61 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Accurate and nuanced emperor-has-no-clothes portrayal, October 10, 1999
By A Customer
I grew up in a Christian Science family and tried for years attempting to confirm in my own life that its principles of "healing demonstration" actually worked, before giving it up when I began to actually start thinking for myself partway through college. Based on my own childhood, it was obvious from the lengthy preface's emotionally nuanced, on-target portrayals of the characteristic inner life and other features of a Christian Science upbringing that this was going to be an insightful book.
Many have focused on the corruption, backstabbing, and stonewalling in the Mother Church as documented in Perfect Child, or have argued about the book's portrayal of Mary Baker Eddy. But for me its thematic core lies in its rich storehouse of insight and examples about how the psychology of denial inherent in the practice of C.S. gives rise to the "shadow" side of the movement, both in the individual lives of adherents as well as how this shadow has been collectively woven through-and-through the movement's history from the beginning. As anyone knows from Psychology 101, any time a part of the psyche is suppressed or regarded as unreal, it merely expresses itself in distorted and unconscious ways, and much of this book is about just this fascinating side of Christian Science.
This includes not just the toll taken in terms of wrongful deaths as discussed in the central sections about the "child cases." As tragic as they are, these cases and/or those of permanently disabling untreated illnesses or accidents probably only involve a modicum of Scientist families. The underlying tragedy which affects almost all is the deeply buried, warping, psychological split it creates in adherents who must live in the material world while fantasizing it doesn't have the power or the reality that it does.
The insidious psychological distortions and pretend-games this introduces into individual Christian Scientists' lives (numerous examples of which are heart-wrenchingly and at times farcically documented in Perfect Child) certainly are not what the Church will say it officially sanctions. But overall, a movement is inevitably going to be, has to be, judged by the real people who practice it and the effects it has on them in real life, not the ivory-tower theory behind it, as this book amply demonstrates.
Looking back, I never saw a verifiable instance that Christian Science could "heal" any physical problem of significance that wasn't a typical self-limiting illness such as flu, fever, or cold that wasn't going get better on its own anyway. It amazes me it took me so long to accept the obvious, even if I was just a kid then.
To this day, I remember the kindly little old ladies in church crutching around with canes or looking at you only half-seeingly through cataracts. I remember the nice, sincere guy several classes ahead of me in Sunday school with the withered, palsied arm and hand, clenched claw-like against his side that never got better; the daughter of one of my own Sunday school teachers with a serious case of psoriasis or eczema on her face that never went away; myself, one of the first in grade school to have to get eyeglasses starting at age 7 due to progressive nearsightedness; my own father who put off treatment of life-threatening kidney disease till he very nearly died before finally accepting medical treatment in his last years before dying an early death. And my own dear mother who continues to believe in the efficacy of Christian Science to this day even as arthritis encroaches, and while on high-blood-pressure medication and estrogen.
I was personally fortunate in that my own parents eventually came to ignore, not only in their lives but in their children's, the Church's stricture against "mixing" C.S. and medical treatments. However, that they nonetheless continued to believe in the efficacy of C.S. is demoralizing for a child and remains incomprehensible but is, alas, typical, and a recurring element of the episodic tragedies that unfold in this book. Such is the mesmeric power C.S. can have. And as Fraser points out, to put the onus on followers for not being able to "practice" or "understand" the religion "correctly" is just the same old blame-the-victim game played on people since time immemorial.
If you are a former Christian Scientist, the book will answer a lot of questions you may have had about what's beyond the images that even followers are fed: what exactly were those controversial "Kerry letters" of the 1970s that were only whispered about; why was "class instruction" kept so secret; what was the big deal about "malicious animal magnetism"; what are the quote-unquote "documented cases" of C.S. healing the official Church cites in the Journal and Sentinel really worth, and what do the few studies out there in actual peer-reviewed scientific journals reveal; how long ago did the movement peak, really, and how far along is its decline; and the pivot-point of the book--the "child cases" of wrongful death and child neglect against which the Mother Church has worked to legislate immunity, through the use of unscrupulous tactics hidden from the rank-and-file.
For those of you who aren't Christian Scientists, you'll get interesting insights into classic traits of Christian Scientists such as the passive-aggressiveness, bland denials, reaffirmations of untruth and fantasy, and the double talk that often typify their response to things they don't like but are supposed to try to be nice about. Just like some of the reviews you'll read on this page from current adherents and higher-ups within the Church. Don't let those deter you--read the book and decide for yourself.
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46 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Reading on Christian Science, September 10, 1999
By A Customer
Like Caroline Fraser, I too am a former Christian Scientist. I was raised in Christian Science, joined the Mother Church in my teens, graduated from Principia College (for Christian Scientists only), was president of a college "Org" while in grad school, and attended church services until I was in my early 30's. So I can testify to the spot-on accuracy and fairness of Fraser's portrayal of Christian Science in this book.
