Word has reached this distant outpost that The Mother Church is conducting, at the host's expense of course, a series of workshops to facilitate and encourage listing in the Journal as a Christian Science practitioner. This requires a workshop? Until recent years, at least, for those ready for this high-calling it was a fairly straightforward and well-understood process. So what gives?
One disturbing clue is that "healers" are being invited, not Christian Scientists who have had primary class instruction (now with a properly obedient teacher, i.e., one who is or was in lockstep with the regime in Bean Town). Obviously, if the standards for attendance are set at a subterranean level the likelihood is increased that a few abstracted "healers" will tumble fortuitously into the proceedings and help flesh out the attendance. There, after some astrological alchemy or whatever and maybe an official anointing, they will presumably be qualified to list in the Journal as a Christian Science practitioner. The required check for $250 or so would doubtless apply the necessary grease to the skids.
If anything resembling this is occurring it can only aggravate what we already have in the Journal listings, a potluck menagerie inflicted on those who are uninformed or new to Christian Science. Also, a loyal, well-taught Christian Scientist would probably not wish to find himself in the hands of a so-called C.S. practitioner who would also work for someone who is taking medicine or who is under medical treatment, someone who is venal, or someone who isn't even a bona fide Scientist. There is no asterisk or warning in the Journal listings to differentiate.
Additionally, the on-line Journal listing form, and probably the hard-copy version as well, has an interesting section for "Mentor". One assumes gurus, astrologers, spiritual advisors, and miscellaneous wackos would be acceptable. One can only wonder with trepidation what is going on. Of course, it is possible these things may have a bark much worse than their bite, but given the current "we answer only to God and maybe not even to Him" attitude at the Church HQ, it is not wise to be too eager to draw naive conclusions.
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39 comments:
You are so funny, but you are right on the mark about this serious issue. Thank you so much for using your talent and wit to bring things to light that many of us have wondered about. Oh, oh to think what our dear Leader would do right now! Run them out of town, without a doubt.
Keep up your delightful blogging. We need you, faithful student of Christian Science!
Someone just phoned me to be sure and tune in on this hilarious, but oh so true, blog post. Well done. So glad you've brought these evils to light.
God bless you,
Mentor?! I thought you had your facts wrong until I googled application for Journal listing, and there it was! Absolutely creeps me out, I tell you. What are they thinking? If they are thinking at HQ, that is.
Thanks for this marvelous blog post.
This is appalling.
It's been frustrating (and I've written to Boston about this, obviously to no discernible avail) to continually see posted on the covers of the periodicals the biggest bluff out there almost: "Anyone can be a healer" ...when, in fact, Mrs. Eddy states: "The preparation for a metaphysical practitioner is the most arduous task I ever performed." (Healing 14:17) She goes on to say: "You must first mentally educate and develop the spiritual sense or perceptive faculty by which one learns the metaphysical treatment of disease; you must teach them how to learn, together with what they learn. I waited many years for a student to reach the ability to teach; it included more than they understood." (Healing 14:19).
Many CS Practitioners today aren't even available when you ring them up...much less able to heal. THEN....you get a statement for several hundred dollars on top of it all!
Spiritual wickedness in high places, and pride of priesthood would apply here, I think.
Signed,
Devoted CS student from California.
Excellent blog post! And the comment preceding this one, right on. Extremely well said, and articulates what so many of us (too many of us!) in the Field have been thinking for a long time.
Gratitude to you, blogger, for speaking out on things that are downright WRONG.
Reading your excellent latest, do you know what comes to thought? That it has to be a matter of money, these meetings being held. Why else do them? As someone is fond of saying, follow the money and you'll have the answer. Has it come down to this?! Probably has, given all the wicked things they have done the past few years.
Keep posting!
Love it, love it. So refreshing to be reading candid material on issues that should be concerning any dedicated student of our Leader's writings. Is mentor any part of Christian Science?! Whatever the purpose of this is, it is clearly way off base.
Thanks, thanks for what you are doing!
Amen to this entry as well as the comments. When I became Journal listed several years ago, it was between God and myself. Did not need a meeting to talk about it, for heaven's sake! There has to be something else motivating all this other than the desire to further Christ-healing according to Christian Science. Keep exposing evil, will you?
