When I was about ten years old, it was normal for the Protestant Sunday School class I was attending to spend some of the class time at the regular church service. On one occasion I was stunned to hear the congregation, including myself, vehemently condemned as "miserable sinners." Refusing to agree to such an accusation, I later told my parents I would not attend that church again.
Since my father as a child had attended a Christian Science Sunday School, my parents agreed that I would be enrolled in one. I have never forgotten the first words I heard or their impact upon my heart the Sunday I started attending. "God is love," I John 4:8. the teacher said. During the next ten years that Sunday School became my church home. Perhaps within that reassuring concept was a promise that if I could but understand my relationship to God as Love, I would never again feel labeled as a miserable sinner.
The innocence we innately express because we are in truth the beloved, spiritual offspring of God is one of the basic teachings of Christian Science that distinguish it from other systems of thought and is often what first draws humanity to its doors.