Hostile reviewers have claimed that Fraser's father, described in the prologue, is some sort of "oddball" Christian Scientist for habits such as not using the seatbelts in his car. In fact, if you truly believe that "accidents are impossible in God's kingdom," as Scientists are taught, then there is no logical reason to use your seatbelts. Christian Scientists who do use seatbelts, like previous reviewer Richard Biever, are tacitly acknowledging that at least some teachings of Christian Science are ridiculous.
After the brief personal account which opens the book, Fraser devotes about the first third of the book to a review of the life and career of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science. Her primary source, contrary to hostile reviewers, is the church-approved biography by Robert Peel. Fraser does not set out to write a full biography; rather, her focus is on clearing away the mythology Scientists have constricted about their "beloved Leader." For example, Fraser demolishes one of the central Christian Science myths, that of Eddy's "fall on the ice" in 1866, which supposedly led to the epiphanic moment when she "discovered" Christian Science.
Fraser also describes the CS Church's efforts to suppress any unfavorable treatments of Eddy in print. For example, a publisher recently reissued Willa Cather's well-regarded biography in 1993. Unable to prevent publication, the Church coerced the publisher into issuing a vaguely worded "disclaimer" with the book, which the church has used to try to delegitimatize it.
The remainder of the book deals with several issues that the Christian Science Church has had to deal with over the 20th century, such as controversies over church governance and the church's media activities. The section that has stirred the greatest hostility among Christian Scientists is Fraser's segment entitled "Christian Science goes to Court." Here Fraser recounts many of the legal challenges to Christian Science over the years. Her emphasis is on the responsibilities of Christian Science parents to properly care for their children. In 1974, the church lobbied the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare to issue a regulation which effectively coerced states into passing laws shielding Christian Scientists from prosecution for withholding medical care from their children.
The consequences were tragic. Fraser recounts several wrenching accounts of Christian Scientist's children dying, often in extreme pain, from diseases that were easily curable if medical care had been obtained in time (these are what Biever calls "alleged failures"). Attempts to prosecute parents for negligence failed for the most part, thanks to the laws obtained by the church's effective lobbying.
But what of the successes of Christian Science, say its adherents, such as Richard Biever, who refers vaguely to "thousands of healings." You wouldn't know it from hostile reviewers, but Fraser deals with this issue thoroughly. She notes that in fact there is NO credible evidence of the "healing power of prayer" to heal anything other than psychosomatic illness. Fraser analyzes and debunks church propaganda claiming the contrary. She also notes research by William Simpson, which demonstrates that Christian Scientists have significantly lower life expectancies than do comparable groups who accept medical care. Simpson's findings are hardly what you would expect if Christian Science were truly an effective "healing method."
Why, then, do Christian Scientists believe so strongly in the effectiveness of their "treatments." I would attribute it to three reasons. First, as Fraser makes clear, Christian Scientists deliberately shield themselves from learning how the human body works. (For example, like most Scientists, I was excused from health education in school, and I was well past 30 before I even opened a book that had anything to do with human biology). As a consequence, Christian Scientists are ignorant of how effective the body's defenses are against disease.
Second, like many people, Christian Scientists commit the post hoc fallacy: A Christian Scientist feels ill, so they "know the truth" about their situation. After some time, the cold/flu/headache/fever/ankle sprain/etc. goes away, and the Christian Scientist concludes "I've had a healing." Not understanding that such "healings" can be attributed to the human immune system throwing off the cold virus or whatever, the Christian Scientist reaches an invalid conclusion.
Third, Christian Scientists simply ignore or rationalize away their failures (as do the fans of psychics). Fraser describes two chilling examples of this tendency. She cites a deposition given by a practitioner, Thomas Black, in a court case related to a child's death. Black stated "Whenever Christian Science is properly applied, it heals." He explained that the child's death came because "Christian Science was misapplied" by the parents. Even more callousness is shown by Ruth Brewster, another practitioner, in a "testimony of healing" in a church publication. Brewster described rearing four children, claiming that none of them ever had "an activity missed because of illness." However, Brewster had once had a fifth child, a daughter who died at 7 years old of an untreated illness, who she simply pretended had never lived.
The inability of Christian Scientists to address their failures is the most important issue raised by Fraser (though not the only important one). Christian Scientists are often dishonest with themselves and others. If the Christian Science movement is ever going to regain the vitality it had early in this century, Christian Scientists are going to have to start being more honest. Reading this book and confronting what Fraser has to say would be a good start.
In sum, I think that every Christian Scientist should read this book with an open mind. Non-Scientists with an interest in the church or its activities will also find it fascinating.
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