My first glimpse into the teachings of Christian Science came from reading a religious article in The Christian Science Monitor. (At the time, I was visiting a relative who subscribed to the Monitor because of its objective news coverage.) The message of the religious article—that any and every kind of discord can be healed through understanding God—offered a welcome ray of hope at a time when I was troubled by ill health. However, at that time I did not grasp the great difference between genuine Christian healing (which brings about regeneration of character) and the so-called healing promised by the material systems I was then involved with — including homeopathy, nutrition therapy, and occultism, to name just a few.
Seeing no contradiction between reliance upon these material systems and trust in God, I concurrently engaged in these materialistic practices while praying to God for guidance and studying the Bible (although mystified by many of its passages). Particularly troubling to me was Christ Jesus' admonition (Matt. 5:48): "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Being perfect seemed to me to be impossible. So I concluded that this statement must be a mistranslation of Jesus' words.
Besides studying the Bible itself, I also read whatever I could find to help me understand and apply the Bible's message to my life. One day I found some copies of the Christian Science Sentinel in a literature distribution box. Remembering the encouragement I'd felt from reading the Monitor religious article, I took several copies of the Sentinel home with me. Some time later, when I was feeling quite discouraged by increasingly poor health, I opened a Sentinel, hoping to find something to comfort me. The first article I turned to referred to the passage from Matthew quoted earlier. But, instead of dismissing Jesus' injunction as a fluke of mistranslation, the author of the article seemed to accept it as valid. At that point I threw the Sentinel across the room in anger and despair. I thought, "If God really expects me to become perfect—forget it!"
