop them. Ice packs became my new best
friends. The next few months just felt kind of … boring.
There were a lot of events like Valentine’s Day, the Super Bowl, birthdays, anniversaries,
and St. Patrick’s Day – all of which were fun, but might have been slightly more fun
if not for this challenge, right? I seem to forget this every year, but I’m
apparently one of those people who’s sensitive to pressure changes, so the transition to
spring meant a headache every afternoon for like two weeks. The biggest thing I learned during this self-imposed
challenge is just how many headaches I seem to get. I filmed a few vlog segments which I originally
planned to sprinkle throughout this video. One of which you’ll see later from around
the six-week mark. That was around the time that I started reading my third book and I
realized just how far off my original thesis was. Christian Science is so much more than just
abstinence from drugs and medicine. I stopped filming the vlogs, but I stuck with
the challenge, mostly to see if I could do it, but also because I didn’t want to disappoint
my doctor. Everything was fine until the day I was supposed
to start filming this video and I got terribly sick, most likely the flu. That night, I was
so nauseous I threw up. The second day wasn’t any better. When I
went to bed that night, I was either too hot or too cold, I tossed and turned so much that
I barely got any sleep. When I woke up the next day, every muscle
ached, I had a fever of 101.1 (38.38 celsius). I told myself if it got any worse, like 103
(39.44 celsius), I would take a Dayquil. But everyone in the discord told me to take it
now rather than wait for it to get worse. They guided me toward the right use of temporary
means. So I took it, and I’m glad I did, otherwise this video probably would’ve come
out much later than it already did. As with every religion, our story begins with
its founder. Mary Morse Baker, as she was known at the time, was born on July 16, 1821
in Bow, New Hampshire. She was the youngest of six children to Mark and Abigail Baker. Halfway through her mother’s pregnancy with
Mary, Abigail experienced a divine visitation and became convinced that her child was holy
and consecrated. Stories like that were not uncommon at the
time, especially in New England. This was right in the middle of the Second Great Awakening.
Joseph Smith discovered the Golden Plates in 1823 and William Miller predicted that
the world would end in 1844. … Nope. Mary’s parents were members of a Congregational
church, which she likely attended while growing up. So, once she came of age, she applied
for membership. This is from her autobiography, in 1891. At the age of twelve I was admitted to the
Congregational (Trinitarian) Church, my parents having been members of that body for a half-century.
… Before this step was taken, the doctrine of unconditional election, or predestination,
greatly troubled me; for I was unwilling to be saved if my brothers and sisters were to
be numbered among those who were doomed to perpetual banishment from God. … When the
meeting was held for the examination of candidates for membership, I was of course present. … I
stoutly maintained that I was willing to trust God, and take my chance of spiritual safety
with my brothers and sisters, … even if my creedal doubts left me outside the doors.
… This was so earnestly said, that even the oldest church members wept. And then everyone clapped, I’m sure. Predestination is the idea that God already
knows who will be getting into Heaven before they’re born and it was a core belief in
this church. Yet, Mary was able to convince them to accept her despite not believing in
that doctrine. Throughout her childhood and adolescence,
Mary suffered from numerous illnesses that doctors at the time were unable to treat,
which often kept her out of school. In 1843, at the age of 22, she married George
Washington Glover and became Mary Baker Glover. He was a builder from the South, so two weeks
after their ceremony, they moved down to South Carolina and a few months after that, to North
Carolina. George died of yellow fever six months after
their marriage. So, penniless and pregnant with her first and only child, Mary moved
back in with her parents. She gave birth to George Washington Glover
II on September 12, 1844 and was immediately bedridden due to an illness. Boys from the
neighborhood were employed to rock her in a custom-made cradle, which they jokingly
referred to as “swinging Mrs. Glover.” Since she wasn’t well enough to care for
her son, her brother became his father figure, while a neighbor was brought in to nurse him. She was treated by a doctor in 1849 and became
well enough to get engaged to a lawyer named John Bartlett. He went off to strike it rich
during the gold rush and died in California. Her mother Abigail died just three weeks earlier. Her father rebounded quickly and married a
woman named Elizabeth Patterson the next year. He then informed Mary that her son was not
welcome to live with him and his new wife. Mary moved in with her sister and George Jr.
was sent 40 miles upstate to live with relatives. After being shuffled between a few families,
he eventually ended up in the home of a former Baker family servant. A few years later, his
new adoptive family took him to live in Minnesota. In 1853, she changed her name to Mary Morse
Patterson after marrying Daniel Patterson, her dentist of 7 months and the nephew of
her new step-mother. Which I guess would make them step-cousins?
Is that a thing? Daniel was always traveling for work and during
his absences, Mary began looking for ways to heal herself of her various illnesses which
plagued her since childhood. She began studying homeopathy and phrenology… the skull bumps
thing. During this time, Mary kept a scrapbook of
what she called “Gems of Truth” and “Dewdrops of Wisdom,” which were newspaper and magazine
clippings of health tips, home cures, recipes, and poems. While Mary was providing homeopathic treatment
to a patient with edema in 1856, she decided to give them unmedicated pills to see what
would happen, and the patient recovered anyway. Rather than credit the placebo effect or the
fact that edema usually resolves itself in a few days, she started to wonder if all illnesses
had a mental cause. … This is foreshadowing. In her defense, germ theory was still being
developed and wouldn’t be accepted as fact for another few decades. At this point in
history, they were basically still in the dark ages of medicine. A few years later, the Pattersons’ home
was foreclosed on and all of their possessions were sold at auction. So Mary and Daniel moved
into a boarding house. Mary Baker Eddy’s biographers talk about
this time in her life as if she was exceptionally poor and that boarding houses were somehow
beneath her. But at this point in history, between one-third and one-half of all Americans
were living in them. That’s where How the Other Half Lives got
its name. It was a collection of photographs which showed the upper classes the appalling
conditions most Americans were living in. In March 1862, Daniel was transporting money
for the war effort from the state of New Hampshire to Washington DC and was captured by Confederates.
He eventually escaped and made his way back to Mary that December. He opened up a dental practice in Lynn, Massachusetts,
where he and Mary lived for several years, and Daniel became somewhat of a known philanderer. On the evening of February 1, 1866, Mary fell
on the ice and was seriously injured. A doctor was called to treat her and found her injuries
to be “internal and of a very serious nature, inducing spasms and intense suffering.” This is the fall I was telling you about earlier,
Christian Scientists refer to it as “The Fall in Lynn.” She was transported back
to her home, was completely healed, and back on her feet just 3 days later. This is the moment Mary cites as her discovery
of Christian Science and the healing method she eventually published in Science and Health.
It’s as important to her religion as the crucifixion of Christ is to Christians and
the discovery of the Golden Plates is to Mormons. If you were to disprove that, the whole thing
falls apart. Two weeks after the fall, when she was supposedly
completely healed through her own efforts, she wrote a letter to a former colleague named
Julius A. Dresser asking for his help. We’ll get to how they met in a moment. I know Youtubers say this all the time and
viewers rarely do it, but there will be a quiz on this later, so pause for a moment
and read it for yourself. I’ll wait a second. … Okay, so the important things to note
here are: Two weeks ago I fell on the sidewalk and struck
my back on the ice, was taken up for dead … to find myself the helpless cripple I
were before I saw Dr. Quimby. … The Physician attending said I had taken the last step I
ever should, but in two days I got out of my bed alone, and *will* walk. She underlined that, not me. She *will* walk.
She also describes her symptoms at this point: The terrible spinal affection from which I
have suffered so long and hopelessly; a paralysis of the bowels and digestive functions are
the worst sufferings I have at present. And at the end of the letter she states: Won't you write me if you will undertake for
me if I can get to you? I can walk some, the internal trouble is all. I’m not trying to cast judgment here but…
does that sound like a complete and instantaneous healing to you? The physician she’s referring to in that
letter was Alvin Cushing, a homeopathic doctor. In 1907, he was asked to provide a sworn affidavit
for a biography of Eddy, backed up by his case notes from that day. Here it is. This time, you don’t have to
read the whole thing, but I guess you could if you really, really wanted to. Here are
the important points. On February 1, 1866, I was called to the residence
of Samuel M. Bubier … to attend said Mrs. Patterson, who had fallen upon the icy sidewalk
… and had injured her head by the fall. I found her very nervous, partially unconscious,
semi-hysterical, complaining by word and action of severe pain in the back of her head and
neck. The next morning… She declared that she was going to her home
in Swampscott whether we consented or not. On account of the severe pain and nervousness,
I gave her one-eighth of a grain of morphine, not as a curative remedy, but as an expedient
to lessen the pain on removing. Giving her morphine would explain the “paralysis
of the bowels.” I visited her twice on February first, twice
on the second, once on the third, and once on the fifth, and on the thirteenth day of
the same month my bill was paid. During my visits to her she spoke to me of a Dr. Quimby
of Portland, Maine, who had treated her for some severe illness with remarkable success.
She did not tell what his method was, but I inferred it was not the usual method of
either school of medicine. Remember this, we’ll get back to Quimby
in a moment. I did not at any time declare, or believe,
that there was no hope for Mrs. Patterson's recovery, or that she was in a critical condition,
and did not at any time say, or believe, that she had but three or any other limited number
of days to live. Mrs. Patterson did not suggest, or say, or pretend, or in any way whatever
intimate, that on the third, or any other day, of her said illness, she had miraculously
recovered or been healed, or that, discovering or perceiving the truth of the power employed
by Christ to heal the sick, she had, by it, been restored to health. He did not, at any time, say that there was
no hope for her recovery or that she had a limited number of days to live. She also never
mentioned to him that she was healed after three days by reading the bible. Given the letter to Dresser and Cushing’s
affidavit, I personally find it difficult to believe that she was completely and instantaneously
healed. She didn’t even start citing this as the discovery of Christian Science until
she published her autobiography 25 years later. As for the severity of her injuries, the doctor
said they weren’t critical or life-threatening, and given that she *was* in fact able to walk
again, I find her characterization to be a bit overdramatic. And this was by no means the first example
of her hypochondriac nature. Remember that story about Mary joining the
church at the age of 12? The one from her autobiography? Let’s actually take a look
at those pages. Recall that Mary did not agree with the doctrine
of predestination. So perturbed was I by the thought aroused
by this erroneous doctrine, that the family doctor was summoned, and pronounced me stricken
with fever. … My mother, as she bathed my burning temples, bade me lean on God’s love,
which would give me rest, if I went to Him in prayer, as I was wont to do, seeking His
guidance. I prayed; and a soft glow of ineffable joy came over me. The fever was gone, and
I rose and dressed myself, in a normal condition of health. So, at the same time that she was applying
for membership at the church, she became ill and was miraculously healed through prayer.
In much the same way as she claimed she was after the fall. Mary was constantly sick. So much so that
she was kept out of school for a good portion of her childhood and adolescence. Her family described her illnesses as tantrums
or fits. Sometimes she was convulsing on the ground, other times she would be rigid and
absent. Their family doctor diagnosed her with “hysteria mingled with bad temper.” Hysteria has some pretty negative historical
connotations. Its etymology traces back to the Greek word for uterus and by the 1800s
it was a blanket diagnosis, or dismissal, meaning, “Eh, women, am I right?” Her complaints included spinal irritation,
neuralgia, dyspepsia, stomach ulcers, neurasthenia, catatonia, and hysterical paralysis. There’s
that word again, but in this case it means an emotional paralysis rather than severing-the-nerve
paralysis. Those all sound serious, but Mary had a history
of experiencing grave illness followed by a dramatic recovery, leading many to believe
that her symptoms were psychosomatic, meaning, *had a mental cause.* This behavior earned her attention and sympathy
from her friends and family in the short-term. But letters between them suggested they eventually
became wise to the act, describing it as hypochondria and malingering. Nowadays, we have a kind of folk label for
the pattern Mary was exhibiting: Youngest Child Syndrome. Often characterized by being
manipulative, attention-seeking, and self-centered. Mary continued this behavior well into her
adulthood. During her engagement to Daniel Patterson, her father actually warned him
against the marriage due to her chronic invalidism. Though he obviously ignored that advice. She once sent urgent word to Daniel informing
him of her imminent death only to experience a remarkable recovery upon his return. When he was captured by the Confederates and
put in jail, Mary checked into the Vail Hydropathic Institute, where they treated people using
what they called “the water cure.” You basically drank a lot of water and took a
lot of baths. When that failed, she sought out Dr. Phineas
P. Quimby – the most aggressively 1800s name for a quack doctor I’ve ever heard
– who treated her using an… alternative method. To explain Quimby’s method, I need to stop
for a moment and ask you a very important question – what is animal magnetism? When
someone says they have a lot of it, what does that mean? Like me, you probably think it has something
to do with an innate sexual attraction or natural charisma. Right? Well, the concept was actually invented in
1774 when Franz Anton Mesmer began treating people using magnets. Magnets were the fancy
new technology of the day, people thought they were basically magic and could do anything. Obviously magnets have existed in the Earth
forever, but they weren’t refined and put to any practical use until the 1700s. According to Mesmer, animal magnetism is a
subtle fluid that pervades the universe, uniting and connecting all bodies. The same fluid
flows through all organisms and a blockage of that flux causes disease. The cure requires
a restoration of that flux. I know that sounds a lot like the Force, but
as we all know, the Force comes from millions of tiny organisms floating around in our blood. That’s canon, don’t at me. Mesmerism sort of combines the theory of humors
with magnets and hypnotism. He would restore the flow of animal magnetism by hovering his
magnets over the affected area of the body and gazing into his patient’s eyes. Nowadays we talk about mesmerism and hypnotism
as if they’re the same thing, but hypnosis involves a trance-like state and mesmerism
involves magnets. America was kind of going through some stuff
when this was thought up, but it became incredibly popular in Europe. So in 1784, King Louis
XVI of France formed a commission to examine mesmerism and see if there was anything to
it. Members included Antoine Lavoisier, the father
of modern chemistry, Benjamin Franklin, the US ambassador to France, along with many other
doctors and scientists. The commission unanimously concluded that
animal magnetism did not exist and mesmerism was just a parlor trick. Benjamin Franklin
suggested that the main reason patients were recovering was simply due to their avoidance
of surgeons and physicians. Because, at this point in history, going to
a doctor was often worse than doing nothing. Following their report, mesmerism fell out
of fashion in Europe… but then crossed the Atlantic and became popular in the United
States. Quimby attended a mesmerism lecture in 1838,
became an instant fan, and learned how to do it himself. For the next two decades, he
traveled around the country healing people using his own variation, which he called “the
mind cure.” He had an associate that would enter a trance,
be controlled by him and his audience, and heal people. It was all an act, like many
faith healers today. Quimby suffered from lower back and kidney
pain for most of his life and was cured using his own method by his assistant. After which,
he became convinced that the real illness didn’t originate from his back or kidneys,
but rather, his mind. He believed he had been deceived by doctors
into thinking he was sick and that they were doing that to all of their patients. Feeding
into the public’s already existing distrust of medicine. Dr. Phineas P Quimby opened an office in Portland,
Maine in 1859 and treated people using magnetized water and head rubbing. He believed the theatrics
of it were necessary to psychologically convince his patients out of their belief in sickness. He eventually began treating people “absently,”
using just correspondence, believing he could simply argue people out of their illnesses.
