A Christian Scientist’s perspective: Religious freedom and responsibility go hand in hand

A recent article stated, “religion isn’t an absolute right in the United States.” Since Christian Scientists were mentioned, it might be helpful to clarify that we agree with this perspective.

Important as religious freedom is, there’s great need for “common sense and common humanity” (as our church’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy, once wrote) in working out the relations between families, government, and religious life.

We feel this way even about spiritual healing, which is central to our teaching. We obey the law. As a church statement to a Massachusetts court in the 1980s put it: While our denomination “has always emphasized the religious character of its healing practice,” we have “never assumed that freedom of religious practice is absolute.”

We continue to "turn to spiritual healing" the statement went on, because we "have seen so many serious conditions healed," including in situations where medical treatment has not been effective. We're grateful for "the toleration which has been extended" to this practice "not as an unqualified accommodation but as a measure of freedom which has been and must continue to be earned" by the character of our lives and the actual healing results in our experience.

In the care of children, the bottom line for us is simply love and their well-being. The explanation given in the earlier statement is still true: “Christian Scientists come to these situations as human beings, just as doctors and other parents do, guided by their own experience, judgment, and prayer."

While we're a diverse group and make these choices as individuals, our church is "a community of people who share a tradition of worship and prayer." We do our best to approach religious practice humbly and responsibly, in the spirit of healing that characterizes Christianity at its truest and best.

Bob Cummings is Christian Science Committee on Publication for Michigan. He is a life-long Michigander now living in Milford. See more on his website, A Look At Spirituality and Health, follow him on Twitter: @CSinMichigan, or email him at michigan@compub.org.