Thanks for a wonderful blog. So fresh, alive, honest. Think that devoted CS from California may have hit on something: is wicked priestcraft at the bottom of all this lowering of standards, and rampant confusion at HQ? Just could be.
Lots of gratitude to you.
A real blessing to read your website. Yes, HQ is morally and spiritually bankrupt. Has been for some time now.
Best to you.
I guess one of us could write Boston and ask what in the heck "mentor" means in this context. But we'd be treated like stepchildren, ignored. So, why bother?
I guess one of us could write Boston and ask what in the heck "mentor" means in this context. But we'd be treated like stepchildren, ignored. So, why bother?
Thank you for speaking up! When I think of all I owe the teachings of Christian Science for the help I've gotten over the years, well I just can't not want the standards Mrs. Eddy established to be adhered to. If enough of us resist the downward drag from HQ, perhaps this will turn things around. Just think of how God has blessed us in giving us the Science of Christ.
I can never be grateful enough.
$3,000?! In this economy?! Has the Field been clamoring for these meetings? Or is this something instigated by Boston? If I were a betting man, I'd say the latter.
For shame.
The application to be listed as a CS Practitioner asks for a mentor precisely to avoid having people stumble into the practice without understanding what it really entails. You assume amiss when you say that "gurus, astrologers, spiritual advisors, and miscellaneous wackos would be acceptable." Mentors must be authorized and respected teachers and practitioners who are known to be faithful adherents of both the letter and spirit of Christian Science. Those who go into the practice while their primary class teachers are still around will almost always find their ablest mentor in that person. But some don't have that resource by the time they are ready to take the leap into public practice, and by asking for a mentor, the church ensures that new practitioners have access to the kind of support they need to learn how to deal with the demands of the post in a Christianly Scientific manner and to be supported in doing so. The mentor requirement, then, is a way to protect the integrity of the office of Christian Science Practitioner by making sure that those who advertise themselves as such are well acquainted with what it means to practice Christian Science as Mrs. Eddy taught and practiced it.
What happened to the standard of having to show a certain number of years of verified healings???????
Unless you can show that, I don't think someone is ready for Journal listing. I know the standards in Boston have been so watered down that I wouldn't bother to call most of the listed "practitioners" for help.
If our Leader didn't say a mentor was needed, why does anyone these days need one? Hmmmm? What's wrong with getting inspiration from her writings, and direction from God? This is more than enough. It certainly was for me.
Bless their pea-picking hearts as we say down here. They should be going all out to uphold the Cause as Mary Baker Eddy established it, instead of going off in unnecessary (and weird) directions.
But what really bothers me is that $3,000 they're asking for, for their chosen ones. Outrageous behavior! Here's hoping they don't get the money. And given the economy, they just may not.
Have had a further thought: how did the Christian Science Church make it all these years without having "mentors" for would-be practitioners? It these weren't needed for over l00 years, why now? Think your assessment, Boston reports only to God, and not always to Him, about sums it up.
Mrs. Eddy would be, what's the word I'm looking for and I'll try to be nice...totally UNACCEPTING of this new development by the Board. She might even shut down the office of CSP & CSB's for an interim (like she did the metaphysical college) until the mental mechanism was cleaned out.
I love what she is reputed to have said once:
"It absolutely disgusts me to hear them babble the letter and after that fail in proving what they say!" p. 197 - MBE: Christian Healer
"By his works he shall be judged, — and justified or condemned." p. 42:9 - Christian Science Manual
The main idea behind the chapter on 'CS vs. Spiritualism' in S&H is to understand that there is NO MEDIATOR between God and man. NO MEDIUMSHIP. NO PRIESTHOOD.
You can try to put a spin on their motive by saying they want to help those who have 'lost' their Teacher or whatever. But IF the teaching has been done properly, you KNOW who your 'Teacher' really is—God! We don't need mentors! We need HOLINESS. It comes with consecration and willingness to leave ALL for Christ.
She's also said it's best for
GOD TO BE THE INTERPRETER...
