There was a book in the 1970’s that became very popular—Jonathan Livingston Seagull. It was pleasant and it was even hailed in some quarters as being profound.

Was it?  Though “pleasant” and “profound” both begin with the letter “p”, that’s where the similarity ends.

What’s the point of my bringing this up then?

Well, I’ve been witnessing a disturbing phenomenon in which more and more of my fellow Christian Scientists are falling into the trap of reducing the ideas in Science and Health to a “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” mentality of nice, pleasant, comfortable, cozy, and interesting intellectual, quasi-spiritual concepts—concepts that would attempt to emasculate truth by reducing it to mere human platitudes. That would attempt to destroy the potency of Almighty God.

The content of Science and Health—the most profound and powerful book ever written and which unlocks the doors to the spiritual healing power of the Bible—is not talking about niceties or pleasant or pretty sounding ideas. Far from it!  It’s about the very Word of God that created the universe and each and everyone one of us to possess and reflect that infinite power—the power to be healed and to heal others!

We’re talking about the Science of being. The Science of Christ. The one and only means of salvation for mankind from the destruction of error—from the carnal mind’s aggressive espousal of gods many, and of mind, life, intelligence, and Spirit being in matter!  In other words, the whole lie of the Adam dream promoted in Genesis II that has brought about all the sufferings of humanity.

What did Mary Baker Eddy have to say about such conscious or unconscious attempts at diminishing the healing power of the ideas in the textbook of Christian Science?

Neither emasculation, illusion, nor insubordination exists in divine Science. (Science and Health, p. 271)

Not human platitudes, but divine beatitudes, reflect the spiritual light and might which heal the sick. (SH, p. 446)

So before joining the flock with what might appear to some at first blush to be harmless mannerisms and phrasings of speech, take a moment and ask yourself if you really want to participate in mortal mind’s campaign of dissipation.  Or if you instead will stand watch and defeat such travesties by understanding the tactics of error.

As Mrs. Eddy wrote:

A knowledge of error and of its operations must precede that understanding of Truth which destroys error, until the entire mortal, material error finally disappears, and the eternal verity, man created by and of Spirit, is understood and recognized as the true likeness of his Maker. (SH, p. 252)