Which actually wasn’t that far off from what real doctors thought. There are thousands of people who are willing
to go to bed, suffering from imaginary complaints. Every doctor has had experience with such.
Frequently they are given up by their physicians to become victims to their own imaginations,
but often complete cures could be effected if sufficient mental force could be exerted
on them. On October 10, 1862, Mary M Patterson was
carried up into Quimby’s office, but walked out of it a few hours later having been cured
of her spinal trouble. Within a few weeks, she declared that she had been cured of all
of her ailments. Though, cure is a strange word to use here,
considering she continued to write him for absent treatment, but could only ever be cured
in his physical presence. One could assume she needed his attention
more than his actual healing. Mary became one of his most devoted students,
perhaps even a disciple. She made numerous visits to his patients on his behalf. And
it’s during this time that she met Julius A Dresser, the colleague she wrote that letter
to. Quimby died on January 16, 1866 and she fell
on that icy sidewalk in Lynn, Massachusetts just two weeks later, on February 1, 1866. At this point, I think it’s safe to say
that if Mary Baker Eddy were alive today, she would be the worst kind of Karen. She’d be all about alternative medicine,
essential oils, astrology, crystal healing, copper-infused magnet therapy, and whatever
it is Gwyneth Paltrow is selling. I can say that because she did all of the
1800s versions of those things: homeopathy, electrotherapy, hydropathy, mesmerism, hypnotism,
phrenology, and other “various humbugs” as she put it. She’d also be switching between fad diets
like keto, Atkins, paleo, vegan, juice cleanses, and whatever it is Jordan Peterson is doing.
One of her diets was a bread and water only, developed by the inventor of the graham cracker. And to top it all off, in true Karen fashion,
after she slipped on the ice, she tried to sue the city of Lynn, Massachusetts for damages. The petition she filed in the summer of 1866
claimed that the city was responsible for the dangerous state of the sidewalk and sought
compensation for her “serious personal injuries from which she had little prospect of recovering.” Again, this is the summer of 1886, months
after her supposed complete and instantaneous healing. After her recovery, Daniel Patterson had enough
and abandoned Mary for good. He provided her with annual support payments until their divorce
seven years later. During that time, she went back to calling herself Mary Baker Glover. Without her husband’s income, Mary was evicted
for not paying her rent and began a decade of frequent moves between boarding houses
and living with friends, students, and acquaintances. Her dramatic healing inspired her to begin
teaching the method that she had “discovered,” which was essentially Quimby’s mind cure.
She put ads in several spiritualist newspapers pitching her classes. Over the next few years, she had a few male
students who became devoted to her before having a dramatic falling out. This will be
a recurring theme. In March 1872, Mary stepped back from teaching
to focus on writing her book on what she was calling “the mental method,” which had
a few different titles until she landed on “Science and Health.” She submitted it to a publisher, and it was
rejected. She heavily revised it, and it was rejected again. So, 2 students contributed
a few thousand dollars to have it self-published. She bought a house in Lynn in March 1875,
named it “Mary B Glover’s Christian Scientists’ Home,” and started teaching classes again. Then, on October 30 of that year, the first
edition of her book was published. It was a mess. All those missed years of education
had really caught up to her. Stay in school, kids. According to church historian Robert Peel,
“Sentences are chaotic, punctuation erratic, quotations inexact, [and] meanings obscure.”
That’s a church official saying that, just, keep that in mind. There were run-on sentences all over the place
and paragraphs that went on for 6 pages. It was so poorly written that the Church later
tried to suppress its existence and obtain every copy that it could. Now, I was going to do a bit here where I
read that specific 2200-word long paragraph, but… Hey. Hey! Are you still there? I have
something for you to do. Oh, so now you want my input? Alright, what
do you want? I need you to read this for my video. Okay… Can I just leave it somewhere for you to find
in the future? No, it doesn’t work like that. Why not? Look, you’re going to have to burn it onto
a DVD and put it in here. Who even has blank DVDs anymore? We both know that you do. So do you want me
to read it or not? [Whimsical montage music] You couldn’t break this into paragraphs
or anything? No, that’s– It’s supposed to be that
way. The evermore of Truth is changing the universe;
thought is expanding beyond words; we are losing our swaddling clothes, asking for more
light; yea, reaching forth to the stature of Soul outside the body. … Bro that was
one sentence, what is this? It’s the foundational text of Christian
Science, keep going. "Let there be light," is the demand of Life
and Love, changing chaos to order and discord to the music of the spheres. Progress takes
off all shackles, and the finite yields to the Infinite. Advancing to a higher plane
of action, thought grows new, and rises from the personal to the… Right so, that would’ve taken me 11 minutes
to read at my normal speed. So, he’ll be busy for a while. I thought I would take a moment to answer
a question I get all the time: How do I choose my sources? And, how do I know when a source
is reliable? The answer to the first part is that I either
search Google or Amazon for books on the topic and I read the reviews, or I ask my more bibliophilic
friends if they have any recommendations, or I reach out to people who are members of
that group and ask them. The answer to the second part is a little
more complicated. I can’t really judge a source for accuracy until I’m holding it
in my hand. Which brings me to this book by Gillian Gill. I was a little over a month into my research
before I got it, this was supposed to be my fourth book. But before I even unwrapped the
plastic, I was skeptical. On the back of the book, there are the usual
reviews praising it, and two of them raised some red flags for me. One of them says “The best study to date…
Mrs. Eddy emerges from Gill’s warts-and-all treatment as a transcendent and powerful figure
worthy of respect… a genuine achievement.” Now, given everything I just told you about
her hypochondria and writing ability, and everything I will tell you after this, I have
a hard time understanding how anybody could describe Mary Baker Eddy that way. Another one reads, “Gill’s biography reflects
her unprecedented access to the Mother Church archive… and fully renders the worldly magnitude
of Eddy’s achievement.” The Christian Science Church doesn’t just
give archival access to anyone. I know from other books that if they do, they usually
have some say over what the final product will be and if they don’t like what you
have to say, they’ll enforce their copyright to prevent your book from ever coming out. And indeed, on the inside of the title page,
there is a thank you to the Church and its publishing arm for allowing her to use their
copyrighted works. But you know, you’re not supposed to judge
a book by its cover, so I went about reading it anyway. At least until I noticed several
egregious errors that diverge from Mary Baker Eddy’s known history. The first was something I told you earlier,
that at the age of 12, Mary Morse Baker was admitted into the Congregational Trinitarian
Church. That was false. Churches keep pretty accurate records of births,
deaths, marriages, and… when people join. Mary was admitted into the Congregational
Trinitarian Church in Sanbornton, New Hampshire on July 26, 1838 – when she was 17. In an attempt to refute that, Gill states,
“The critiques of Mrs. Eddy’s childhood memories have taken various tacks. … They
portray the whole story of her struggle with the elders and their doctrines as a ridiculous,
self-aggrandising, sacrilegious fabrication.” “In fact, more recent documentary research
has shown that as far as church membership goes, the gap in years between Mrs. Eddy’s
recollection and the contemporary records is much less than [they] claimed.” “Church records show that a very important
and emotional revival meeting occurred near Bow when Mary was about twelve, and it is
possible that she may have ‘come forward’ to declare her faith in public at that point.” The revival she mentioned was put on by a
Methodist church, which made Mary want to convert, but she was discouraged from doing
so by her father. The point Gill was trying to make is that
although she didn’t officially join until she was 17, she joined in spirit when she
was 12. Which in addition to being the wrong denomination, was geographically impossible. The Baker family moved from Bow to Sanbornton
Bridge on January 11, 1836 – when Mary was 14. There’s no way she could have spiritually
joined the church over there, when she lived 24 miles away in a town without a Congregational
Trinitarian Church over here. That’s a full day’s ride on a horse, one-way. Which also calls into question this line from
Mary’s autobiography where she says her parents were members of that church for half
a century. Her parents were members of the Union Church in Bow when she was born. They
joined the Congregational Trinitarian Church in Sanbornton on June 17 – five weeks before
she did. Your next question should be how do I know
all of that? And the answer is that the Christian Science Church itself says so. This is from the Mary Baker Eddy Library,
this is from the Longyear Museum, both of which are Church entities. And here’s a
church-produced documentary just to cap it all off. The conflict in her early religious life reached
the point of crisis when she was seventeen and applied for membership in her parents’
church. I was unwilling to be saved if my brothers and sisters were to be numbered among
those who were doomed to perpetual banishment from God. The line they just quoted came from her autobiography.
So they know Mary Baker Eddy claimed she joined at 12 and they also know she really joined
at 17. I have no idea why Gillian Gill tries so hard
to take Mary at her word on this, even when the church acknowledges that she was wrong. And yes, that narrator was Robert Duvall.
He’s a Christian Scientist. But anyway, that was strike one. How far into
it is he? …of being gives harmony to man. Loving God
supremely is simply admitting Soul above sense in all things, and loving our neighbor as
ourself, because, all have but one Soul, and should recognize themselves Soul, and not
personal sense. Understanding our… Okay, that’s enough of that. The second
issue has to do with the Fall in Lynn and the letter she wrote to Julius Dresser two
weeks afterwards. Here’s the letter as quoted in the book.
I hope you studied like I told you to. Do you notice anything suspicious? I’ll give
you a hint, it’s these three dots here and here. Do you know what that means? It means
she cut something out. Care to guess at what’s missing? It’s the symptoms she is still
experiencing that she reports to Julius. Gill edited this letter to make it seem like Eddy’s
healing was more total and complete. The first line about paralysis of the bowels infers
that she had taken morphine. The second line is about how she can walk *some.* A few pages later, Gill writes, “The first
key document was the letter the then Mrs. Mary Patterson wrote to Julis Dresser barely
two weeks after her fall, and which I quoted in full at the end of Chapter 8.” Quoted in full, huh? “The letter is clear evidence that although
Mrs. Patterson did indeed recover by her own efforts from the effects of what she perceived
to be a life-threatening injury, she still lacked the confidence in her power to remain
well without the aid of a figure like Quimby.” The contents of the redacted portions refutes
the conclusion she reaches here. Now, I cut things out as well, I did it with
that earlier quote from her autobiography about joining the church at 12. But when I
do it, I’m cutting out information that’s irrelevant to the point I’m making. Stuff
about her father believing in predestination and the pastor wanting to expel unbelievers
from the church… Not important, get it out of there. But more importantly, I don’t tell you that
I quoted it in full. Strike two. At this point I knew this book wasn’t a
trustworthy source, it was clearly biased in favor of Eddy and the Church’s view,
so I decided to skip ahead to see what Gill had to say about the first edition of Science
and Health… Just as a refresher, this is the book she’s
about to talk about. …we know better than to say Deity is the
shadow of matter, but if matter is Substance, God is shadow, and shadow never produced Substance;
hence, matter must have created itself, The body of Spirit is spiritual and not material;
but Principle, or… Gill writes, “When finally, I forced myself
to sit down and read the 1875 edition of Science and Health, my central, and unexpected, conclusion
was that both Christian Scientists loyalists and their opponents have attacked and avoided
the book because it was too radical.” “The real issue is the author’s audacity,
her daring to think that a woman like her, with her resources, could write, … a book
that takes on the great questions of God and man.” At the end of her analysis of the first edition,
Gill states, “Writing alone and in a cultural vacuum, Mary Baker Eddy had defined for herself
an ideal reader of some metaphysical sophistication and considerable willingness to question received
wisdom, but she failed to find this reader in actuality.” “In my view, the 1875 edition failed because
of the ignorance and stupidity of its public, not of its author.” So, if you don’t understand
this… …or reflection. Again, the discord that
comes from the belief of Soul in body, and intelligent matter, at once proves this theory
of being a belief only, and error. Mortal man is a very unnatural image and likeness
of God… It’s because you’re ignorant and stupid. Just to remind you, historian Robert Peel
and many others like him within the Church, think this book was incomprehensible. Gillian
Gill takes the opposite view. Here she is on CSPAN, promoting her book. But I think that, for public consumption,
Christian Science has felt it necessary to say that I did not understand Mrs. Eddy. I have to agree. I hope by now you understand that Gillian
Gill’s book goes to great lengths to portray Mary Baker Eddy as a transcendent and powerful
figure, worthy of respect. Even if it goes against the Church’s understanding of their
own founder. And you might think this is relatively harmless,
it’s a book from 1999 that isn’t available digitally or in audio form… And that’s
where you’re wrong. This is Mary Baker Eddy’s wikipedia page.
