Several months ago I attended a legislative hearing conducted on the West Coast of the United States. Amendments to an existing law were being considered that would affirm a parent's right to practice responsible spiritual healing for his or her children without threat of criminal prosecution.
One of the central issues that was questioned by committee members was the position of Christian Science that its method of spiritual treatment through prayer cannot be combined with conventional medical treatment. This was difficult for some legislators to accept, primarily because of a widely held assumption that God works through material means as well as through spiritual means.
Christian Science treatment, however, is based on an entire theology, which holds that life and reality are actually the spiritual expression of God. Therefore materiality cannot, in actuality, share power or place with spirituality in God's kingdom. From the Christian Scientist's perspective, God does not express Himself through matter, with all its limits and harmful effects. His law is spiritual and wholly good.
