has a substantial commitment to church. He is currently Christian Science Campus Counselor to a number of colleges, First Reader in his local branch church, a Monitor advertising salesman, and a worker in the Committee on Christian Science Work in Los Angeles County Institutions. Like a modestly growing number of other young people, he devotes a good deal of his time to the practice of Christian Science.
It started in the town where I was attending college when I visited the church just to see what it was like. Organized religion turned me off. If I didn't like it, I decided, there'd be no going back. I looked a lot different then: long hair, beard, mustache, sandals, and cutoff jeans. As I walked into the church in the middle of a hymn, there was such an impact of love, such a tremendous embrace; not necessarily of people. It was the embrace of God I felt, and right away I knew I wanted to be there.
I joined the church as soon as they'd let me and tried to get involved as much as possible. All the same, I still did things that made me feel hypocritical. I think Christian Scientists sometimes feel, "Well, if I'm being this hypocritical, I shouldn't go to church." And so they stop going to church—and isn't that a thousand times worse? Even though my heart was basically right, the practice of what I believed and understood wasn't entirely there. It finally got to where I just couldn't handle the suffering anymore from doing the things that weren't in accord with Science, and that brought the willingness to be healed.
