Q&A - WILLIAM SAMUEL
Among my letters are some comments I'd like to answer here.
"I am steadfastly refusing to go to the hospital or to see a doctor. I refuse to become entangled with medicine (materia medica)" .
I do not believe that the early metaphysicians--Mrs. Eddy especially--INTENDED that such a hard and fast prohibition against medicine and doctors become part of the religious practices that grew out of their words. OVER-reliance on people or things is prone to produce an under-reliance on God. Doctors were veritable gods in the eyes of society at the time "Christian metaphysics" broke on to the scene and Mrs. Ed worked hard to push the pendulum the other way. I do not think she was aware of the extremes to which her later followers would push that pendulum. There is a BALANCE twixt the two swings of every human activity. When one goes to a doctor for help, it doesn't mean he has ended his metaphysical efforts to perceive the Truth. He just may discover, as so many I know have, that the science of medicine is not EXCLUDED from Truth. TRUTH IS NOT EXCLUSIVE. God is ALL. Doctors are not fatherless bastards as so many of the "absolutists" appear to believe--and the science of medicine has its place as certainly as the science of physics or astronomy.
Imagine driving our car down a portion of the interstate inadvert-
ently strewn with nails by a construction truck ahead of us. Suddenly all four tires go flat. Who among us will just sit there, pinch our nose and attempt to "demonst-
rate" four tires full of air again? What do we do? While knowing that no matter how it seems ONLY GOOD IS GOING ON we do what seems sensible to do--send for someone to repair or replace the tires. We put our automobile in the hands of someone whose job it is to take care of automobiles. And, because we refuse to waver from the knowledge that only GOOD is going on (because GOD is All that's "going on") darned if something WONDERFUL doesn't happen because of the four flat tires!
What is the difference between putting our automobile temporarily inot the hands of an expert AND PUTTING our so-called BODY in the hands of an expert? We can/do
this while knowing only GOOD is going on--and that the doctor is just as much a part of God's allness as anything else. (And EVERYTHING else!)
What fearsome ogres some of us make of hospitals, doctors and medicine. All our "experts" exist because GOD, GOOD is their expertise. If it seems sensible to have a mechanic's opnion about the wobble in the front end of your car, for goodness sake GET IT. Isn't LIFE infinitely MORE than the body?
What fearsome ogres some of us make of hospitals, doctors and medicine. All our "experts" exist because GOD, GOOD is their expertise. If it seems sensible to have a mechanic's opinion about the wobble in the front end of your car, for goodness sake GET IT. Isn't LIFE infinitely MORE than the body? LIFE has been confined there. Old bedrock Christian Scientists are needlessly fearful of their ogres. And how they suffer at the GUILT of their own making.
It is that very guilt that binds one to the belief that well-being is determined by the condition of the body. It seems to me that my own sense of "all-rightness" is directly proportional to my outlook that ONLY GOOD IS GOING ON despite any appearances to the contrary.
This doesn't mean I no longer have any consciousness of "the condition of the body" but it has certainly meant a GROWING sense of all-rightness--and fewer inter-ruptions of it!
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ently strewn with nails by a construction truck ahead of us. Suddenly all four tires go flat. Who among us will just sit there, pinch our nose and attempt to "demonst-
rate" four tires full of air again? What do we do? While knowing that no matter how it seems ONLY GOOD IS GOING ON we do what seems sensible to do--send for someone to repair or replace the tires. We put our automobile in the hands of someone whose job it is to take care of automobiles. And, because we refuse to waver from the knowledge that only GOOD is going on (because GOD is All that's "going on") darned if something WONDERFUL doesn't happen because of the four flat tires!
What is the difference between putting our automobile temporarily inot the hands of an expert AND PUTTING our so-called BODY in the hands of an expert? We can/do
this while knowing only GOOD is going on--and that the doctor is just as much a part of God's allness as anything else. (And EVERYTHING else!)
What fearsome ogres some of us make of hospitals, doctors and medicine. All our "experts" exist because GOD, GOOD is their expertise. If it seems sensible to have a mechanic's opnion about the wobble in the front end of your car, for goodness sake GET IT. Isn't LIFE infinitely MORE than the body?
What fearsome ogres some of us make of hospitals, doctors and medicine. All our "experts" exist because GOD, GOOD is their expertise. If it seems sensible to have a mechanic's opinion about the wobble in the front end of your car, for goodness sake GET IT. Isn't LIFE infinitely MORE than the body? LIFE has been confined there. Old bedrock Christian Scientists are needlessly fearful of their ogres. And how they suffer at the GUILT of their own making.
It is that very guilt that binds one to the belief that well-being is determined by the condition of the body. It seems to me that my own sense of "all-rightness" is directly proportional to my outlook that ONLY GOOD IS GOING ON despite any appearances to the contrary.
This doesn't mean I no longer have any consciousness of "the condition of the body" but it has certainly meant a GROWING sense of all-rightness--and fewer inter-ruptions of it!
**********
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