I do not use wikipedia in my research unless I need to double-check a date, but even then
it’s not always reliable. When I began writing the script for this video, I decided to see
what they had to say about Eddy and it’s pretty much just the Church version of her
history. Scrolling down, here are all of the sources, notice how many of them are Gill.
And here are the ones that are from church-approved historians and biographers like Robert Peel
or from Mary Baker Eddy herself. Imagine looking at the wikipedia page for
L Ron Hubbard and finding out that it was written by the Church of Scientology. Would you trust that as a source? I hope not. And you know all those people who lie to you
by saying they only use wikipedia as a jumping off point for their research? Well, if they
used Mary Baker Eddy’s page, they would only be looking at biased, church-approved
sources. …reckoning ourself from the standpoint of
Soul, instead of personal sense, we progress as spontaneously as light… Okay we still have some time, let’s cut
to that one vlog segment I was telling you about earlier. So I’m like 6 weeks and a few days in, I’m
over the halfway mark, and I gotta say, I don’t really feel any different. I’ve seen other youtubers do 30 day challenges
where they quit alcohol or caffeine and they always end up saying that they feel like a
new person or they’re completely rejuvenated. I’m over 30 days and I don’t really know
what they’re talking about. I don’t feel like I have more energy or
that my mind is less clouded or anything. It’s just the same as always. I’m guessing that along with quitting whatever
it is, they’re exercising more or eating healthier, but I haven’t really changed
my diet or exercise routine. Which is how science is supposed to be done, right? You
just change the test variables. I wear a fitbit that tracks my sleep and according
to this it hasn’t really changed. The one thing that I will say has changed
is that I’m dreaming again. I’ve been telling my doctors for years that I haven’t
had dreams in like forever and they never seemed all that concerned about it. And I
know that people usually forget their dreams, like, as soon as they wake up, but I haven’t
been having them at all. Now I am and they’re not as fun as when
I was younger. Like, where are the sex dreams and the ones where I’m flying? Instead I’m
just getting these stressful and scary dreams, so I wake up in a pool of sweat. 3 out of
10, do not recommend. From talking to other people, it seems like
caffeine might be the thing that was preventing me from dreaming, but since I’ve quit so
many other things it’s kind of hard to tell. … Anyway, I’ve gotta film the sponsor
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need. Shave like a sir! …found what belongs not to person, namely
the enlargement of his being in Love and Wisdom that reaches beyond personal pain or pleasure.
The loss of a friend has, perhaps, given you the explanation of this. Pain quickly informs
us that personal pleasure is mortal, and that both are error. There, done. Good timing, we got through the sponsor and
everything. You weren’t watching me the whole time?
I read all of this for nothing? Did you hear yourself? Nobody would have stuck
around if we did. That’s fair. Anyway. Wait, are you like, *in* my TV? Is that why
it’s been all glitchy lately? Glitchy? Man, I’ve objectively helped all
of your recent videos. All of – How did you get in there? I’m not going to explain that, nobody would
stick around if I did. He’s not wrong, nobody cares about the lore
of these videos anyway. Now that Science and Health has been written,
we should probably talk about what’s actually in this book. If you paid any attention to
what he was reading on the TV, you might have guessed that this is a bit of a word salad. It’s in here that Mary introduces the Seven
Synonyms for God, that is, seven different words that when capitalized, all mean God. These words are Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle,
Life, Truth, and Love. In any Christian Science writing, when these words are capitalized,
you should just mentally substitute that word for God. I know, right? I actually have posters related
to the topic at hand this time. They used to just be references to previous videos. So anyway, in a sentence like… The material man depends for happiness and
Life, on sense instead of Soul; on matter, rather than Spirit, hence the insufficiency
he finds in himself, or personal man. You should really understand it as… The material man depends for happiness and
God, on sense instead of God; on matter, rather than God, hence the insufficiency he finds
in himself, or personal man. If you don’t understand the meaning of that
sentence right now, that’s okay. But just keep that substitution in mind as we go through
other quotes. As I stated in the beginning, this book teaches
Christian Scientists to avoid putting any intoxicants into their body. This religion
began in the late 1800s and Mary was a supporter of the Temperance Movement, so that isn’t
a big surprise. The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks,
tobacco, tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind’s mastery of the body. This
normal control is gained through divine strength and understanding. There is no enjoyment in
getting drunk, in becoming a fool or an object of loathing; but there is a very sharp remembrance
of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to man’s self-respect. A past version of me feels very called out
by that quote and I don’t like it. Now, here’s where things are going to start
getting deep. If you’re one of those people who just have me playing in the background,
you need to stop what you’re doing and pay attention. Christian Science is not a faith healing religion.
They’re not praying to get over an illness or injury. They’re praying to understand
that the illness or injury doesn’t exist. As stated in Genesis, God created man in his
image and in his likeness. The Mormons take that to mean that God is a human, just like
us. But to Christian Scientists, God is a perfect spiritual being and therefore, man
is also a perfect spiritual being. Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain,
blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made
in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit
cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and
perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science. Man is spiritual and perfect. He is not matter
and is not made up of material elements. Because matter itself does not exist. Everything you are currently experiencing
around you is what Christian Scientists refer to as Error. Your mortal mind has conjured this reality
into existence and your belief in this material world is an error – something that must
be corrected. To the five corporeal senses, man appears
to be matter and mind united; but Christian Science reveals man as the idea of God, and
declares the corporeal senses to be mortal and erring illusions. To put this another way, the entirety of Christian
Science belief can be summed up in what they call the Scientific Statement of Being. Every
child learns to memorize it and it’s recited during every church service. There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor
substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is
All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal;
matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness.
Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual. I’m not a Christian Scientist, I just wanted
to prove a point… although I have been living as one for the last three months… When God created the Heavens and the Earth,
light and darkness, land and sea, and everything else, he saw that it was good. Nowhere in
Genesis does it say that he created anything bad. So, if it’s bad, it cannot exist. This is from a healing testimonial, we’ll
get to what those are in a bit. How in the book of Genesis in the Bible it
says that God made all the things in the Earth including all the creatures, and everything
that he made was very good. And this lump was not very good, and so it obviously was
not made by God. And if it wasn’t made by God and God is omnipotent, then it couldn’t
have any being. And just so you don’t think I’m picking
on some random lady, this is a lecture by a Christian Science teacher. God is infinite good, God is all good, God
is only good, God is the source of good… And God did not create disease. You may recognize that as a variation of the
Problem of Evil, which a lot of teenage atheists use as a gotcha. If God is all good and all powerful, why does
evil exist? He either allows it, which means he is not all good, or he cannot destroy it,
which means he is not all powerful. Christian Scientists resolve that conflict
by simply denying the existence of evil, which they often rephrase as sin, sickness, and
death. Because in Christian Science, you never ignore
evil. Never, you look it right in the eye. And the purpose of your prayer is to gain
such a clear understanding of God’s all power and all presence that you can dissolve
that claim of evil and reduce it right down to its native nothingness. Do you see, now, why I dropped the whole “Temperance
as a Religion” angle? Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death.
The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender
the capacity or freedom to sin. God cannot perform evil acts because he is
all good. And since we are made of God, in his image and in his likeness, we are likewise
incapable of evil. While Christian Scientists believe in Genesis
1, where man and woman were created at the same time as perfect spiritual beings, they
reject the story in Genesis 2. They don’t believe Eve was created from Adam and that
a serpent tempted her. Well, chapter 2 of Genesis gives an entirely
different account of creation. Now remember, it’s an allegory, it’s a story with a
lesson. And Bible scholars agree that it didn’t really happen. This is Adam and Eve in the
garden of Eden. Therefore there is no original sin, man and
woman were created perfectly and they cannot be evil. How is that possible when you can look around
and see people committing evil acts every day? Murder, assault, rape, war, you see these
things in the news all the time. How can they deny that they occur? And here’s where I’m going to tell you
that you need to get used to the idea that Christian Science is a religion built on contradictions
and unanswered questions. Although, within Science and Health, Mary
Baker Eddy slipped in a little disclaimer stating that if you see any contradictions
in her work, it’s because you don’t fully understand it. You’re just too ignorant
and stupid, as Gillian Gill would say. It is sometimes said, in criticising Christian
Science, that the mind which contradicts itself neither knows itself nor what it is saying.
It is indeed no small matter to know one's self; but in this volume of mine there are
no contradictory statements, — at least none which are apparent to those who understand
its propositions well enough to pass judgment upon them. Now, I’m sure many of you have been wondering
throughout all of this, why is this religion called Christian Science, when it doesn’t
really have anything to do with science? It’s named that for much the same reason
Mesmer referred to his whole deal as animal magnetism. Science was the new fancy buzzword.
The field of Science, as we know it today, didn't really exist back then, in fact, it
had to be invented to prove cigarettes were bad for you. We definitely look back and call people like
Isaac Newton “scientists,” but they would’ve called themselves natural philosophers. The
standardized scientific method and peer-review are relatively recent phenomena. So adding Science to the name lent it credibility
as “the next big thing”. Kind of like companies who added dot-com, or quantum, or
blockchain to their names to sound more advanced. Or for a more recent example, AI – even
though none of it is really artificial intelligence. But while Christian Science isn’t very scientific,
I would also argue that it isn’t very Christian either. We are all made of God, we are all God’s
perfect children. So, Jesus is no more the son of God than the rest of us. Which in itself
isn’t too blasphemous, there are plenty of denominations that don’t believe in the
trinity and just see Christ as a prophet. But since evil, or rather, sin, sickness,
and death, do not exist, Christ didn’t die for our sins… In fact, he didn’t even
die. Christian Scientists don’t celebrate Easter for the same reasons you do. God did not resurrect Jesus after three days.
Jesus healed himself using the method that Mary Baker Eddy would rediscover in 1866.
By extension, Jesus did not heal the sick by performing miracles, he was using Christian
Science. He was the original Christian Scientist. Believing in the crucifixion, absolution,
and resurrection are pretty key features in most Christian denominations. Without those,
I’m not sure this religion qualifies as Christian. The only reason they venerate Jesus at all
is because they believe their modern healing method is the same as the one Christ used.
In many of the stories discussing his miracles, he tells the person he just healed that he
didn’t do anything. It was their faith that healed them. Then the woman, seeing that she could not
go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she
told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her,
“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” As he was going into a village, ten men who
had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus,
Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back,
praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he
was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?
Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to
him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” This is why Christian Scientists don’t take
medicine, it’s not necessarily a rejection of science. They believe that as long as their
faith is strong enough, they’ll be healed… But how can they be healed from a disease
they don’t believe exists? Okay so, to a Christian Scientist, a healing
is any time you correct an error in your mortal mind. So, understanding that the illness or
injury does not exist is a healing. It has almost nothing to do with your physical body. But like, you can see it. You can feel a fever
or a dislocated joint. No, your senses are just a manifestation of
your mortal mind. The ultimate goal of Christian Science is to rid yourself of error, to free
your mortal mind and become one with the divine Mind. Which is God. … That doesn’t… what? Didn’t you hear what I said about contradictions
and unanswered questions? Okay but like, why not prayer *and* medicine? The scientific government of the body must
be attained through the divine Mind. It is impossible to gain control over the body in
any other way. On this fundamental point, timid conservatism is absolutely inadmissible.
Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized. This tenet is called Radical Reliance. For
Christian Science healing to work, you must devote yourself to it completely. Going to a doctor, or a hospital, or taking
medicine is an acknowledgement that disease is real. So if you do any of those, you cannot
fully realize its nonexistence. Materia medica, which includes things like
medicine and surgery, go against the teachings of Christian Science… Still. To this day. Another question comes up is, “Oh are you
one of those people who don’t go to doctors?” Yeah, I always back up when I hear that one,
it makes me cringe, because I do not think of myself that way. “Are you one of those
people who go to God in prayer?” Now that one, I’ll jump up. Yeah, that’s me! Now another question that will come on the
heels of that one is, “Okay but what about using medicine with my practice of Christian
Science?” What needs to be understood there is that you have two different thought models.
