By Mark Barna

For many octogenarians, doctors’ visits are a common occurrence. But that isn’t the case for Dick Roeder, an 82-year-old Christian Scientist living in Colorado Springs…  Click here to read article

msnbc.com also carried this story: click here to read

Is religion or spirituality irrelevant? Out of touch? Conflicts with real life? Well some Christian Scientists we interviewed recently felt otherwise.

And here’s a corresponding blog about creating this and other videos: http://theproductionpost.blogspot.com/

But now there’s push back.

In online comments to the Times piece, readers sounded off with a mix of serious doubts and angry protest.  Why recommend finding new ways to diagnose a disease before symptoms of it are apparent, someone argued, especially since there are no known drugs to prevent it?  Others insist that behind the push is the pharmaceutical industry in search of a better bottom line rather than better health.  A respondent called that a cheap shot.  Yet another reader sees this as “the relentless push to drug-ize adults and children in this society”.

At a certain point a backlash becomes a newsworthy event of its own.  What’s going on here?  Has the drugs-are-the-answer approach to health that we’ve heard over and over finally warn out its welcome?  Think about it: when was the last time you read something good about their side effects?  It’s no wonder some people have had enough.

And big surprise that a Christian Scientist would say that, right?  They’re the ones who “don’t go to doctors”.  Well, not so fast.  They’re the ones who choose spiritual over drug-based health care because of a convincingly good track record of healing for over 135 years.

Bottom line: when it comes to health care choices, track records matter a whole lot.  Looking at these comments, it appears that Christian Scientists aren’t the only ones who see it that way.

The Washington Post, August 11, 2010; 9:18 PM ET

Q: In the memoir Eat, Pray, Love, writer Elizabeth Gilbert gives up her entire way of life to spend a year traveling the world, finding spiritual enlightenment along the way. Julia Roberts, who plays Gilbert’s character in the movie version out this week, apparently found enlightenment of her own through the role, revealing that she has become a practicing Hindu.

As Joan Ball asks in a Guest Voices post, “Is it possible to live a life of deep, transformational faith without dropping everything and hitting the road?”

In your tradition, what is the aim of the spiritual journey?

By Phil Davis, Manager, Christian Science Committees on Publication

In answering this question I can’t speak for anyone other than myself. No matter what religion or culture you belong to, I believe that each person’s spiritual journey is ultimately between that person and God.

So as an individual Christian Scientist, what is my aim for my spiritual journey?

Well, I’d have to go back a few years, a few decades actually, to a time when I was really wrestling with my career. It wasn’t going anywhere. Not because I wasn’t good at it. I was. Not that I wasn’t willing to be patient with it. I was. But I wasn’t sure it was fulfilling enough.

I was a recording engineer. I worked in a studio recording music for albums and commercial interests. I loved the art of taking raw sounds and mixing them together into a more satisfying, beautiful sound. But the show business of the industry was weighing on me. And even at its best, even while I was enjoying the beauty of the music, I felt deep inside there was something else I needed to be doing with my life.

So I prayed about my aim in life. What was the goal of my spiritual journey? Should I tough it out and accept the lot in life I had been given or be receptive to a new path? I wasn’t trying to wish for something or to just get what I wanted. I was seeking a sense of divine will. What does God want for me? It was a time of mental wrestling that included humility, self-examination and considering new possibilities.

I discovered that the simple act of praying this way brought about huge changes. This was a pivotal time in my life which taught me many lessons, even brought healings, and resulted in my present career in the healing practice of Christian Science.

Throughout my life, whenever I’ve prayed for a better life, a more meaningful spiritual journey, a couple of results have always emerged: A better understanding of and closer relationship to God, and a deeper love for and yearning to help others.

Even though I feel every spiritual journey is unique, there are shared goals. I know the goal of loving God and mankind more is shared by many. And the suffering in this world along with its secularization and materialism tell me that for prayer to be effective it must be more than a mere philosophy for living, limited to self-help or feel-good meditation. The answer to the prayer that brought deeper meaning, purpose, and health to my life comes with a demand to bless others in the same way. I yearn to see what I know to be true be more globally felt and utilized.

