Sunday, November 9, 2008

The Useful Allure of Cotton Candy

Some interest has suddenly blossomed in the Discussion Forum of the Church website (?). What about it? My own inclination, not surprisingly, is to be extremely cautious about such places. Like Spirituality.com, or whatever it is/was, they are, to some of us at any rate, little more than diversonary public relations sideshows. They give a bread-and-circuses impression that meaningful activity is taking place, all the while deviously serving to deflect attention from willful wrong-doing and a G-string-size resume of commendable accomplishments.

There is only one proof necessary to validate The Mother Church's sincerity in meeting the needs of its members: humble, pure, compassionate, Christian, unselfed, gracious, neighborly, loving, and longsuffering actions -- without a remittance slip attached. Aught else is vapid and ephemeral foam. Active web sites can still be at bottom glittering carousels of random thoughts going witlessly round and round and round.

A case in point for the Church's need to feed a few problem children to the lions in the circus is the MBE Library. Why, when for probably a decade or more the showpiece buildings of the Church Center have been underutilized and are now said to be vacant or rented out, do you build at no little cost a new building for the Library? To provide a nice, fresh place for more Gills, Dakins, and Milmines to paw over Mrs. Eddy's private, unpublished papers with their dirty hands? To feed the rapacious megalomania that demands a monument to one's pathetic vanity, paid for, in part, of course, with your loving contributions?

Article VIII, Section 6, of the Church Manual states that each of us has "his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind." Notice who is not included in that triumvirate. And Mrs. Eddy adds that by one's "works he shall be judged,--and justified or condemned." And, yes, that includes, a fortiori, moi, as Miss Piggy would say.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am just curious have you with drawn your membership from the mother church that you disdain so much?

Anonymous said...

Who can say it the way you do? Just marvelous. So fresh and frank and well thought out. Keep up the good work on very serious issues!

Anonymous said...

Those essential listing of Christ qualities TMC should be exhibiting to their members has been missing for a long, long time. I get the strong impression that getting money out of us, selling products is uppermost in their minds--not showing mothering care for us. I am not along in this feeling, believe me.

Anonymous said...

So you have had this feeling for a long long time...and you still give them your money. Sounds like a good plan.

Anonymous said...

If the CS field is starved for two things, it is surely more Christianity coming from those in charge, and less emphasis on "getting"!
I thank you for speaking up...

Anonymous said...

I just love it that you are speaking frankly. How we yearn to hear what is really going on. I do appreciate all you are doing!

Anonymous said...

You do come up with the most engaging titles to your entries. Pulls the reader right in.
With my thanks,

Anonymous said...

Relative to the first comment on this blog item, let's not get confused here. I'm absolutely certain the blogger does not disdain the Mother Church as Founded by Mary Baker Eddy. Rather it's the way the church's affairs are being conducted under the current--and recent past-- management as exemplified by the board. The many specific actions leading away from the fundamental principles established by Mrs. Eddy are what's at issue here, NOT the Mother Church itself.

Anonymous said...

I am with you on the Gill montrosity being linked to Dakin and Milmine. If someone who hates our Leader had let someone search archives for material, then tried to hawk it through reading rooms, we would understand it. But that the officials did so is so evil as to be inexplicable!

Anonymous said...

There must be some REALLY bad stuff in those archives!!!

Anonymous said...

All I can say is, there ought to be many more out there who love the Cause of Christian Science as much as you do. Shame on those who are afraid to speak out!

Anonymous said...

Regarding the comment about what's in the archives, as Sarah Palin found out, all you need is an interviewer with evil intent who's not above taking things out of context, editing to twist meaning, adding spurious background comments and editorializing with an agenda and voila, the job is done. I doubt very much if there's ANY "bad stuff" in the archives, but gold rushes do seem to bring out the worst types of characters. And as has been mentioned here and elsewhere, there does seem to be a "gold rush" in Boston these days!

Anonymous said...

Its a well know FACT that are things in those archives that we dont want to get in the wrong hands!

Anonymous said...

Why hide history? The facts are the facts and hiding them only creates an atmosphere of suspicion.

Anonymous said...

Then why open the archives to the likes of Ms. Gill? Though I haven't read her book--from the comments of others it would appear to be a waste of time to say the least--she would appear to be a prime example "the wrong hands." Other than that I can't imagine there being anything to do with Mrs. Eddy's life that she would hesitate to have fairly dealt with. There are probably a lot of things that even the most advanced students might not understand even today and that might cause some confusion. Other than that Harvard Medical School will never be ready for the fact that "Life and intelligence are purely spiritual..." no matter how many times Virginia Harris visited them.

Anonymous said...

Well, the reason we protect the archives is for our Love of our Beloved Leader. If we dont then who will!!!

Anonymous said...

Who cares about the archives, I am sure Boston has anything that could hurt our Cause dealt with.

Anonymous said...

If we are trying to open our eyes about what is going on in Boston, why shut our eyes to what might be in the archives? It seems a Christian Scientist's idea of what is "fair" is the things that only they want to believe and hear said. If the evidence is there in black and white, you can't critisize someone for bringing it out in the open. It is the same principle that this blog is employing.

Anonymous said...

But isnt this blog all about the Neo-Christian Science Movement?

Anonymous said...

So now we need cotton candy to "lure". Bwhaaaaaaah!!! Ha Ha Ha!

Anonymous said...

Re the archives. Robert Peel's trilogy biography of MBE is about as definitive as you can get--he had full access to the archives, was a devout Christian Scientist as well as a scholar, and didn't mince words. The Gill book (I read about half before I got sick of her inanities) tries to psychoanalyze MBE without ever knowing the subject or really anything about CS. Also, the TMC Board basically dismantled the archives when they created the MBE Library (which also has a fair amount of new age stuff which was never in the archives). At this point, we'll never know what they chose to toss in that episode. Apparently, the people employed in the archives were told on a Friday they were being laid off, and by Monday the locks had been changed.

Anonymous said...

The locks where changed, ha ha ha he he he, keep it coming, i am wetting myself!!!

Anonymous said...

Well, there goes the neighborhood as far as mature discussion is concerned. I'd say get yourself some Depends but with comments like that you're more of the Pampers type, junior size.