Two different ways of thinking. In the medical world, thought for the most part, is very
matter-focused. In the Christian Science healing model, thought is very spirit-focused. It’s
two opposite ways of thinking. It’s like trying to look left and trying to look right
at exactly the same time. And the healing mind can’t do it. It’s either one way
or the other. That’s the whole of Christian Science belief
in a nutshell. Since they don’t believe in Heaven or Hell,
they really don’t take a strong position on how people should live, how the world will
end, or anything else that you’d expect a church to do. The only rule that really seems to matter
is that you should rely on your understanding of, and connection to, God, rather than materia
medica. Since Christian Science was founded by a woman,
it’s often viewed as a progressive religion, at least when compared to other denominations.
They refer to God as “Father-Mother God” rather than just Father. However, Mary Baker Eddy was not very fond
of women and it always bothered her that women made up the majority of her church membership. In the beginning of the video, I described
Mary as a supporter of abolition and women’s suffrage, because that’s what she says in
her autobiography. In reality, there’s actually very little evidence for her support of either
of those positions. She claimed that she freed the slaves of her
first husband, George Glover, even though there’s no record that he ever owned any. And while she supported equal rights for women
under the law, her position on women’s suffrage was… complicated. She had a very traditional
view on gender roles in a marriage. Man should not be required to participate
in all the annoyances and cares of domestic economy, nor should woman be expected to understand
political economy. Fulfilling the different demands of their united spheres, their sympathies
should blend in sweet confidence and cheer, each partner sustaining the other. Mary always preferred the company of men – not
for sex, she actually found the act to be repulsive – but she considered them to be
her intellectual equals. She seemed to enjoy keeping one man around
as a sort of pet, who would be especially devoted to her, obeying her every whim…
until she got tired of him. This was a pattern she repeated throughout
her time teaching the Quimby method and Christian Science. Remember those male students she
had a falling out with? Near the end of 1876, there was a particularly
bad break up with a student named Daniel Spofford. He attempted to divorce his wife so he could
ask Mary for her hand in marriage. She declined and banished him from her presence. Daniel didn’t take that too well and wrote
her several letters thirsting for her attention. On December 30th of that year, she wrote back. Dr. Spofford won’t you exercise reason and
let me live or will you kill me? Your mind is just what has brought on my relapse and
I shall never recover if you do not govern yourself and TURN YOUR THOUGHTS wholly away
from me. Do for God’s sake and the work I have before me let me get out of this suffering
I never was worse than last night and you say you wish to do me good and I do not doubt
it. Then won’t you quit thinking of me. … Do not think of returning to me again.
… It is mesmerism that I feel and is killing me it is mortal mind that only can make me
suffer. Now stop thinking of me or you will cut me off soon from the face of the earth. To summarize this, she’s saying that Daniel
is too clingy and psychically suffocating her. And she seems to be under the impression
that his constant thinking about her is causing her to become ill. Mary, and modern Christian Science, believe
that the opposite of their method is mesmerism, or “malicious animal magnetism.” She was
absolutely paranoid that her enemies were using it against her. While Daniel was still a student of hers,
Mary healed a man named Asa Gilbert Eddy and he instantly converted to her cause. He replaced
Daniel as her favorite student, just as Daniel had replaced the guy before him, a man named
George Barry. Two days after Mary’s savage letter to Daniel,
she got married to Asa and her name assumed its final form: Mary Baker Eddy. In the spring of 1877, the aforementioned
George Barry sued Eddy for non-payment of his copy-writing services and won. Eddy then
sued Richard Kennedy, who was her favorite student before George, she won that case,
but lost it on appeal. After that initial win, Mary instructed her
lawyer to go on the attack and sue any former student who was speaking out against her.
There were several cases and we’re not going to cover them all. But, in May 1878, her lawyer convinced a former
client of Daniel Spofford to file a lawsuit in Salem, Massachusetts claiming he was using
mesmerism to harm her. The exact thing Mary claimed about him in that letter. This became known as the Salem Witchcraft
Trial of 1878 and is the only time in the history of the US legal system that a plaintiff
accused a defendant of witchcraft. The judge refused to hear the case, because
obviously. This ridiculousness was covered by every major
newspaper and arguably made Mary Baker Eddy more famous than her book did, which drew
in thousands of curious followers. I don’t think Christian Science would exist today
if not for these lawsuits. Her lawyer was later expelled from the church
and sued her for lack of payment, causing the Eddys to lose their home and move into
a boarding house. Asa Gilbert Eddy died from heart disease in
June 1882. Mary believed that he had been mentally murdered by her enemies. Even after
an autopsy was performed and she was shown his damaged heart, she stated that his death
was caused by “malicious mesmerism.” If you’re keeping score, 3 of the 4 men
she was engaged to or married to died while the only one to survive abandoned and divorced
her. I dunno Mary, kinda seems like a you problem. Asa was soon replaced as her loyal male companion
by a student named Calvin Frye, who remained at her side for the rest of her life. Thankfully
for him, they didn’t get married. The Christian Scientist Association was formed
on July 4, 1876, making “Christian Scientist” the official name for the followers of Eddy.
A few years later, the Church of Christ parentheses-Scientist was created with Eddy as its pastor. The Massachusetts Metaphysical College was
chartered in Boston in 1881. Mary then began calling herself a Professor of Metaphysics
and Christian Science. She continued to revise and edit Science and
Health, so shortly after the College opened, the third edition was published. This was
the first appearance of the Scientific Statement of Being I recited earlier and their new logo,
known as The Cross and The Crown. It’s around this time that several of her
students decided to leave the church because of Eddy’s behavior and aired their grievances
in a resignation letter. We, the undersigned, while we acknowledge
and appreciate the understanding of Truth imparted to us by our Teacher, Mrs. Mary B.
G. Eddy, led by Divine Intelligence to perceive with sorrow that departure from the straight
and narrow road (which alone leads to growth of Christ-like virtues) made manifest by frequent
ebullitions of temper, love of money, and the appearance of hypocrisy, cannot longer
submit to such Leadership. Within a year, Eddy had rebounded and her
students gathered at the College to listen to her lecture on Thursday evenings and preach
on Sunday afternoons. 1883 was a big year for Christian Science.
They established their publishing company and began the Christian Science Journal, which
is still in print today. It’s full of church announcements, testimonials, and a few other
things I’ll get to later. But more importantly, the sixth edition of
her book was published, including a glossary of biblical terms. So she changed the title
to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She had started to attract the attention of
other Christian ministers. So, in March 1885, they invited her to a public debate where
they questioned her on her beliefs and accused her of pantheism, spiritualism, and blasphemy. Mary Baker Eddy assured them that she believes
in one God and in the atonement of Christ. Which seemed to satisfy some of the audience. What she didn’t tell them was that she was
working with a private definition of atonement. Christian Science doesn’t believe in sin,
so there was nothing to atone for. Instead, she believes in the “at-one-ment” of Christ.
He had freed himself from his mortal mind and had joined the divine Mind. Put another way, he became *at one* with God. This is also how Christian Science gets away
with lying to people about their understanding of Jesus’ parentage. Christian Scientists desperately want to be
accepted by other Christian denominations as a legitimate church. So they will tell
people that they believe Jesus is the son of God, while privately believing that they
are also a son or daughter of God. They believe Jesus, the man, was just a way-shower,
he wasn’t divine. Christ is the ideal truth, a divine manifestation of God which destroys
error. Anyway, Eddy split her teachings at the College
into two courses. Primary class was for practitioners and consisted of 12 lessons over the course
of 2 weeks. It initially cost $300 but was later reduced to just $100. Normal class was for practitioners who wanted
to become teachers – the people who give lectures. It was only 6 lessons, but still
cost $100. This class is only held once every 3 years. For hilarious reasons I’ll get to later,
both of these courses still cost $100. Mary began teaching a metaphysical obstetrics
course in 1887, where she taught students how to mentally defend the mother and infant
during childbirth. There were no lessons on physiology or delivery techniques. The next year, a woman named Abby Corner provided
Christian Science treatment to her daughter while she was giving birth. Both her daughter
and the baby died. So, she was charged with manslaughter. Mary Baker Eddy denounced her because she
hadn’t taken her obstetrics course, which… I’m not sure it would've helped. Even so,
Abby was eventually acquitted and Eddy started encouraging people to seek licensed professionals
for childbirth *only.* Just three months after the Corner case, a
medical and homeopathic doctor named Ebenezer J Foster, was brought in to teach the anatomy
portion of the obstetrics course. Two weeks after he began teaching at the College,
she adopted the now-Ebenezer Foster Eddy, at the age of 41. Mary had been reunited with
her son George a few years earlier, but she was incredibly disappointed by him, especially
since he was illiterate. So she found a replacement. In 1889, the Church of Christ parentheses-Scientist
was dissolved, Mary closed the Metaphysical College, and she moved to New Hampshire. She told people that she was running from
malicious animal magnetism, but the truth is that the government of Massachusetts was
starting to investigate institutions that were peddling quack medicine and handing out
spurious medical degrees. She was trying to avoid prosecution. Two weeks later, Mary drew up a deed of trust
which created the Board of Directors, and instructed them to begin building a proper
church in Boston. Eddy would never publicly admit this, but
she hired a man named James Henry Wiggin as an editorial assistant and he was put to the
task of fixing all of her terrible grammar issues in Science and Health. In 1891, his
revised 50th edition was published. Mary always asserted that her book was written
by a divine source, which at this point meant that the divine source had changed its mind
49 times. In June 1892, Mary Baker Eddy moved into Pleasant
View, her home on the outskirts of Concord, New Hampshire. She had several household servants,
including housekeepers, cooks, aides, a coachman, and a groundskeeper. By all accounts, it was a nightmare to work
there. According to Robert Peel, “One had to have moral and spiritual stamina to live
in such an atmosphere.” Mary was still paranoid about malicious animal
magnetism, it affected her health, food, air, and even the weather. She insisted on round-the-clock
watches where someone was assigned to constantly pray to keep that evil force away. Wait, I thought you said they don’t believe
in evil. Christian Science is a religion built on contradictions
– And unanswered questions, k, got it. She also demanded that they control the weather
and end snow storms. Her cooks would prepare two meals just in case the first one was tainted
with mesmerism and she refused it. Failures to protect her resulted in verbal
and physical abuse. My dear Students, Guard your tongues. When
you see sin in others, know that you have it in yourselves, and become repentant. If
you think you are not mortal, you are mistaken. I find my students either in an apathy, or
in a frenzy. I am astounded at your ignorance of the methods of animal magnetism. Your enemies
are working incessantly while you are not working as you should. … Would that my head
were a fountain of waters, and my eyes rivers of tears that I might weep, because of the
apathy of the students and the little that they have accomplished. During these years, Mary Baker Eddy rarely
left Pleasant View. Christian Scientists would gather by the thousands outside of her home
every summer to hear her give speeches like the one you just heard. After a while, she wouldn’t even speak anymore.
She’d just walk out onto her balcony and wave like she was the Queen. She had a very
inflated view of herself. Mary published an illustrated volume of her
poems in 1893. It delighted her followers but outraged mainstream Christians because
she depicted herself holding hands with Jesus and gave herself a halo, just like him. Mary Baker Eddy thought of herself as the
equal of Christ. He discovered Christian Science back then. She rediscovered it now. Nowhere is this more self-evident than in
her 1891 autobiography. We know that she joined the church at 17, so why did she say she joined
at 12? Because when Jesus was 12, he walked into the temple and was likewise questioned
by the rabbis and teachers. Mary slipped on the ice, injured herself,
and rose from her bed after 3 days. Why? Because Jesus rose from the dead after 3 days. That divine visitation her mother experienced
when she was pregnant with Mary? Yeah, where do you think that came from? On December 30, 1894, the first service in
the recently constructed church in Boston was held and 600 members were inducted into
the newly established, The First Church of Christ comma-Scientist, also known as the
Mother Church. Whenever a Christian Science church is built
in a new city, that becomes a First Church of Christ, Scientist. But only the Mother
Church in Boston is *The* First Church of Christ, Scientist. That’s the only one that is allowed to use
the definite article “the.” Subsequent churches in a city are named Second
Church of Christ comma-Scientist comma-Boston. Third Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston.
Fourth and so on. Mary granted herself the title of “Discoverer
and Founder of Christian Science” and her students often referred to her as Mother.
Which I think is a play on how priests in other religions are usually called Father. She had an elaborately decorated room constructed
in the Mother Church for her sole use, named the Mother’s Room. She only spent two nights
there… ever. The rest of the time, it served as a sort
of sacred site. Christian Scientists would enter the room and pay homage to Mary Baker
Eddy by praying to a large oil painting of the chair she sat in while writing Science
and Health. There were rumors that at first, it was a
painting of Eddy herself and that it was changed when outsiders heard about it. But sources
can’t seem to agree if that was ever really the case. In 1895, Eddy published the first edition
of the Manual of the Mother Church, outlining the rules for her followers and how the Church
was to be set up. The Church government consisted of a five-member
Board of Directors, who were chosen from among a 100-member body known as the First Members.