To see other panelist’s answers, click here.

She admitted what we’ve all seen, that so much of local television news is dominated by small, meaningless stories that qualify as news simply because they’re sensational or graphically visual pieces.  She had some substantial story ideas in development herself, but doubted they would make it to air.  One was rejected simply because in it’s final edit it ran 3-1/2 minutes instead of the usual minute-and-a-half.  Not small enough, I guess.

I left the meeting with a related question on my mind: how much does small thinking dominate other aspects of our lives, like the practice of religion?

A day filled with trivialities is a day with little or no time for things spiritual.  We lose out on contemplative time, time for prayer and spiritual study.  We forfeit getting to know and help the neighbors we’re expected to have compassion for.  What should matter most to us, matters least.

Small-mindedness is as serious an imposition on the practice of religion as it is on quality journalism.  At its root it marginalizes the things of Spirit that benefit us all, the compassion and wisdom that lift aspirations, that energize, and that empower us to accomplish great good in society, whether we’re a news watcher or a news producer.

Journalists, religionists, whatever your calling, why not make some real news. Let’s  marginalize small thinking.  It’s time to think big and aim high.

The Washington Post, August 5, 2010; 7:16 PM ET

Q: Author Anne Rice said last week that she was ‘quitting Christianity:’ The once-lapsed Catholic wrote that she was could no longer accept her religion’s teachings on homosexuality, feminism, politics and birth control. “In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian,” Rice announced on her facebook page. Can you leave religion and keep Christ? Can you be spiritual without being religious?

By Phil Davis, Manager, Christian Science Committees on Publication

The more I understand people, the less I want to categorize, label and stereotype them. We are each on a journey though life. Many call it a spiritual journey, many do not. I believe spirituality touches the lives of most, whether or not they know it or even like it. There are those who feel they can be spiritual without organized religion. I am not here to disagree or to judge others.

Let’s face it. The path of religion throughout history is strewn with the evils of war, racism, injustice and even atrocities. There are those who feel that contemporary churches and religions that try to control behavior by policy and dogma cause more damage than good. From this perspective, there are many reasons to leave religion and focus on one’s own spiritual journey.

But as one who has worked in organized religion for many years and is still committed to his religion, I think there is another side to the story–one that rarely gets told. Religion can also be seen as a vehicle for helping those who are committed to spirituality congregate for the purpose of accomplishing far more than they can on their own. It provides a common foundation for prayer, pondering and uniting with others who are like-minded, and from there, accomplish practical good.

I see this in many ways in my own Christian Science church, whose definition includes the phrase to show “proof of its utility.” Sunday Services help give my prayers direction and deeper meaning. Our church’s periodicals and Wednesday testimony meetings, where individuals share their own examples of how God has caused physical healing and changed lives, inspire and motivate me to go further in my Christian practice. There have been times when the words, examples and actions of another have been pivotal to the progress of my own Christian ministry. Even disagreements on issues and topics within a congregation have forced me to express greater humility, grace, forgiveness and patience. This leads me to conclude that religion, despite all its flaws, is crucial to spiritual growth.

Being part of a religion is certainly an individual choice. It may not be for everyone at every time in their life. I know there are people who deeply worship God and pray to God every day, but for various reasons are not involved or associated with religion. Sometimes that changes and they come back to the fold. Sometimes they do not.

What’s important to me is how those of us in religion respond to those who aren’t. And I would hope all of us would never strip the title of “Christian” or “Christian Scientist” from anyone just because they don’t associate with religion. And I would also hope that those of us in religion would strive to be always aware of those who are struggling with their faith and spirituality as well as always ready to stretch out a hand to comfort and heal. To me, Christian devotion and love demand no less.

To see answers from all panelists, click here.

Is organized religion becoming irrelevant in a right-now digital world?

