As a young adult I became a member of The Mother Church shortly after the end of World War II. The decision to join the Church seemed to be the culmination of prayerful years during the war in my native Germany. As I realized later, that period marked the beginning of a deeper understanding of Christian Science and its practice, and of what The Mother Church stands for.
Germany had gone through chaotic conditions during the war. The German Nazi government had prohibited Christian Science, persecuted church members, and confiscated Christian Science books and other Christian Science literature. But nothing could stop the spiritual unfoldment of loving and truthful ideas which I had absorbed in Sunday School at a Christian Science branch church as a child.
As a result, when I was drafted into paramilitary service at age 15, I felt great security in the basic knowledge of God’s love for His children, which helped me keep my peace even under combat conditions and the threat of oppression. I always had my Bible with me, and my mother would send me letters with comforting passages she copied from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health. I often reminded myself of Mary Baker Eddy’s words on page 110 of her textbook, “No human pen nor tongue taught me the Science contained in this book, SCIENCE AND HEALTH; and neither tongue nor pen can overthrow it.”