These were persons who had proven themselves strict adherents to the doctrines of Christian
Science. In reality, that just meant they were the
most loyal followers of Mary Baker Eddy. People she had handpicked to lead the Church. In order to prevent any individual from gaining
a following and splitting off, Mary abolished the preacher position and ordained the Bible
and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures as the pastor of the Mother Church. The Board then made Mary Baker Eddy the Pastor
Emeritus of the Mother Church, a position she still holds to this day. As a result, there are no sermons in a Christian
Science church service. Instead, two readers elected by the congregation take turns reading
scriptures from the Bible and Science and Health. There is no personality in their services. Every Christian Science church in the world
reads the same exact passages on Sundays and Wednesdays. Is a Christian Science service similar to
other Christian services – Yes – on Sunday morning? On a Sunday morning it is, yes. There’s
a sermon, read from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary
Baker Eddy. Um, hymns are sung, uh, silent prayer, the Lord’s Prayer is said in unison,
uh, collections are even taken– You celebrate Christmas and holidays? Mm-hmm. Yeah so… she’s not lying, but the way
she answered that question is incredibly deceptive. If you knew nothing about this religion, you’d
hear that and think this was a pretty typical church. As part of my research for this video, I actually
attended a Christian Science Sunday service, and I gotta say, it was one of the most painfully
boring experiences of my life. Church already has a reputation for being boring, but this
was on a whole other level. It really is just two people taking turns
reading from the Bible and Science and Health. Those books aren’t in the pews, so if you
don’t have them, you just sit there and listen. In most church services, there’s a sermon
on how to take a Bible message and apply it to your own life. The priest or pastor is
a member of the community and crafts their sermon around what’s going on in the world
or what their congregation needs. But in Christian Science, it’s two people
standing at a podium reading a standardized script chosen by the Mother Church in Boston. Christian Scientists will often tell you that
they believe in the Bible and Science and Health equally, they don’t hold one in higher
regard than the other. And I um… got out the Science and Health
– which is Key to the Scriptures, which is not our um, Bible, because we study the
Bible. But the Science and Health helps to explain the Bible. Yeah, that’s another one of those atonement/at-one-ment
type fibs. The glossary which constitutes the “Key
to the Scriptures” part of the title just redefines terms in the Bible to make it seem
like it was talking about Christian Science all along. But Science and Health definitely comes first.
How do I know that? Because the person known as the First Reader reads from Science and
Health. The Second Reader, reads from the Bible. Mary told her publisher that since her students
used the Bible and Science and Health together, they wanted the two books to be similar in
size and appearance and wanted them to use Bible-thin paper Which was expensive and difficult
to work with. So in 1894, the 84th edition was printed using
that paper and every subsequent edition has used it as well. The Lord’s Prayer is not said in unison
as she told Larry King. Instead, the Second Reader and the congregation recite one line
of it as it appears in the Bible, and then the First Reader interjects with the Christian
Science version. Our Father which art in heaven, Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious, Hallowed be Thy name. Adorable One. Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Enable us to know, — as in heaven, so on
earth, — God is omnipotent, supreme. Give us this day our daily bread; Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished
affections; And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors. And Love is reflected in love; And lead us not into temptation, but delivereth
us from evil; And God leadeth us not into temptation, but
delivereth us from sin, disease, and death. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory, forever. For God is infinite, all-power, all Life,
Truth, Love, over all, and All. On Wednesday evenings, Christian Scientists
gather for their weekly Testimony Meeting. There’s a short service with readings from
the Bible and Science and Health, followed by members of the congregation telling stories
about their healings. The most impactful testimonies have something
to do with a physical condition. An illness or injury that they were able to overcome. I lost my focus and I stepped on top of the
tennis ball and rolled over on my ankle. And I remember I was leaning up against the bathroom
wall and I looked down at my foot and it was not in alignment where it should have been
normally and there was a protruding bump. And I all of the sudden had a tremendous amount
of pain in my midsection to the point that it just hardened up and I couldn’t lie down.
Really, what it seemed like it was was food poisoning. Another bicyclist and I collided head on and
his handlebars hit me right in the jaw and broke my jaw. These testimonies aren’t always about themselves… A few years ago, my husband had a healing
in Christian Science that like I’d like to share. Over 32 bones were broken, part
of his face, cheek to jaw, was removed and he was not doing very well at this point. They don’t even have to be about humans… Well, I would like to share a testimony, um,
I’ve had many, but all of them are usually related to animals. We’ve had many horses
and dogs throughout our lives. I’m so sorry to tell you, but Roland, one of your quarter-horses
has Coggins and I’m legally supposed to put your horse down immediately. This is about my dog Mocha, who was really
the favorite of all the dogs I’ve ever had. Mocha developed this nasty big lump on her
side. While testimonies of dramatic recoveries are
the most memorable. Remember that a healing is any time you correct an error in your mortal
mind I’ve had healings… uh, childbirth, jobs
for my husband, buying and selling homes, relationship difficulties. It’s just a way
of life. Did you lose your job and find a new one?
That’s a healing. Did you realize that a phone call was a scam? That’s a healing. Did you lose your keys and find them later?
Healing. Did you frantically search the parking lot for your car only for your son to remind
you that you actually walked to that store? Healing. Was it raining when you were supposed to be
working on your roof, but then it stopped? That’s a healing. Did a hurricane change
direction at the last minute and miss your home? That’s also a healing. I didn’t go to a Wednesday testimony meeting
because it just felt too personal. However, the Mother Church in Boston puts the audio
of all of their services on their website and I’ve listened to several weeks of those. I didn’t make up any of the healings I just
told you about. They have both the Sunday service and their
Wednesday testimony meetings available, but only for that week. There isn’t a backlog
you can go through. If you’re curious to listen to any of these, the links are down
below. Pretty much every testimony follows a basic
formula. First, a brief description of the problem. I was suffering from a cold where it was just,
very moist, my eyes were watering, everything. I’m blowing, I’m coughing, everything
else. Then the specific passage from the Bible or
Science and Health that they used. I opened up my Science and Health and what
really struck me was a- uh- a paragraph on page 495 in Science and Health where it begins,
“When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and his idea.
Allow nothing but his likeness to abide in your consciousness.” Then a description of the resolution, which
is always complete and total. And I was completely healed. Where did all
the stuff go? It never was, it wasn’t a part of God’s creation. And finally, they express gratitude, especially
towards Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy. And I thought of all the healings my, my family
when I was growing up has had and my family with my two daughters and my husband… And
I just, was just filled with gratitude. So, I just wanted to say thank you, not only
to Christian Science, but to Mary Baker Eddy for what she gave us with this wonderful,
wonderful way of thinking. So, I’m so grateful to have the support
of our practitioners, the Sunday school lessons that I’ve learned over the years, and the
support of our church. Christian Scientists are encouraged to submit
their healing testimonies to the Mother Church, where they’ll often be included in the monthly
Christian Science Journal, or the weekly Christian Science Sentinel, which began in 1898. This is a Christina Science Weekly from December
1898. The Weekly was renamed into the Sentinel the next month. This isn't a reprint, this
is the actual thing. And it's now the oldest thing I own. In my opinion, the reason they have these
testimony meetings, and they’re printed in every publication, is that Christian Scientists
need constant affirmations that healings are a totally real thing. In 1954, R.W. England did a wide ranging analysis
of the healings reported in the various Church periodicals and came out with a pretty brutal
paper. Most conspicuous was an apparent ignorance
of or indifference to the natural healing powers of the human body. Thus, a vast number
of minor ailments, ranging from athlete’s foot to the common cold, were treated and
cured by the application of Divine Truth. Furthermore, there is, among the 500 communicants,
considerable attention given to types of disorders so insignificant as to be of practically no
consequence so far as one’s daily life is concerned. Chapped hands, lone warts, a burned
fingernail, hangnails, vague fleeting pains, and momentary dizziness were not infrequently
the “healings” for which testimony was given. … When they vanish, as they almost
inevitably must, Christian Scientists give credit not to their resilient organisms but
to their religion. Thus, by virtue of the peculiar emphases of their faith and the peculiar
functioning of the human body, Scientists have a constant and automatic source of evidence
confirming their beliefs. Okay so I guess it’s his opinion too. But
just remember that I said it first. The number of cancers, tumors, broken bones,
and cases of pneumonia and acute appendicitis which were self-diagnosed by the writers seemed
large. … It seems likely that most of the more dramatic cures are due simply to mistaken
diagnosis. In scores of letters the writers describe how they broke their skulls, dislocated
organs, awoke in the night with pneumonia, decided that mysterious lumps were cancers,
or found themselves in other ways serious victims of mortal mind. … Elated and gratified
when their skulls mended, their organs returned to place, their pneumonia and cancers vanished,
they wrote letters of testimony to the Journal. The Church has quite a few publications that
still print testimonies of healing, including the Christian Science Journal, the Sentinel,
and the Herald, which is the international version of the Journal and began in 1903. One of the by-laws in the Church Manual states
that members are required to subscribe to them if they can afford it. It shall be the privilege and duty of every
member, who can afford it, to subscribe for the periodicals which are the organs of this
church; and it shall be the duty of the Directors to see that these periodicals are ably edited
and kept abreast of the times. If you’re not subscribed to any of these,
or you’re not a Church member and you’re just curious, you can purchase them in one
of the many Christian Science Reading Rooms, which were created by the 14th edition of
the Church Manual in 1899. Every Christian Science publication is available
there, the periodicals, Bibles, Science and Health, the Manual, everything. I mean, how do you think I got these? They’re typically only open for a few hours
a week, usually before or after a Sunday service or Wednesday testimony meeting. The rest of
the time they’re just sort of… empty store windows. Whenever I go into a town, that’s kinda
rich… There’s a Christian Science Reading Room and two things are going on: nobody’s
in there and there's books in the window. What is that? … I’m not kidding you, this
is like, it looks like you have many as Starbucks. In Mary Baker Eddy’s later years, her health
began to decline and she suffered from kidney stones. In 1903, the pain was so bad she called
a physician, who gave her morphine. Hopefully you haven’t forgotten by now,
but that’s obviously against the rules. But since Mary Baker Eddy was constantly revising
Science and Health, she made sure to add an exemption specifically for morphine. If from an injury or from any cause, a Christian
Scientist were seized with pain so violent he could not treat himself mentally, – and
the Scientists had failed to relieve him, – the sufferer could call a surgeon, who
would give him a hypodermic injection, then, when the belief of pain was lulled, he could
handle his own case mentally. You see, the morphine doesn’t cure you,
it just allows you to continue Christian Science treatment. In 1900, Mary was caught going to the dentist
to have some teeth pulled. The Boston Herald reported on the story because it seemed to
go against her own teaching and she was invited to give a response. If I employ a dental surgeon, and he believes
that the extraction of a tooth is made easier by some application or means which he employs,
and I object to the employment of this means, he thinks I must suffer because his method
is interfered with. Therefore his mental force weighs against a painless operation, whereas
it should be put in the same scale as mine, thus producing a painless operation as a logical
result. I can forgive you if you think that was a
vague non-answer, but I’ve read enough of her work by now to be able to decipher it. She’s saying that if she goes to the dentist
and he recommends that a tooth be extracted, but she refuses, he’ll be so insulted that
his negative thoughts, through malicious animal magnetism, will cause her more harm than if
she just let him pull the tooth. To this day, Christian Scientists are allowed
to go to the dentist. If it’s anything more than a cleaning, they’ll usually refuse
novocaine… Even though it’s a hypodermic injection,
I didn’t realize that until just now. Wait, so, going to the dentist for a cavity
you can’t see is okay, but something like a broken bone, which you can totally see…
isn’t? Actually, Mary carved out another loophole
specifically for those, too. It is better for Christian Scientists to leave
surgery and the adjustments of broken bones and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon,
while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental reconstruction and to the prevention
of inflammation. Okay so, morphine injections, dental work,
and broken bones. But not diseases or tumors or anything? Don’t just tell me it’s another
unanswered question. Okay so, that one does have an answer but
I don’t think you’re going to like it. Whenever a Christian Scientist is questioned
on why they’re allowed to do these things but not those things, they will tell you that
every member of the Church is free to do whatever they want. A Christian Sci – a student of Christian
Science can do anything they want to. They’re free to go to a doctor. They are free moral
agents to make any choice they want to. Why not prayer and the antibiotic? I mean,
it’s so logical. I’m asked that question all the time, and people do that, Larry. People
are free to do whatever they want to do. You’re not thrown out of the Church? Not at all,
there’s nothing in the Church that would say you cannot do this, and you’re not thrown
out, no, nothing like that. The reason they can claim that people are
free to do whatever they want, even though Science and Health, through policies like
Radical Reliance, say you can’t, is that Mary inserted one last blanket exception into
the book. If Christian Scientists ever fail to receive
aid from other Scientists – their brethren upon whom they may call, – God will still
guide them into the right use of temporary and eternal means. So, if prayer doesn’t work, you’re allowed
to go to the doctor and get treatment, or have surgery, or *take Dayquil*, whatever
you need. But while that wide-open loophole exists,
most every day Christian Scientists will refuse to go to a doctor, or a hospital, or have
surgery. They won’t take medication of any kind, most won’t even take vitamins. They
practice Radical Reliance. You’re right, I didn’t like that answer. 1907 was a particularly brutal year for Mary.