I don’t think so.  What I do think is that there are unprecedented market forces at work today — from shopping megaplexes to big and small screen entertainment to sports activities – vying for the public’s attention.  This, in turn, puts a greater demand on churches and their members to step forward and show their relevance in the marketplace, or as the Founder of this Church put it, to provide “proof of its utility”.

What will it take for a church to do that?  How do you elevate the social, moral and spiritual standard of the race in a get-it-now digital world?  What about a church that not only provides public worship services, but also is a trustworthy source for news 24/7, a source of inspirational material, and a source for regular spiritual study?  What if it put the public in touch with healers, or with teachers and a textbook that would help someone become one?  What if you could manage to do that on your mobile device or desktop?  How’s that for publicness and relevance?

Sounds like an idea whose time has come.

It gave us pause for a moment, but what we focused on was individuality and choice.  And now that I think about it, I’m glad we focused on that.

We live in an age where a minority religion with a different theology is immediately suspect of being extremist, dogmatic, and/or having unthinking followers with a charismatic leader.  Just the fear of such a prospect can lead us all to stereotyping.  Reporters are not immune to this.

But a question like this from Jonathan gave us the opportunity to explain why people like us in this modern world would freely, individually and intelligently turn to prayer instead of conventional medical treatment for healing.  And we did it by talking about what we have seen through our own eyes—both with our own healings and others we’ve witnessed personally.  It means a lot for me to be able to say directly to someone sitting across from me that I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for Christian Science—it saved my life!

A lot of health care reform discussions hinge on choice of physician, choice of HMO, choice of treatment.  How about the choice between medical and spiritual treatment?  I’m grateful to Jonathan and other reporters like him who ask such open questions and are willing to thoughtfully hear our answers.

• a world you can access and engage in through a small screen
• a world where 500-million people a day visit the same address (Facebook)
• a world where news from anywhere is at your fingertips in a moment

Yes, these are exciting times. They’re also unprecedented and unsettling times as institutions question what they should look like and how they should function in a world so different from the one in which they began.

What does a newspaper or library look like in a paperless world? What does a school look like in an online world? What does a church look like?

On that question, I’ve always thought Mary Baker Eddy’s model is as revolutionary today as it was when it began over 130 years ago.

Her church model, which includes a strong publishing component, provides the full range of it’s publications and its Sunday service online. And of course The Christian Science Monitor is one of the front-runners in web-first news publishing.

Mary Baker Eddy also changed the way the world thinks of a church pastor. We’re talking about a pair of books (the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health) from which comes a weekly sermon as well as a lesson plan for self-study, anytime.

With so many people organizing and managing their lives around their own schedule and to suit their own needs, including their spiritual interests, this model is a perfect fit.

We’ll continue to buy papers and go to libraries and attend schools and churches in the traditional ways. But increasingly people expect to interact with institutions online and on their own terms.

It’s a DIY world. For today’s church to be relevant it needs to see the new opportunities this brings for elevating the race. It needs to think less about the world beating a path to its door and more like Home Depot: you can do it, we can help.

By A staff writer

Boston —

The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston formally unveiled draft plans Tuesday that call for building two new commercial and residential buildings on the perimeter of its 14.5 acre campus in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.

The draft, crafted in consultation with a citizens advisory committee appointed by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, also envisions changes to the Christian Science Center’s signature plaza and its 686-foot-long reflecting pool.

These changes represent a more economical, environmentally sustainable design than the original, and they would add green space to the plaza and make it more welcoming to the general public, church officials say.

Several architects and art historians say they are concerned that the plaza-level changes would alter the effect of the space in ways that compromise a patch of urban landscape that has become world renowned for its unique blend of modern and older architectural styles and the open spaces that tie them together.

Boston’s Landmarks Commission is weighing a move to designate the Christian Science Center as an historic landmark – a move that could complicate efforts to execute some elements of what the church calls its revitalization project for the campus.

