Q: Why is it that sometimes people are unable to reach Christian Science practitioners? I’ve called practitioner after practitioner, but it seems no one will answer the call. If a practitioner does answer the call, often he or she refuses to take my case, and in my experience those practitioners who do take the case are unable to solve the problem. Why does this happen? Shouldn’t this never occur?
A: I would agree that one should always be able to reach a Christian Science practitioner. With the many hundreds of practitioners listed in the Journal, reachability should not be a problem. While the “choice of patients is left to the wisdom of the practitioner,” as the Church Manual specifies (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 87), and that “wisdom” may lead a practitioner to decline a case, it is nevertheless hard for me to imagine that a totally sincere request for help would not find a practitioner willing to accept that case. I would also agree that each case should result in healing.
But to find the real answers to these questions, first let’s step back a bit. When someone turns to a Christian Science practitioner for help through prayer, he or she is entering a mental realm, within which the basic tenet is “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1). God is the healer. You might say that by choosing Christian Science, the patient has agreed to rely on scientific prayer to demonstrate God’s healing activity in the patient’s experience.
