When I was about to start graduate school many years ago, I got a notice from the school informing me that I needed to take a physical examination as part of the admission requirements. When I explained to the admission office that I was a Christian Scientist and therefore would like to be given an exemption, they told me that I still needed to take a tuberculosis test. I went to a local hospital and took a TB skin test shot. Several days later, a doctor told me that I had positive symptoms of TB. Unless this was cared for, she said, I would not be allowed to start school.
When I heard the outcome of the test, I simply refused to consent to this verdict. I told the doctor that I was a Christian Scientist. And because through my practice of this Science I was identifying myself as God’s perfect spiritual idea, I also said that I felt this test result was mistaken. Then the doctor made some remarks that expressed antipathy toward Christian Science.
I was tempted to react to her comments but decided to be very quiet. In order to prove that I did not really have TB, I was asked to have another TB skin test shot or an X-ray. This time I chose the latter. But the same doctor told me that I was wasting her valuable time because the ensuing test would show that I indeed had TB that needed immediate medical treatment.
