A Mission In My City maintains eleven houses for the homeless. One day my husband and I took clothing, children's books, and other articles, along with a small donation, to the mission office. Hoping that we'd meet the pastor in charge, we also brought along a copy of The Christian Science Monitor and a Full Text Edition of the Christian Science Quarterly Weekly Bible Lessons.
The pastor was there. After we'd distributed our other materials, we offered him the Monitor and pointed out a religion/science feature on the front page. He bluntly refused the paper and said, "You people don't read the Bible." Then I gave him the Full Text Quarterly and assured him that we do indeed study the Bible daily, together with the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. We shook hands and said goodbye.
Several days later, he telephoned and apologized, saying that he'd like me to come for a visit. We sat in the pleasant living room of one of his houses—he with his Bible and I with Science and Health. For an hour we exchanged our thoughts on theological subjects such as salvation, sin, Christ Jesus' mission, and the "second coming." We also talked about what our attitudes should be toward religions other than Christianity, as well as toward those people calling themselves atheists. After this relaxed, friendly airing of ideas, I offered him the textbook, and he took it gladly, saying that he'd enjoyed the visit and hoped to meet again.
