“Why join The Mother Church?” is a question I often used to ask in Sunday School. It was my usual response to teachers who suggested that I might join. It didn’t seem to me that there was anything in it for me, or even for The Mother Church! I thought, I can help the Church and it can help me, so why bother with the paperwork? It wasn’t as though I could get Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy at a discount by being a member!
During my last couple of years in Sunday School, I became more and more certain that Christian Science is the truth. That however bad I might be at practicing it, it is right. And I used to talk to others, at school for example, from this basis. If people asked which religion I belonged to, I’d say, “I’m a Christian Scientist,” not, “Well, at the moment I’m rather interested in Christian Science … .” And when an application form asked me to state my religion, I’d automatically put “Christian Science.” I was that sure.
So it was then that I started asking myself, “Why don’t I join The Mother Church?” I was calling myself a Christian Scientist in name; I was grateful for what The Mother Church does in promoting and supporting Christian Science, and I knew it was right—but I wasn’t giving the Church the support of my commitment. Why would I tell the people whom I talked to that I was a Christian Scientist, but I wasn’t prepared to tell The Mother Church? It was silly.
