Georgia Engel, gentle-voiced Georgette from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and a gifted comedienne, passed away last Friday, age 70. Cause of death unknown, as she was a Christian Scientist, and did not consult doctors.

I give her credit for walking the walk, but IMHO, there are denominations out there even more wack-doodle than Mormonism, and Christian Science would make my short list. It's a flat-out rejection of empirical evidence in one very significant aspect of life. I truly don't get it.

She made me laugh. I liked her character with Ted Baxter on MTM.

They think scientific medical discoveries are temptations from satan.
They think matter and by extension disease is an illusion and a temptation from satan.
If you’re sick, satan is tempting you. If you pray fervently enough, Christ will cure you. Otherwise you didn’t believe strongly enough. Sounds familiar.
A former member once told me they have lifespans comperable to non members.

CateS Wrote:
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> They think scientific medical discoveries are
> temptations from satan.

I never heard a CSist say any such thing. They look at medicine condescendingly, saying medical professionals are "acting according to their highest understanding of the good." (The CS understanding is higher, you know!

> They think matter and by extension disease is an
> illusion and a temptation from satan.

Although CS'ists use the term/name "Satan" occasionally, they do not think of evil as a personal being or source. Rather, evil (e.g. disease, other problems in life) is "error," "mortal mind," "carnal thought," etc. which must be corrected or elevated by "Immortal Mind," "God," "Divine Mind," the Christ idea, etc. (Multiple terms for the same concept of deity)

> If you’re sick, satan is tempting you. If you
> pray fervently enough, Christ will cure you.

That's not quite it. As noted, Satan is not a personal being to tempt you but your own corporeal consciousness.

> Otherwise you didn’t believe strongly enough.

"Believe" is only part of it. True, the CS'ist must "believe," but this has to be fused with the correct metaphysical understanding and thought to accomplish a healing.

> A former member once told me they have lifespans
> comparable to non members.

No, they do not. They die at earlier ages than peer groups who utilize medical care. One study compared graduate cohorts of a Christian Science college (Principia College in Elsah, IL, near St. Louis) with a midwestern state college, and found that at every age group, Christian Scientists had a higher mortality. Your friend's claim is based on hearsay and anecdotal evidence (e.g. "faith affirming myths," common to cults.

Yes I read your post.

I thought our impressions were pretty similar.

My information comes from discussions with that neighbor, raised CS from lines that go back to mary baker eddy’s day, for what that’s worth.

CS, like many cults, is esoteric: certain teachings and doctrine are held back, so outsiders and newcomers don't really understand what they believe. Matters of "milk before meat," "deep doctrine," etc.

One a superficial level, CS uses language that outsiders are familiar: God as "He," "Satan," "pray," "Trinity," "the Lord" and so on--words your familiar with and a shared understanding regarding meaning. But when you get into it further, the words have different, "higher" or "spiritualized" meanings. CS'ists know this, and know they are being deceptive.

So sure, your used words in the "lower" or "relative" way, hoping to gain common ground with you."We're all Christians, right? NO problem!" But your neighbor knew otherwise. Among her CS peers, she would speak in the higher, spiritualized "absolute" sense of things. There, Satan is not a being with personality and volition, but a negative spiritualized concept, or "error" or "mortal mind."

She left the church.

May have had something to do with breaking her ankle as a child and not going to doctor to have it set.

That said, she had problems leaving it behind as is common with people indoctrinated as children.

Two members of my family of origin became CS practitioners, and then teachers (people who can train practitioners).

CS is a strange group, the "cult for the cultured." This may be overly simplified, but their beliefs are rather Eastern in nature with a heavy overlay of Christianity. They believe (kind of like Bishop Berkley) that the material universe, including the human body, is "spiritual," i.e. non-existent. "All is Mind," they say. Thus, a physical malady is a matter of (fallen, or erroneous) thought. When you understand this fully, and absorb it deep into your thinking, you can correct your thinking and eliminate the "error," or physical malady. This is their concept of prayer.

God is all-in-all. God is Spirit. Since God ("All") is Spirit (or "Mind", and matter is the opposite of Spirit (which is "All" there is in true Reality), there can be no such thing as matter. Get it?

"I am God's perfect creature. There is no error in His perfect creation. All is (divine) Mind, and Its infinite manifestation..."

Christian Scientists use a variety of self-healing affirmations and self-hypnosis (they recoil at those terms), and often manage to cope with illnesses and injuries until their bodies either heal themselves, or they somehow adjust to the ailment. But there comes a time when some ailment cannot be effectively "treated" this way.

And that's what happened with Engel. As we age, those self-help mental tricks that worked when we were younger just don't do it.

My cello teacher was a Christian Scientist, but when she developed immune-mediated hepatic cirrhosis, she jumped right over to Kaiser and got a liver transplant.

I was glad of that, because it gave us many more years of her wonderful presence on this earth.

I'll bet she never took her car to the mechanic, either. Of course, you can always replace a car.