“In general, this is not an us-versus-them issue,” says Mark Paskin, an architect and preservation specialist at the Boston firm of over,under inc. Mr. Paskin was one of the specialists who signed the petition three years ago that triggered the Landmarks Commission action. The majority of what the church has proposed will bring welcome additional vitality to the Back Bay area, he says.

But the campus also is unique, he adds. He urged caution about new developments or other alterations in the space, which he called “probably the most important modern public space of its time period in the entire country.”

Several factors prompted church officials to devise the plan, according to Barbara Burley, the church’s senior manger for real estate planning and operations.

A key concern is the high cost of maintaining real estate that fails to generate enough money to pay for its upkeep. The church relies on donations from its worldwide network of members. A significant fraction of every dollar donated is spent on upkeep for the plaza’s real estate, which accounts for some 20 percent of the church’s budget, she says. Leasing the two parcels of land for commercial development would ease that burden and ensure that church spending stays focused on its denominational mission.

Moreover, the reflecting pool, which also serves as the roof for the center’s underground garage, needs to be rebuilt, she says. Essentially, it has reached a point where it is increasingly difficult to maintain and repair.

“It’s like a roof on your house. You can patch and patch and patch,” she says. “But at some point you have to say: It needs to be torn off and a new one put on.”

With a need to replace the pool came an opportunity to revisit the other elements of the plaza, with an eye toward more-sustainable use of water the campus draws to operate the pool, Ms. Burley says. This led the church to consider shortening the pool by some 18 feet. And its 26-inch depth would be reduced by more than half. According to the draft plan, the changes would slash the amount of water needed to keep the 1.3 million gallon pool operating. The pool currently uses some 5 million gallons a year for backwashing and replacing water lost to leaks and evaporation.

The plan posits that a new, lower-volume pool would cut that usage by as much as 75 percent. In addition, the plan envisions a narrow ground-level walkway across the pool to give the public an additional, shorter pathway to reach the main plaza.

Finally, some of the red-brick plaza would give way to additional lawn and trees, in large part to ensure a bigger fraction of storm run-off percolates underground to maintain the water table under two historic church structures, whose support pilings are made of wood.

Although the revitalization plan and the outside push for landmark status for the center represent independent approval tracks, they could merge if the city backs a landmark designation for the center.

The plaza’s 26-story administration building, now leased as commercial office space, its low-slung Colonnade Building, now home to Northeastern University offices and recording facilities leased by the Berkeley College of Music, and its Sunday School building represent examples of urban brutalist architecture – a form of modern architecture whose name stems from the French word for raw concrete. The center was designed in the mid 1960s by collaborating architects I.M. Pei and Araldo Cossutta. Workers finished the center in 1972.

The historic nature of the plaza is not lost on church officials. They recognize that many consider it “the most monumental and significant collection of mid-20th century modern architecture” in the city, according to the draft plan. Indeed, the plan involves no changes to any of the buildings on the campus.

Still, preservationists such as Mr. Paskin note that structures around the country built during the same period are entering a twilight zone where they are too young to be declared national landmarks, yet they are reaching the ends of their design lives and becoming too costly to maintain. Often, the structures are being razed. That national trend, as well as its manifestation elsewhere in Boston, is the main driver behind the landmarking effort, he says.

Paskin readily acknowledges that the Christian Science Church has been a good steward of its architectural legacies. But the uniqueness of the open space, he adds, relies heavily on the uninterrupted reflecting pool – a feature he calls a “mirror to the sky.” And to replace brick with green undercuts the “hardscape” that is part of the campus’s overall period design.

The Landmarks Commission’s own staff study of the landmark proposal, released in June, recommended that the church center receive landmark status. The study is now open for public comment. The church has proposed amendments to some of the criteria it would have to meet as an historic landmark in order to fully execute its revitalization plan, should that plan receive a green light from the city.

The commission could well rule on landmark status in early fall, according to a city official familiar with the process. Yet even the commission’s approval is not the final word. The designation also must also pass muster with Boston’s mayor, and if he signs off, with the city council as well.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0720/Updates-proposed-for-Christian-Science-Church-s-Boston-plaza