Critique of Christian Science 'Demonstrations'

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Question And Answer

I am in the world of Caesar, and the body decays, as all bodies here decay. So, I get a cold, as anyone else here gets a cold. And I have demonstrated – People are always demonstrating something. We came from New York City through Chicago on our way to San Francisco, years ago, and a lady ran ahead of us and knocked my little girl down – she was only three – knocked her down on her way to get a table in the dining room. I picked my little Vicki up and walked quietly forward and sat down at a table. There were lots of seats. And she was a Christian Science practitioner on her way to some convention in Chicago, and she had demonstrated a table. She had demonstrated a seat by almost killing my daughter. Well, I don’t call that demonstration. She was a lovely practitioner, and I learned from the conversation that she would go to the convention and tell them how she had demonstrated a seat in the diner. Lovely, isn’t it? Well, I don’t go for that. Let them all pass by – there will be a seat there for me, and, if not now, I will wait until they get up. I don’t call this “applying the principle.” She must live in constant confusion demonstrating. And if she gets a cold, she’ll remain at home where no one will know, and swear by all the bibles in the world she never had one, because they didn’t see it. If she has a headache, she will take a couple of aspirin. No one knows that, you see. No one will ever know she took two aspirin to simply ease the pain, and, so, when she really can’t see, she will go to the oculist, and he will give her good glasses, and she will see with nice glasses. When she has a pain in her mouth and the dentist says, “You know, this has to come out,” no one knows she is going to the dentist, but she will have it out, and get a good tooth put in that God gave the dentist the intelligence to make for her. So, why try any of these stupid things?

Neville criticizes the superficial and often hypocritical 'demonstrations' of Christian Science practitioners who claim to manifest desires while denying physical ailments or resorting to conventional remedies in secret. He emphasizes that true application of principle does not involve harming others or denying the reality of the physical body's decay in the 'world of Caesar.'

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