Trusting health: In God’s hands

Christian Science Society church members, from left, Joan Bland, Kaye Patterson and Michelle Bruce, attend the Chrisitan Science church at 1701 Mass. Christian Scientists eschew modern medicine in favor of prayer to heal.

First things first: Tom Cruise is a Scientologist.

At no time will he ever show up at Lawrence’s Christian Science Society at 1701 Mass.

Nor do the folks who attend that church happen to wear white lab coats and play with beakers of foaming liquid at their weekly services.

Christian Scientists are neither scientists by trade nor Scientologists.

Sounds clear enough, but that hasn’t stopped the confusion about who they are or what they believe.

So here it is: The say they’re just normal people working on their relationship with God. They believe God is all good and is with you all the time, and that they should each constantly be working to become closer with the man upstairs.

Not too different from many other Christians around the world.

What is different an extra way in which they demonstrate that relationship — in their healing.

It’s not a new age, stones-and-meditation sort of healing.

It is prayer.

Prayer and self-work on one’s relationship with God is what they believe heals the sick and the injured. That’s their science and they’re sticking to it.

“It’s a religion that’s based on the Bible and the works of Jesus and trying to follow his every step in the words and the works and the teachings of Jesus,” says Kent Fulton of the Christian Science Committee on Publication for Kansas. “And the term science refers to the fact that it’s based on divine laws, on divine principles, which when you apply these on a consistent basis, you can expect certain results.”

Adds Lawrence resident Michelle Bruce: “And those are the same laws that Jesus used when healing the sick.”

In these days of OxyContin addicts and elective surgeries, Christian Scientists prefer to use their minds rather than standard health care practices.

If they have a cold, they don’t reach for medicine. Toothache? They don’t make an appointment with the dentist. Twisted ankle? They skip the pain-killers.

Instead, they pray.

Lifelong Christian Scientist Kaye Patterson of Lawrence explains.

“It doesn’t even occur to me to turn to medicine. It doesn’t occur to me because I don’t even think of that as an option. Have no faith in that,” she says. “I’m striving to get closer and closer to God, and if I’m putting my faith and power in God, then to make a total shift and say, well, Tylenol can do better than God, oh, yeah, well I’ll try that. That just doesn’t go together. It doesn’t fit together. I’ve been a Christian Scientist for my entire life, so it doesn’t even occur to me to think in terms of wishing for anything else because it wouldn’t do the job.”

Healing

Every Wednesday night, at the 1,800 or so Christian Science churches around the world, members share stories of their healing. They talk about what illness or injury occurred and then share the specific readings or thoughts they used to get through it.

“People, when they share their healings, they will share the prayer that went into that healing. You’re grateful, of course, for the healing, but they’re typically grateful for the prayer in their thought, the revelation in the truth that made it possible and that’s what healing is about,” Fulton says. “These healings, big or small, they bring us closer to God. And that’s the unique thing about this. … It’s not just the physical healing. You’re drawing closer to God in your understanding of your relationship to him. And I think there’s nothing more valuable than that. I think anyone would agree, whether they go the medical route or not. Feeling closer to God — you can’t top that.”

Each Christian Scientist has several stories of healings that he or she believes to be proof-filled. Stories range from tales of quickly beating a migraine headache to conquering more serious maladies. If something is particularly bad, the person may elect to call a Christian Science practitioner or nurse for aid. That person isn’t going to check out his or her patient with a stethoscope or thermometer. Rather, he or she will give the patient guidance. There are none of these practitioners or nurses in Lawrence, but no matter, most of their work is done over e-mail or the phone.

Patterson recently used a practitioner based in St. Louis. Bruce has a beloved practitioner based in London. Bruce’s mother, Joan Bland, says she alternates between one in Kansas City and one in Vero Beach, Fla.

“It’s the thought that they’re wanting to change. That’s why you can call them anywhere in the world,” Patterson says.

Coming to find Christian Science

Both Patterson and Bruce were raised in the church. Bland, however, came to it 30 years ago. And she knows that Christian Science can sound too good to be true to outsiders. She knows because for one hot minute she thought so herself.

Bland found the faith after watching a friend go through a nasty time in her life — and come out unscathed.

“I had a friend who, she and her husband were going through some really tough times and he left her for someone else and she was with child,” Bland says. “And, I was just amazed at her grace and her … I mean, I would have been devastated, but she had something and I kept saying, ‘What is it?’ And she said, ‘It’s Christian Science.’ And she relied on that and it pulled her through all that. It met every single need she had.”

Intrigued, Bland looked into the denomination.

“She invited me to a lecture and I went to it and she gave me the text book and I thought, ‘This stuff is a bunch of boog …’ and I thought I’m just going to tell her (that),” Bland says. “But I read the book and every time I had a question, I’d write it down on a piece of paper and then I’d turn the page and it would answer my question on the next page. So, I read until I was finished with the book and I loved the book.

“I loved the book, and I understood for the first time that God was available to me. He was available. I could reach out and ask him and he was there for me. And it was kind of like a light bulb turning on. I didn’t realize how accessible God was until I read that book.”

That kind of clarity is what the local members relish about their faith. They’re glad that traditional medicine works for their friends and coworkers. They understand that they’re different and they may be warding off Tom Cruise talk for the rest of their lives. But they also believe they’ve found the right path for them and they are confident and proud of their individual relationships with God and thankful for the healings they have had.

“Really, it’s what Jesus, what we believe Jesus came to tell us, you know, to show us, because he didn’t use material remedies, and he showed us how insufficient material laws were,” Patterson says. “How not to rely on material laws because he didn’t and to follow him in everything he said, not just to pick and choose is what we want to strive to do.”