Every lecture year I do several lectures at prisons and halfway houses. All of them have been rewarding experiences, not only for me, but for those in the audience who perhaps have never heard about Christian Science—its simplicity and practicality.
One of my most memorable experiences happened at a halfway house. These are places where people come to transition after a prison sentence or after a stay at a drug rehabilitation facility, just prior to being released into society. Some are considered hardened criminals or drug addicts who are “not ready” to reintegrate into “normal” life.
When I arrived at this particular halfway house, I was informed that there were about 60 people living there, and they were all required to attend my lecture. As a matter of fact, roll call would be taken to ascertain that everyone was present at the lecture.
As this was done, I noticed that many of the residents were there against their will and expressed reluctance to hear a lecture on something they had never heard of before, or were unwilling to hear about (some of them confused Christian Science with something else).
Normally before a lecture I take a little walk to have a few moments to listen to God and to remind myself that the Christ, Truth, will be speaking to the audience, and not Lorenzo. I was aware of the reluctance of the residents to hear my lecture, but I prayed, affirming that God’s word was something we all needed to hear, and that the power of divine Love could not be challenged.
So, in this frame of mind, I entered the room. The first thing I said was that I had noticed that some people were not happy about being there, and I told them that they could leave without fear of any repercussions. To my chagrin, about a third to a half of the room emptied out.
But I was not dismayed or deterred. I began to speak about God and the difference between the popular idea of Him and the Christian Science concept of God. Also, about how Mary Baker Eddy discovered that gaining the true idea of God can bring harmony and joy to everyone’s experience. Moreover, I talked about the fact that God’s children are all good and innocent, and that the consciousness of this spiritual identity we each have would heal them of the misconceptions they had of themselves as hardened criminals, drug addicts, and so on, and improve their lives.
As I spoke, people who had previously left the room started trickling back in. When I finished, the room was almost full again! There were many questions from the audience during this period. But they weren’t questions challenging the validity of Christian Science; they were about how they could apply it.
At the end of the lecture, I offered a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible to everyone who truly wanted the books. Well, we ran out of copies of both and had to take requests for later distribution.
This, and many other experiences in similar environments, has convinced me of the needs to be met by Christian Science at places where so many are certain that they are bad, that there is no hope for them.
Mrs. Eddy, through her understanding of God as Love, and of man as the perfect reflection of God, brings hope to all humanity in her textbook, Science and Health. In it she writes, “Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light.” And later, “The sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth” (p. 516).
