by Shirley Paulson
One of the things that surprised me when I attended seminary was the discovery of people long before Mary Baker Eddy’s day who were unusually spiritually minded. I grew up in Christian Science thinking (incorrectly) that I didn’t really need to know much about other spiritually minded people, since I got everything I needed from the Bible and from Mary Baker Eddy’s writings.
by Shirley Paulson
My hope for this blog is that we can talk candidly together about our efforts at conversation with other Christians. My experiences with Christian Science healing, as well as my deep love for God and all humanity, make me convinced that Christian Science is a gift to Christianity (and consequently, the whole world!).
I’ve experienced some pretty tough conversations, though, like the times I’ve been told I’m going to hell, or that I wasn’t Christian if I didn’t accept Jesus as God. Maybe you’ve encountered these, too. I hope that discussions among Christian Scientists in this blog will help us use what we have and gain more tools in support of great conversations with our fellow Christians.
People are people here. I don’t why they should be anything else, I guess-but I guess I always think when I go somewhere new that they’ll be completely different. but.they’re all still people. there are still homes here. Still dogs. Still little babies pressing their faces against windows to wave bye to their grandpas. People may do things differently, or speak in tongues that I’ve never heard in my life and could not even begin to try to understand, but they still smile, and you know you’re ok. One weekend, our abroad group traveled to Italy for a long weekend, and right away we all noticed the traffic. But this wasn’t your typical Highway 40 traffic or even LA traffic. I think that Italy’s notoriety for and their love for pasta has infiltrated into the way they drive. Their lanes aren’t what I’d call lanes. think spaghetti; there’s no organization, but somehow it all fit sin one bowl of a city, and they may wrap around each other and twist in and out, but they just work together to be the great pasta-traffic that they’re famous for! (more…)
Just last night I finished writing a thirty-page paper on Islam and how it’s lived in Diego Suarez. Besides the plethora of ‘Diego-Suarez’s,’ ‘Qur’ans’ and ‘Muslims,’ the next most common words were ‘harmony’ and ‘peace.’ This project’s theme was overwhelmingly about harmony. My last three weeks were spent taking notes on harmony. Harmony, harmony, everything was about harmony. “And there has never been any conflicts between your mixed religious student population?” No, never. “Why is it so peaceful here between Muslims, Christians, and traditional religion believers?” People looked at me like I was crazy. One guy’s answer was a correction of my question: “Peace is not constructed. It’s automatic. It will continue until the end of the world.” (more…)
Three weeks ago I flew into Diego Suarez, the fourth largest city in the fourth poorest country in the world. My mission? To learn about Islam. We had one month to complete our independent study projects - mine was spent interviewing the primarily Muslim-dominated community, taking photos for the photo essay portion of it, reading the Qur’an, and becoming fast friends with a Muslim girl named Laho that I had met on the second day. Why Islam? Because I knew hardly anything about it, probably much like you right now. (more…)