In January, McClure’s Magazine ran a series of exposes discussing her various eccentricities,
vanity, intolerance, and most importantly, her exaggerated and fabricated history. These articles are the main reason we know
so much about her childhood, her hypochondria, and the infamous fall. They interviewed her
family members, friends, neighbors, and even the doctor who treated her. The series by Georgine Milmine was compiled
into a book which was published in 1909. Despite the fact that all of their claims were meticulously
fact-checked and documented, the Church denounced it as Yellow Journalism. Mary had created a system of one-man committees
known as the Committee on Publication. Every state has one, they’re known as CoPs for
short. Their main job is to correct false newspaper
stories about Christian Science, Eddy herself, or members of the Church. They even keep an
eye on legislatures to guard against laws that might restrict Church practices. That
becomes important later, so remember that. Mary stipulated that they should all be men,
unless none can be found. Mostly because they were expected to regularly rub elbows with
newspaper editors, journalists, and lawmakers. Do you remember back when I said that Mary
Baker Eddy was using a private definition of atonement? Well, I was lying – it’s
not private. Because the Committee on Publication successfully
lobbied the Merriam-Webster dictionary to add the Christian Science definition of the
word to atonement. It’s still there, right now. “The exemplifying human oneness with
God.” Let’s pick another word at random, I don’t know: truth. The body of all things…
a judgment, proposition… sincerity… there it is, number 4, capitalized, Christian Science:
God. How about life? Mmk, scroll, scroll, scroll… There it is! God! All of the Seven Synonyms are in there, actually.
Mind, spirit, soul, all of them. Here’s one that’s really going to surprise you. What’s the definition of Jesus? Yep. Christian
Science got their non-Son-of-God definition added here too. No other religion gets to
have their particular understanding of Jesus or of Christ added to the dictionary. That’s
how influential the Church’s Committee on Publication is. When the Milmine book came out, they pressured
bookstores and libraries not to carry it. Church members were apparently told to buy
hundreds of copies and borrow them from libraries just so that they could be destroyed. As a result, the New York Public Library put
it in the restricted area, where you cannot check it out and you are closely monitored
by a librarian while you read it. They bought the original manuscript and even
the copyright to it and successfully suppressed the book until it entered the public domain
in 1971. The true author of the series wasn’t discovered until 1993 – 85 years after it
was published. Turned out Georgine Milmine was a pseudonym
for Willa Cather, the fiction writer. She apparently didn’t want her career to be
sullied by all of the expected drama. Now, if you remember back to the beginning
of this video, I told you about a guy named Samuel Clemens, whose daughter died after
failing to be healed by a Christian Science practitioner and that he held a grudge for
the rest of his life. Well, he wrote a series of articles about
his views on the Church for Cosmopolitan magazine and North American Review using his pen name
– Mark Twain. He combined them together to publish them
in a book he titled Christian Science, which also came out in 1907. It’s hard to understate
how big of a deal this was, Mark Twain isn’t exactly known for writing non-fiction. I read his book as part of my research and
to my surprise, he actually believes that Christian Science works. Remember its principal great offer: to rid
the Race of pain and disease. Can it do so? In large measure, yes. How much of the pain
and disease in the world is created by the imaginations of the sufferers, and then kept
alive by those same imaginations? Four-fifths? Not anything short of that, I should think.
Can Christian Science banish that four-fifths? I think so. He has put all anxiety and fretting
under his feet. What proportion of your earnings or income would you be willing to pay for
that frame of mind, year in, year out? It really outvalues any price that can be put
upon it. Where can you purchase it, at any outlay of any sort, in any Church or out of
it, except the Scientist's? He also expresses a fear that Christian Science
will grow out of control. Which is hilarious in hindsight. Is it insanity to believe that Christian-Scientism
is destined to make the most formidable show that any new religion has made in the world
since the birth and spread of Mohammedanism, and that within a century from now it may
stand second to Rome only, in numbers and power in Christendom? … There seems argument
that it may come true. … It is a reasonably safe guess that in America in 1920 there will
be ten million Christian Scientists. … And, after a generation or two, he will probably
divide Christendom with the Catholic Church. When you learn a little more about his history,
his belief in their method makes sense. He did take his daughter to a practitioner after
all. His wife Olivia was paralyzed in her youth
and was cured by a mind-healer. Like Eddy, she was also into alternative medicine and
spiritual fads. Their daughter Clara was no different, in fact, well after Twain’s book
was published, she became a Christian Scientist. But the book is absolutely savage when it
comes to Mary Baker Eddy herself. He goes in hard. He makes several jabs at her terrible writing
and grammar, saying the book needs to be translated into English and even guessing that she couldn’t
have written most of it herself – which was true, she did hire an editor, but that
wasn’t known at the time. He also makes fun of the fact that her followers
call her Mother and that she has a special room in the Church where people pay homage
to her. Clearly not embarrassed at all, Mary closed
the Mother’s Room shortly after this came out. Because of her ever-increasing reclusivity,
Joseph Pulitzer published numerous stories in the New York World declaring that she was
dead or that she was just a puppet of Church leaders or her assistant Calvin Frye. In March 1907, he engineered a lawsuit on
Eddy’s behalf alleging that she was not in control of her affairs. He obviously couldn’t do that himself, so
he got her son George and his daughter, one of Eddy’s nephews, and the now-estranged
Ebenezer Foster Eddy to file the suit. They called themselves the “Next Friends” which
was another term for closest living relatives. To determine Eddy’s competency, she was
examined by a panel of masters, including a judge, an attorney, and an alienist… That’s what we used to call psychiatrists…
let’s bring that back. Since it was pretty likely that she was going
to be found competent, because she was, the Next Friends dropped the lawsuit. She then
publicly stated that this never would have happened to her if she was a man – and she’s
absolutely correct. Because of this series of events, Eddy instructed
the Church to create their own newspaper to be named the Christian Science Monitor. Whenever I bring this up to people, they seem
to think that it’s the Christian, Science Monitor. Like, science from a Christian perspective.
But it’s actually the Christian Science, Monitor and it just covers regular news. The people who have read it regard it as a
respected, unbiased newspaper. It’s even won a few Pulitzer prizes, funnily enough. But make no mistake, it is a religious newspaper. Who runs the Monitor? Uh, the editor, managing
editor. The Board picks them? The Board picks them, the Board appoints the editor, and then
the editor hires the rest of the staff. But the Board does not influence, editorially,
the paper? No, we have an editor– The Board has cabinet positions, Larry, and there is
one Board member who is the manager of the Publishing Society and he oversees the business
and editorial side. So, yes, he does review, every day, the editorials and the cartoons.
So he approved the cartoon– He approved the cartoons about you. But he can say, “don’t
run this?” Yes. So, they don’t editorially influence the
paper, but the Board chooses the editor and one Board member oversees and approves everything
that goes into the paper and can tell them not to run things. Sounds like they editorially influence the
paper. One editor is even quoted as saying, “Christian
Science thinking does indeed underlie all the conclusions in the Christian Science Monitor.” Mary Baker Eddy gave the Monitor a missionary
role, saying it was “Dedicated to the task of leavening human thinking.” The leaven
in this case is Christian Science. She said the Monitor would “transform the entire
mass of error.” The fact that so many people think it’s
completely independent from the Church is probably one of the greatest journalistic
cons ever pulled. It’s not the only religious newspaper masquerading
as mainstream news, actually. The Washington Times is owned by the Moonies, the mass-marriage
cult from Korea. The Epoch Times is owned by the Falon Gong cult from China, you probably
know them for their Shen Yun dance performances. Now, I will say that the Monitor’s reporting
on actual news is fair and balanced. The bias comes in when you look at what they don’t
report on. They rarely talk about crime. They don’t
talk about alcohol, tobacco, stimulants, or drugs and will edit them out of pictures if
necessary. Their coverage of medical news is extremely limited, even in *current times*
they really only talk about the legality of government mandates. They don’t recognize death, so they never
run obituaries. If the person is extremely important, like the Queen, they’ll just
summarize their career. … Mary Baker Eddy, a trailblazing author and
healer who profoundly influenced the world with her innovative approach to spiritual
health and well-being, passed away on December 3, 1910. She established a groundbreaking
system of thought that forever changed the landscape of modern spirituality. I asked ChatGPT to write that one for me. She died from a case of pneumonia that lasted
two weeks. In her final days, she blamed her impending demise on animal magnetism, saying,
“It took a combination of sinners that was fast to harm me.” Just over a month before her death, she completed
the 432nd revision to Science and Health, it’s now known as the 1910 Edition, which
is still used by the church. She also finished the 89th edition of the
Church Manual, which created a huge problem because it had a number of clauses that required
her approval before any action could be taken. Most importantly, no further revisions could
be made to the Manual. Which states that the practitioner course
shall cost $100, that’s why they’re stuck with that number forever. Additionally, every new Board member had to
be approved by Eddy. The First Members had been dissolved a few years earlier – it
was all up to her now. Some people interpreted this to mean that
the Mother Church was supposed to slowly dissolve after her death, leaving the various branch
churches to govern themselves and for Christian Science to become a public good. I’ve spoken about this before, the death
of the founder is a crucial moment. If there isn’t a strong second leader to hold things
together, the religion fades into history. Since Christian Science still exists, you
can assume that’s what happened. The Board seized control and demanded that all of the
branch churches bend the knee, so to speak. Most of them did, which is why they all follow
the same standardized hymns, readings, and prayers as the Church in Boston. Mary’s funeral took place five days after
her death. Her casket was under 24 hour guard until her tomb was completed in 1917. Some
of her followers believed that the Board was trying to prevent anyone from resurrecting
her. There’s a long-standing rumor that there’s
a telephone inside of Eddy’s tomb for her to use should she ever return. The kernel
of truth there is that a phone was indeed installed for the guards, but it’s unclear
why. Once Mary Baker Eddy was gone, the Church
had assumed its present form. There were no more changes to Science and Health or the
Church Manual. The self-elected five-member Board continues to run the Mother Church and
all branches by extension. The Church’s membership was at its peak
sometime after World War 2, just as the Evangelical movement was getting started. Throughout the 1940s, Christian Science was
the fad religion in Hollywood, all of the celebrities were doing it. Much like Scientology
during the 80s and 90s… and do you wanna know something really funny? L Ron Hubbard was a science fiction writer
who lived in Hollywood during the 1940s. You know, Scientology is something that…
you don’t understand, it’s like… you could be a Christian and be a Scientologist,
okay? Scientology is something– So it doesn’t replace religion? It is a religion because
it’s dealing with- with the- the spirit. You know, you as a Spiritual Being. Gee, that sounds familiar. Scientology is the first religion I ever made
a video about and throughout my research on Christian Science, I was blown away by the
many, many parallels. In Christian Science, you pray to rid your
mind of Error so that your mortal mind can become one with the divine Mind. In Scientology,
you audit to rid your mind of Engrams, so your thetan can become clear. This is just a pet theory of mine, but I think
L Ron Hubbard took Christian Science and just gave it a science fiction veneer. I mean,
he even stole Mary Baker Eddy’s origin story. He claimed to have healed himself of his crippling
war injuries using the method he would later sell in a book called Dianetics, from which
the religion of Scientology was born. Mary Baker Eddy healed herself of crippling
injuries, wrote Science and Health, and created Christian Science. I mean c’mon. Christian Science has been a long-standing
feature in Hollywood ever since. Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor were
all raised in the Church and left it later in life. More recently, Ellen Degeneres, Kelsey Grammer,
and Robin Williams were all raised in Christian Scientist families. James Hetfield, the lead singer of Metallica,
was born into the Church and practiced it for many years. When his mom got cancer, refused
treatment, and later died, he wrote the song “The God that Failed.” There are a few celebrities who are themselves
still members too. I mentioned Robert Duvall earlier, but did any of you see Top Gun 2?
The sequel that came out last year? You know how Iceman couldn’t talk? Yeah,
Val Kilmer is a Christian Scientist who denied that he had throat cancer for years and didn’t
get it treated until it took his voice – that wasn’t just a bit for the movie, he can’t
speak in reality. If you still aren’t impressed, Alan Shepard,
the first American in space, was a Christian Scientist. He took a microfilm of the Christian
Science Monitor to the moon on Apollo 14. In the years after the Abby Corner case in
1888, the American Medical Association was on a mission to outlaw Christian Science,
referring to it as spiritual snake oil. Hundreds of doctors and lawyers began organizing
to introduce laws to ban mental healing and alternative medicine, but they failed. Even
Mark Twain pointed out that if they passed, and the Second Coming were to happen, it would
be illegal for Jesus to heal the sick. Convicting parents for not providing medical
care to their children was difficult. Prosecutors had to prove that a doctor could have saved
them, which was still questionable at the time. In 1902, Merrill Reed and his wife were charged
with manslaughter for not seeking treatment for his daughter’s diphtheria. Their entire
defense rested on the idea that the antitoxin for diphtheria was still experimental and
ineffective. The jury agreed with that argument and the
couple was acquitted. The same story played out in dozens of other cases around the country. Edward Whitney left his diabetic daughter
Audrey with her aunt while he was on a business trip in 1937. The aunt was a Christian Scientist
and she consulted a practitioner named William Rupert, who advised that they discontinue
her insulin. Audrey died in a diabetic coma on December
10. Both the aunt and the practitioner were charged with manslaughter, but the case was
dismissed. Over twenty years later, Edward traveled from
his home in Alabama to Chicago and shot William Rupert three times in front of a witness.
