Articles

What is it that most affects how we identify ourselves, our potential, and what we can achieve? That’s the question at the heart of what is commonly known as the “nature versus nurture” debate. Is it our human nature, composed of our DNA, sex, ancestry, race, IQ, personality type, mental health, family health history, physical body, and/or personal attributes? Or is it who and what has nurtured us: our parents; where we live; our country of origin; our moral or ethical training; our mental, social, and physical environment; our economic or citizenship status; our religion; how others treat or respect us; whether we are bullied; the quality of our education; our exposure to violence and crime; the opportunities that come our way; and/or just plain luck?   Clearly, many things could affect our sense of ourselves and what happens in our future, but the teachings of Christian Science reveal that we never have to be trapped into adhering to either the human nature view or the human nurture view, or to both views.

In our church, there is a tall wall with several windows high up. One day, I happened to glance up at one of the small square windows.

Almost every day I wake up completely grateful and certain that my public ministry as a practitioner of the Science of the Christ is the best job in the world. I am so grateful to have the privilege, along with every other student of Christian Science, of working toward the high goal stated by Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good” ( p.

Have you ever felt inadequate to meet a situation through prayer alone, perhaps thinking that your knowledge of Christian Science is too limited to demonstrate the power of Truth to heal? I know I have at times. However, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, opens the Preface to her seminal work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, with these encouraging words: “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings” ( p.

Growing up attending Christian Science Sunday School, I often heard people praise Mary Baker Eddy’s poems that have been used as hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal. I shared this appreciation to a degree; yet it was not until after studying Christian Science on my own that I really began to treasure them.

The certainty of God’s presence and power is vividly conveyed in the Bible account of the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda. John’s Gospel tells us that this man, who had had an infirmity for 38 years, was lying on a bed by the pool when Christ Jesus noticed him.

After I graduated from college and returned to my family’s farm for a career in growing apples, I struggled mightily with the question, “What can I do with my life to do the most good?” I was successful at growing fruit, and hungry people needed food to eat, so my career choice felt fine. But I also had neighbors suffering from disease, depression, loneliness, anger, pain, and other troubles.

Are you the “me first” type? If you’d asked me that question during my teens and early twenties, I probably would have said no. After all, I loved God—a lot.

“Fake news” is something we hear a lot about these days. It’s so pervasive in today’s media world that it can be difficult to know what news sources can be trusted.

Many years ago I was asked by the London County Council, which was responsible for educating the children in inner London, if I would be willing to teach the youngest class in a school for “deprived” children. These youngsters were in the care of the state because their families had broken up.