SPIRIT IMPARTS THE UNDERSTANDING...
of course that also means we have to shut up and LISTEN! SILENCE those material senses. No mentor needed!
Sign me...
Still devoted CS in California
To whichever official, or lackey tried to justify what Boston is doing vis-a-vis practitioner listings (and missed the mark): couldn't help picking up on the wording toward the end about "acquainting" those who wish to list with the standards Mrs. Eddy would approve of. This statement did not say Boston requires her high standards. Nice try, but you'll have to do better than this. Too many of us out here know better.
I'm on the phone right now while I'm typing this, and a CS practitioner is telling me about a letter she just got about the Midwest Youth Meeting, inviting practitioners to do daily work for their "spiritual activity summit"! Also, mentioned that they were "gathering funds" and would welcome contributions. She said, "I'll just bet they're gathering funds--with both hands out!" She said to herself, you may be inviting me to work metaphysically for your watered-down meeting, but I do not intend to do it. Misguided, off the mark, she felt when she read the letter.
Will this never end?
Let us be grateful they haven't added a section to the Journal, listing those who engage in mind/body/spirit practice,healing--"mentored" I imagine by Virginia Harris, and applauded by the Harvard Medical School. Things could actually be worse.
To the commenter who posted: "Mentors must be authorized and respected teachers and practitioners who are known to be faithful adherents of both the letter and spirit of Christian Science."
Remember who is "authorizing" these days and if it is they who are also respecting and judging who is "faithful" the blogger has done a tremendous service in exposing this issue.
What will they call practitioners next after "healers" will it be "shamen" to appeal to another segment of society?
Thanks again blogger for another lively and informative post!!!
Mentoring doesn't replace the requirement for a proven record of healing. Nor does it replace the need to get inspiration from the writings of MBE or direction from God. No one can successfully practice Christian Science without these. Mrs. Eddy mentored her students in the practice when she was around, so it seems reasonable to me that Mrs. Eddy would approve. How could offering novice practitioners the opportunity to work side by side with and learn from the standard bearers of our great cause be a bad thing? I find your responses here just baffling.
And I find the notion of mentoring just "baffling"! Why do it?
Like the commenter above, I too am baffled by this. Does Mrs. Eddy mention the word mentor anywhere in her writings? I have never come across this concept, and to try to make us believe she would approve, well you are way off base here, whoever you are. I'm certainly open to correction. I invite you to give the many readers of this blog specifics on who she "mentored" (if you're in Boston, surely you have access to the Archives--we out here do not). Back up your statement with hard facts!
I just now looked up the word "mentor" and what did I find? Among other definitions, these: guru, advisor, oracle, therapist, master,confidant, pedagogue, perceptor, sage, pundit, luminary. Do you expect me to believe our Leader, who ever turned people to God, thought of herself as any one of these things?!
I'm sorry, but linking our Leader to "mentor" is a subtle put-down, a trashing of her in a way, and I don't like it one bit!
Has a whiff of the Gill biography about it. Evil!
What? Thinking of our leader as a mentor is in no way a put-down. She intended to mentor us all through her writings, and I, for one, am so grateful that she did.
The Oxford English Dictionary (considered the most authoritative dictionary by English language scholars) defines "mentor" as follows:
1. a. Originally (in form Mentor): a person who acts as guide and adviser to another person, esp. one who is younger and less experienced. Later, more generally: a person who offers support and guidance to another; an experienced and trusted counsellor or friend; a patron, a sponsor.
I am not in Boston, and I'm traveling today so don't have access to anything I can specifically cite, but I certainly recall instance after instance in the Peel biographies in particular of Mrs. Eddy acting as a guide, advisor, and supporter to people such as Richard Kennedy and others early on and to people like Julia Bartlett and Edward Kimball in later years (there are probably many more names but those are the ones that are coming quickly to my mind). She discussed cases with them, prayed for and with them, and also discussed more practical aspects of working as a practitioner. And the last time I was in Boston I spent a day reading the collection of letters that the MBE library calls Letters to Healers (or something like that) and it was clear that she acted in this capacity with many, many more students who were setting themselves up in the practice.