He was arrested and charged with *attempted murder,* because Rupert survived after undergoing
surgery. Despite threatening it, planning it, traveling
over state lines, carrying it out, admitting to it, and showing absolutely no remorse…
The jury found him not guilty. Because of course, right? Who could blame
him? Kid going into diabetic coma? No healthcare.
Rupert gets shot? All the healthcare. I’m not sure any jury would see him as a sympathetic
victim. He’s a hypocrite who let a child die. Healthcare for me, but not for thee. By the 1950s, medical science had advanced
to such a degree that the usual Christian Science defense was no longer accepted by
the public. The Church had to change tactics. Luckily for them, at this point, several health
insurance companies began covering Christian Science practitioners, nurses, and nursing
homes. We’ll get to what those are here in a moment. The Church believed that these companies would
only do that because their healing method has been proven effective. But in reality, Christian Scientists are extremely
low-risk customers. They don’t smoke or drink, they don’t use drugs, they don’t
go to doctors or hospitals, and if they’re ever in an accident or catch a disease, they’re
unlikely to seek treatment. They’re paying for healthcare they will
never use. It’s basically free money for the insurance companies. Despite that, in 1965, the Church used the
fact that they were covered by those companies to successfully lobby Congress to include
Christian Science services in the Comprehensive Health Insurance Act for the Aged, otherwise
known as Medicare. Benefits shall be paid with respect to services
provided an individual by Christian Science practitioners during any calendar year. … For
purposes of this subsection, no person shall be considered a Christian Science practitioner
with respect to the provision of any services unless he is listed as such in the Christian
Science Journal at the time he provides such services. Christian Science nurses are covered by the
act under the same section as LPNs. Benefits may be paid with respect to services
provided by a Christian Science nurse only if such nurse is listed in the Christian Science
Journal (current at the time such services are provided) as having completed nurses'
training at a Christian Science Benevolent Association Sanatorium, or as a graduate of
another nurses' training course, or as having had 3 consecutive years of Christian Science
nursing including 2 years of training. A Christian Science nurse is nowhere near
the equivalent of a medically-licensed nurse, like an LPN or RN. Not even close. Nurses in Christian Science are not medically
trained, they’re practitioners who have taken the Primary class and then completed
a training course at a Christian Science nursing home. They don’t take any anatomy or medical
classes. All they do is protect a patient from animal
magnetism and make sure that the Radical Reliance policy is maintained. Their services are limited to applying bandages,
bathing, moving, and feeding. They don’t administer medication or provide physical
therapy. They aren’t even trained on how to take someone’s blood pressure or pulse. These nurses occasionally make home visits,
but are primarily based in Christian Science nursing homes, previously known as sanatoriums. Just like they did with Merriam-Webster, the
Church was able to get lawmakers to include them as part of the definition of a hospital. The term "hospital" means an institution which
is engaged primarily in providing, for compensation from its patients, facilities for diagnosis
and treatment of bed patients under the supervision of a staff of doctors and which provides the
services of registered nurses 24 hours a day. … In addition, such term includes Christian
Science sanatoriums operated, or listed and certified, by the First Church of Christ,
Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts. This shouldn’t come as a surprise anymore,
but Christian Science nursing homes are not like normal nursing homes. They don’t use respirators, feeding tubes,
painkillers, or any other medical services or devices. It’s a place where you’re
sent to slowly and painfully die. If you check in with gangrene on your foot, that can take
forever. They’re nightmare hospices. Mother Teresa
would be very proud. The Church told Congress that their nurses
and nursing homes provide the same services as any other non-religious institution, which
was a blatant lie. Now that they had federal recognition of their
methods, they began lobbying state governments to pass religious exemption laws to child
medical neglect, beginning in their home state of Massachusetts. A child shall not be deemed to be neglected
or lack proper physical care for the sole reason that he is being provided remedial
treatment by spiritual means alone in accordance with the tenets and practices of a recognized
church or religious denomination by a duly-accredited practitioner thereof. That law passed, just like it did in a few
other states. But the Church knew that doing this dozens more times would be difficult,
expensive, and time-consuming. So in 1974, they successfully lobbied the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to insert a mandate into the Code of Federal
Regulations requiring exemptions to child neglect if they want to continue receiving
federal funds for state social services. I couldn’t find a copy of the 1974 version,
but here it is from 1976 using the exact same wording. Negligent treatment or maltreatment by a person
responsible for the child’s health or welfare including the failure to provide adequate
food, clothing or shelter, provided, however, that a parent or guardian legitimately practicing
religious beliefs who thereby does not provide specified medical treatment for a child, for
that reason alone, shall not be considered a negligent parent. Within a decade, all 50 states plus DC had
religious exemptions on their books. The Department of Health and Human Services
removed the requirement as a way to receive funding in 1983. But no state repealed their
laws as a result. Likely because this wording wasn’t removed
from the Code of Federal Regulations until 1998. Here it is as it appeared in 1997. It
should be noted that Christian Science is the only church that benefits from this. No
other faith has a religious alternative to medicine. Individual people might, but no
recognized church. Throughout the 70s, Christian Scientists served
in several important federal positions, which is likely how they managed to push these laws
through. When Nixon took office in 1969, he brought
a group of Christian Scientists into the White House. Namely, HR Haldeman as his Chief of
Staff and John Ehrlichman as the White House Counsel, and eventually Domestic Affairs Advisor. Others included Nixon’s speech writer and
one of Ehrlichman’s aides, Henry Paulson, the future Treasury Secretary during the 2008
Financial Crisis. The key person of interest here is John Ehrlichman,
many of you probably recognized that name immediately. He was one of the masterminds
behind Nixon’s War on Drugs. Makes a lot more sense when you learn that
he’s a Christian Scientist, doesn’t it? But what you may not know about Ehrlichman
is that he’s the reason we have private health insurance in this country. Here he
is, on tape, convincing Nixon to go with this plan. Nixon: Now let me ask you, now, you know I’m
not too keen on any of these damn medical programs.
Ehrlichman: This, uh, let me, let me tell you how I am … This … this is a … private
enterprise one. Nixon: Well, that appeals to me.
Ehrlichman: Edgar Kaiser is running his Permanente deal for profit. And the reason that he can
… the reason he can do it … I had Edgar Kaiser come in … talk to me about this and
I went into it in some depth. All the incentives are toward less medical care, because … the
less care they give them, the more money they make … and the incentives run the right
way. Nixon: Not bad. The very next day, February 18, 1971, Nixon
proposed the Health Maintenance Organization Act to Congress and it passed in 1973. John Ehrlichman never said that these policies
were informed by his Christian Science beliefs but like… c’mon. What we do know is that
he was very much a practicing member at the time. I was raised a Christian Scientist, and there
came a time when I had a kind of crisis in my life - a small one, relatively speaking
- I turned back to Christian Science, and it became my way of life. When I went through
the Watergate episode I very much relied on Christian Science - got a lot of solace from
it, some very good results. We're at the least fun part of the video.
I’m going to go over a few disturbing, yet important cases of child medical neglect.
These are from the 1970s and 80s, but it still affects people today and that should bother
you. But if that’s really not your thing, skip
to the timecode down below or fast forward until you no longer see me sitting in this
spot. I’ll give you a second. … K. When Rita Swan, the Christian Scientist from
the beginning of this video, was pregnant, her obstetrician felt a cyst on her left ovary.
After she gave birth to her son Matthew on March 3, 1976, her doctor recommended it be
removed before it turned fatal. Instead, Rita asked for a “hypodermic,”
since that was allowed by her religion. The doctor refused, saying it would be an unethical
band-aid treatment. Rita endured the pain for several months before
relenting and underwent surgery that October. According to her, she had seen science do
in 20 minutes what 6 years of Christian Science couldn’t do… and yet she still went back
to the faith. Between November 1976 and May 1977, her son
Matthew experienced 3 separate fevers which were successfully treated by a Christian Science
practitioner. On June 18, Matthew developed another fever.
Two days later, his parents called their practitioner, Jeanne Laitner, to do a house call, which
was highly unusual because normally – Well I suppose I should tell you what a practitioner
actually does, shouldn’t I? First, they declare the allness of God and
the truth about man, meditating on the many relationships between the two. Then, they deny the existence of the illness
or injury and assert the nothingness of the symptoms or emotions of their patient. Christian
Scientists believe there is a direct connection between your emotions and physical sensations. Pain is caused by resentment, rashes come
from frustration, tumors are the result of anger, and fevers are brought on by fear. And finally, they reaffirm the truth that
man is God, disease is a lie, and the five material senses are liars. They declare these
statements to be the word of God with the power to heal. They might suggest certain Bible passages
or lines from Science and Health to study, usually something that mentions the body part
or ailment in question. But the key here is that they don’t do any
of this out loud, it’s in silence. And usually, they’re not even in the same room as their
patient. They’re at home or in their office, providing what they call “Absent Treatment,”
which is considered to be more effective. If you recall, this is what Quimby was providing
to his patients, including Mary Baker Eddy. So on this rare occasion, Laitner came to
their home. She made two visits the first day and two visits the next. She instructed
Rita and her husband not to pray for Matthew, because their fear is likely causing his fever. On the third day, she declared that Matthew
was improving. When he fell into a coma the next day, the Swans were so embarrassed that
they called a different practitioner named June Ahearn. She probed the parents' lives and discovered
that Rita recently had a fight with her father and instructed her to write a letter to make
amends. Within a few days, she declared that Matthew was improving, despite his paralysis
and stiff neck A few nights later, their son began screaming
in pain. He was convulsing and gnashing his teeth. They were determined to take him to
the hospital in the morning. But first, they called Ahearn to inform her
of their decision and she immediately talked them out of it. She came over the next day and the pain seemed
to have subsided. She again declared that he was completely healed from his paralysis. But Rita and her husband weren’t convinced,
they said “Matthew could no more walk than June Ahearn could have flown to the moon.” The Swans wanted to cancel a party they had
planned for their daughter but Ahearn urged them to continue with their daily activities
and to include Matthew as much as possible. Instead, they kept him in his room, where
he convulsed repeatedly throughout the day. When the party was over, the Swans finally
took Matthew to the hospital to tell them that he had a broken bone – because you
know, that’s allowed. The emergency room doctors and nurses immediately
regarded his case as serious. He had bacterial meningitis, the fact that his pain and paralysis
were gone indicated that it already made it to his brain. He died 8 days later, on July
7. Bacterial meningitis is treatable with antibiotics.
But once it makes it to the brain, there’s really nothing anybody can do. Remember that Rita had a malignant ovarian
cyst surgically removed. But she thought that Christian Science was going to heal Matthew
the entire time. Yet another example of healthcare for me, but not for thee. Nobody was charged in this case, because Michigan
had a religious exemption law – and still does. After Matthew died, both Rita and her husband
withdrew their memberships from the Church and spent the rest of their lives trying to
overturn the law that protected them from prosecution. In 1983, they founded a non-profit named Children’s
Healthcare is a Legal Duty, otherwise known as CHILD, which educates the public on Christian
Science and has lobbied the federal and state governments to repeal these laws with varying
degrees of success. Over a decade later, they argued that Medicare
and Medicaid payments to Christian Science practitioners and nursing homes were unconstitutional,
since they were basically paying people to practice their religion. In 1996, the Federal District Court in Minnesota
agreed. So now, Christian Science nursing homes are only paid for the basic services
they provide, like housing, bathing, and feeding. And Practitioners no longer receive federal
funds for their treatments. On April 8, 1986, a 2-and-a-half year old
from Massachusetts named Robyn Twitchell died from a bowel obstruction which began 5 days
earlier. He was refusing food and was in a lot of pain,
so a practitioner was called on the first day to provide absent treatment. The family
then called the Massachusetts CoP and was told they could not be prosecuted for relying
on spiritual healing. The parents hired a Christian Science Nurse
to come to the house. She gave Robyn a bath and fed him two spoonfuls of applesauce. On the final day, he was vomiting up excrement
and portions of his own bowels. His genitals had turned black from necrosis. This was the
most horrifying death I read about during my research. How anyone could watch that happen
and do nothing is beyond me. The parents were charged with manslaughter
and because of the gruesome nature of this case, it made national news. The father had previously needed a root canal
and accepted painkillers for the procedure. On the stand, while crying, he said “If
medicine could have saved my son, I would have turned to it.” What do you mean if? Both parents were convicted, but it was overturned
in 1993 because they had been told by a church official that they’d be safe from prosecution.
A fact that the jury was not aware of. Following that decision, Massachusetts repealed
their religious exemption law. In November 1987, Elizabeth Ashley King, who
just went by Ashley, was pulled from school because of a problem with her leg. The school
arranged to have her teacher visit her at home to continue her education. Three months later, Ashley’s parents refused
to allow the teacher into their house. After a few more tries, the school called Child
Protective Services. On May 5, the police showed up and as soon
as they saw Ashley, they could tell she was dying. They got a court order allowing them
to take her to the hospital for a medical exam the next day. She had a tumor on her leg that measured 41
inches (104.14 centimeters) in circumference. Just for some perspective, an NBA regulation
basketball has a circumference of only 29.5 inches (74.93 centimeters). … Yeah. Ashley had bed sores from being unable to
move for months and the cancer had spread to her lungs. She told a nurse, “You don’t
know how I’ve suffered… I’m in so much pain.” Despite that, she was released from
the hospital after 6 days. Her parents sent her to Upward View, a Christian
Science nursing home, to die. When she cried out in pain, she was told not to disturb the
other “visitors.” The parents were charged with child abuse
and negligent homicide, the Church even sent the manager of CoPs to appear in their defense.
Seeing that the trial wasn’t going their way, they pleaded no contest to reckless endangerment
and were sentenced to 3 years of probation. The mother then held a press conference surrounded
by cardboard cutouts of Ashley and stated… The only analogy I can use to describe the
terror, resistance, and sense of injustice Ashley felt, is to compare it to what it must
have been like for Anne Frank to be taken to the prison camp in Nazi Germany. … I
know I was a good mother, and no judge or jury in the country can convince me otherwise. The next year, Upward View changed its name
to El Dorado Vista to distance itself from the bad PR. This is the last one we’ll talk about. On
May 6, 1989, Ian Lundman, an 11 year old from Minnesota, complained to his mother that he
had a stomach ache. His breath had a fruity smell to it, but he was otherwise functional. The next day, they went to church, because
acknowledging an illness by resting gives it power. But at the same time, his mom gave
him mints so that nobody would notice his breath. That night, he was complaining about his pain,
so his mother called the state CoP for advice, she then called a practitioner and a nursing
home, who instructed her to give him fluids and gave her the number of a Christian Science
nurse named Quinna Lamb. The next day, he couldn’t eat, drink, move,
speak coherently, or control his bladder. The nurse tied a plastic bag around his genitals
to catch his urine while he lay in bed. She then sat by his bedside and took detailed
notes of his condition throughout the night. This is basically a minute by minute timeline
of an adult watching a child slowly die. Her only treatments were to drip water into his
mouth and keep his lips moist with vaseline. He died some time around 2:36am on May 9th. Ian had juvenile-onset diabetes. If he had
gotten an insulin shot just two hours before his death, he would have survived. Both she and her second husband were charged
with manslaughter, but like many other parents, they were protected by the state’s exemption
law. If you’ve been keeping track of all the
cases I’ve talked about throughout this video where a child died, one person was punished
with a few years of probation. I guess the most criticism has come when a
Christian Science parent has a child die and didn’t treat the child… This Larry King interview I’ve been sampling
throughout the video is with Virginia S Harris, the chairman of the Board of Directors of
the Mother Church. She was basically the leader of Christian Science at the time, though she
would say she and the other Board members are all equals. How do you react? I’m saddened. Any time
a child dies is tragic, Larry. Whether they’re shot on a school ground, whether they die
in an earthquake, in a hospital under a pediatrician’s care, or under the care of a Christian Science
practitioner. So a parent, like any other parent’s going to choose the healthcare
that they can rely on. Whether it’s this pediatrician or that pediatrician, this medication
or that medication, or Christian Science treatment. But no healthcare is 100% risk-free. We wish
it were when it comes to children. We’ll pick that up in a minute, my guest
is Virginia S Harris, a rare appearance, we’re happy to have her, she’s chairman of the
Board of Directors of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, this is Larry King Live,
don’t go away. Nothing should keep you from providing your
child with the best medical care available. And at Shriners hospitals, nothing will. I didn’t add that. The bootleg VHS recording
of this on Youtube includes all of the commercials too. It’s kind of a fun look back into the
past, here, check this one out… Once a millennium, humanity takes a giant
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notebook by KB Morgan, available only at the Knowing Better store. Christian Science membership has always had
an inverse relationship with advances in medicine, but following these controversial and widely-reported
cases, it went into a tailspin. Counting how many Christian Scientists there
are is difficult, because not everyone who follows Christian Science belief will actually
apply for membership in a branch church or the Mother Church. In 1926, there were 202,098 Christian Scientists,
75.5% of which were female. Other churches only have 55%. In 1945, there were 268,915
of them and that was the last time the Church ever gave out their numbers. Only they know how many members they have
today and they don’t make those numbers public. But since the Christian Science Journal lists
every church, nurse, and practitioner in the world, we can extrapolate those numbers to
give us a rough estimate. At its peak in 1941, there were 11,200 practitioners. By 1945,
there were only 8,680. The number of churches peaked in 1961 with
3,273. By 1976, they only had 2,277, they had lost a thousand churches in only 15 years. Now that I’ve given you a bunch of different
numbers from the past, I’m going to tell you how many of them there are now… Because
I have the Christian Science Journal from last month and I hand counted every single
one of them. Today, there are 859 churches in the world
and 976 practitioners. In the United States, going by the assumed gender of their first
names, about 80% of them are female. I counted and sorted all of this data by region,
using the same categories as the Journal. As you can see, the overwhelming majority
of Christian Scientists are in the United States, with 85% of the nurses, 74% of the
churches, and 70% of the practitioners. Modern subscriber numbers for the Christian
Science Monitor are also hard to come by. It reached its peak in 1971 with 271,000 subscribers.
By 1997, there were 77,000 of them, only 25% of which were church members. Remember, the Church Manual states that it
is the duty of all Christian Scientists to subscribe to the various church periodicals. In another strike against wikipedia, they
state that in 2011, the print circulation for the Monitor was 75,052. When you click
their source, you’re taken to a list of publications. If you search for Christian
Science, you get nothing. Publishing Society, nothing. Monitor, gets you three hits, but
they’re clearly not the Christian Science Monitor. I have no idea where they got this
number from. According to the New York Times, when the
Monitor announced the end of its print edition in 2008, there were only 52,000 subscribers.
They only print once a week now. The most recent data I could find came from
the book God’s Perfect Child, my main source for this video. The author states that in
2018, there were 31,096 subscribers, which follows the trend. Given all of that information, my best estimate
for how many Christian Scientists there are today is 30,000. Newspaper articles from the
last few years estimate a maximum of 50,000. The Church I went to for Sunday service, in
a major metro area, had enough seats to fit 500 people. On the day I went, there were
only 30 people in attendance. Hold up, why did you make this monster video
about a religion with so few members? Because, even while the Church is slowly disappearing,
they’ve had a substantial and lasting impact on the laws of this country. As of the making of this video, 41 States
and DC still have religious exemptions to child neglect on their books. If those child
cases bothered you and you live in one of these, maybe write to your state representative. Okay I don’t mean to sound heartless or
anything but, that only affects the kids of Christian Scientists, it’s– No, don’t finish that sentence. … You
don’t mean to sound heartless? These religious exemptions go much further than just child
neglect. Christian Scientists have carved out a number
of accommodations for themselves. Christian Science practitioners can sign sick notes
to get you out of work and disability certificates so you can receive benefits. For conditions they don’t even believe exist? Exactly. Going to a doctor is against their
religion, so they don’t have to undergo employment or school-related medical exams
like a sports physical either. Okay I still don’t see how that affects
other people. In 1951, Cora Sutherland was a public school
teacher in Los Angeles, where employees were required to get a chest x-ray every 3 years
to test for tuberculosis. Since she was a Christian Scientist, she didn’t have to. She died of tuberculosis in 1954, having had
it for years. The county was forced to hunt down all of her former students to get them
tested. They’re also exempt from immunizations.
At the Daycroft School in Connecticut, a Christian Science prep school, there was a polio outbreak
in 1972. There were 128 cases and 4 children were left permanently paralyzed. In 1982, a 9 year old girl contracted diphtheria
at Adventure Unlimited, a Christian Science summer camp in Colorado. She rode the bus
back home to Wisconsin and the state had to hunt down everyone for testing. A practitioner in St. Louis, Missouri opened
the Principia School for Christian Science children in 1898 because she thought that
public schools were too materialistic. And remember, when they say materialistic,
they’re not talking about how we are all living in a material world and I am a material
girl. It’s not the obsession with the accumulation of consumer goods. They’re talking about the fact that stuff
exists. Principia School eventually expanded to include
a high school, with the first class graduating in 1906. The first graduation for Principia
College occurred in 1934 and a separate college campus finished construction just a year after
that. In 1985, there was a measles outbreak at Principia
College. Of the 650 students and 175 staff, 100 people contracted it and 3 people died. The CDC said they only see mortality rates
like that in third world countries. Typically in the US, only 3 out of every 1000 cases
result in death. Afterwards, the state set up voluntary vaccination sites on campus and
over 400 students got the jab. Between 1985 and 1994, Principia experienced
4 major outbreaks, several of which spread to surrounding states. Today, there are only 322 students at the
College and 435 students at the School. Some grade levels have class sizes so small they
can be counted in the single digits. Most Christian Science children don’t go
to a special school though. They go to public school and have a religious exemption from
required vaccinations. The Church should really change its motto
to Christian Science: The Original Anti-Vaxxers. So, you can just declare that something is
against your religion to get out of it? I mean, not really, you have to have been
around for– Can you just leave me alone already? I’m not going anywhere buddy, I’m here
until you made a video– Like I said at the beginning, nobody cares
if you don’t drink, smoke, take medicine, or go to the doctor, that’s your right as
an adult. But when you force those beliefs onto your children, you put them and the wider
society at risk. Regardless of whether or not you think diseases
exist. Christian Science was born during a time when
taking medicine was often more dangerous than doing nothing at all. Back then, members of the Church had longer
life expectancies than the general population. But by mid-century, they were basically dead
even. And now, they’re significantly worse off than the rest of us. Like Christian Scientists, the Mormons also
abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine and have always had longer lives than everyone
else. So it really is just the medicine. The modern anti-vaccine movement began in
the late 1990s when that one dirtbag faked a connection between the MMR and autism. And
of course, everything got way worse when the coronavirus hit, though for different reasons. Both of those are piggybacking off of the
medical skepticism and legal loopholes originally created by Christian Scientists over a hundred
years ago. When religious exemptions to immunizations
and child neglect were originally written, Christian Science was the only Church that
really benefited from them. But since then, numerous small cults have popped up to take
advantage of those laws. The Followers of Christ, a faith-healing cult
in Oregon, filled a cemetery with dead children, causing the state to repeal its exemption
in 2011. So the group moved across the border to Idaho. No other country let Christian Science change
their laws to allow this, not even the UK or Canada. Christian Scientist parents in
those countries have to get their kids vaccinated and they have to take them to the doctor. A religious exemption to vaccinations and
child neglect, which only benefits one religion, sure seems like it violates the establishment
clause of the First Amendment. Now that the religion is almost gone, maybe
those exemptions should be too. Hey everyone, thanks for watching that monster
video. As I'm sure you could tell, it took quite a bit of work. I'd like to give a shout
out to my newest Golden Fork patrons: Robert and Brian. If you'd like to add your name
to this list of people who've reached at-one-ment head on over to patreon.com/knowingbetter,
or, for a one-time donation, paypal.me/knowingbetter. Don't forget to heal that subscribe button,
or the join button if you want to be completely free of error. Check out the merch at knowingbetter.tv,
follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and join us on the subreddit! [Outro music]
For all the enormous personalities and strong charisma of the sort of people that are usually at the center of these videos, it’s impressive how unremarkable and frankly annoying Eddy seems to have been as a person. It feels like she basically just stumbled through founding an influential religion.
I like how KB is now just a Ken Burns level documentarian. I can't wait to watch it.
...when you see the title and you just know "Yeah....this is gonna be a f***d up mess of a S***t Show..."
Can´t wait to see it, but its allmost midnight here....well the title is so prommissing I´ll start anyways, I can sleep later...
I've lived in at least two places with Christian scientist reading rooms in areas that I am surprised they would be able to afford.
On nebula yet?
This is so informative, I’ve never heard of Christian Science so this was very eye opening. Great video!
One thing I noticed though is that the tone of this video was much more attached to you yourself as compared to other videos (excluding obviously the ones where you talk about yourself such us the veterans stories), and felt much more.. quieter? It much more lowkey and I like the change and I wonder if it was a conscious choice.
Another great video KB! I've fitted a cubic spline to your recent video times. Based on the extrapolation from that function I'm blocking out half a day for your next feature. Just give me a week's notice to reserve time on my calendar.
TBH, the video kept me engaged for the entire time. Thanks for all your hard work!
I'm kind of impressed that this dying religion is one of reasons that US healthcare is in the state it is now
I’m curious how YouTube logs a view of such an epically long video. I’m an hour in but I can’t finish the video today, so I’ll have to come back and pick up where I left off later. But is the creator punished somehow for that behaviour by YouTube?