Journel Listed Practitioner: I find it highly ironic that you would be so adverse to the definitions of mentor when you refer to MBE as "Leader" with a capital "L".
I have been reading this blog now for some time with both amusement and despair. As all practicing CS'ers know, we pray from Mind outward, and transform, translate, spiritualize et al. what we "see" objectively coming to us as impersonal error as opposed to personal. I have been a Mother Church member since I was 12 and have never seen the "Church" as a personal thing. (I am also a Principia graduate). My point is, what is all the fuss. This stuff has been going on since the Church was founded. Mrs. Eddy herself said we will throw off the material view of church at some point. I heal and practice in my own "closet" where it should be done. As Arthur Corey so aptly points out in his Class Instruction book, CS is for the world, like mathematics. One doesn't "own" 2+2 is 4. Fussing over 2+2=5 is pointless. You all are dealing in belief about something that is illusion. Speaking of illusion, if we don't get our collective act together, we will forfeit all the work Mrs. Eddy put into this Movement ( as opposed to Church). As we speak a great book has come out by Dr. Leonard Susskind concerning his battle with Dr. Steven Hawking called the Black Hole War. Long story short, Dr. Susskind concludes, "the three dimensional world of ordinary experience- the universe filled with galaxies, stars, planets, houses, boulders, and people- is a hologram, an image of reality coded on a distant two-dimensional surface. This new law of physics, known as the Holographic Principle, asserts that everthing inside a region of space can be described by bits of information restricted to the boundary." This is a material illusion, a central point to healing in S&H, which Mrs. Eddy revealed to the world. This isn't about a church. I don't heal patients with a church. God does the healing, I am incidental to the process, however one has to understand that process and it is all in Mrs. Eddy's works. What more do you need. With Love. William S. (Tick) Ticknor, Jr. CS. missinglink404@yahoo.com
To the preceding 3 commmenters:
1) Perhaps when you get back from your trip you can track down precisely where it says Mrs. Eddy "mentored" someone;
2) If you will stop and think for a moment, you will realize that it was Mrs. Eddy herself who referred to herself as "Leader";
3) If William Ticknor, Jr. gets in depair over this blog, maybe he should stop reading it.
Nice! Coming from a fellow practitioner who won't state a name. Again, another reason we need to work within our own consciousness and not lash out at others. Why hide behind the anonymous? Tick.
Christian Science Practitioner: go to your dictionary and look up definitions for "Leader" and you will come up with some of the same words you to which you are so opposed.
Let's all move on to the latest entry this wonderful blogger just posted, which demolishes your feeble comments. You are not fooling anyone. I shall go on referring to Mary Baker Eddy by the term she herself gave us.
Christian Science Practioner: No, I am not trying to fool anyone, but you are fooling yourself!
Can anyone show me where this information of this new approach (workshops, mentor, healer) can be found? Can it be found online, or is it from an article in the Journal only?
And what is a mentor according to the church?
"Mentor" has a connotation of being a one-on-one advisor and constructive critic, much like one's committee chairman for a thesis or dissertation. Sometimes mentorships arise spontaneously, as when a teacher comes to guide a particularly apt student, perhaps because their respective outlooks are similar and they work together well. This, in my experience, hardly describes the relationship an experienced Journal-listed practitioner or teacher has in helping another CS become Journal-listed for the public practice. (If you are a devoted CS, you are ipso facto in the practice, so I like to distinguish "public" or "J-listed" from this generalized practice.)
Two examples come to mind.
1. My teacher several times encouraged students to work toward the public practice and offered to help with practical matters such as setting up an office. His mentorship, if any, consisted of the class and associations and any one-on-one conversations of the type all CS-tists have with their teacher and various other practitioners from time to time.
2. A long-time practitioner in my city, now deceased, maintained an office in a downtown building, and sublet it to J-listing wannabes. Again, she helped with practical matters and was ever ready to assist by means of her own practice.
A "mentor" in the usual sense of the word would be doing a lot more supervising--just as you'd hope your thesis chairman would!
Some of the relaxed standards make me think of Robert Frost's description of Carl Sandburg: Carl's poetry is like playing tennis with the net down."
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