childhood memories
Chrystal's Story - My background: Raised by a Christian Science Nurse
Part one of Chrystal’s story: a fourth-generation Christian Scientist describes growing up with a Christian Science nurse father, a strict stepmother, and Sunday School.
Chrystal's Story - It's time we teach you how to pray
A former Christian Scientist recalls being taught to pray as a child by listing faults to deny each day, kneeling in front of the parents who dictated them.
It was our fault that my father died because we let him out of our ‘experience.’
Sharon describes how her Christian Scientist family treated death, including her mother's claim that they let her father die of throat cancer by letting him go.
Growing up in Christian Science
Former Christian Scientists recall childhood: hiding their religion from friends, portraits of Mary Baker Eddy at home, and being told contagion was all in the mind.
You were *supposed* to stay out for two weeks
Marie recalls being sent back to school with open chicken pox sores by her Christian Scientist mother, and how classmates and a teacher reacted.
My mother is still waiting for us to come back to church...
Stacey describes how the family came to Christian Science, how few relatives stayed, and a mother still hoping Stacey and a sister will return to church.
My husband thinks I am nuts...
Sharon recalls awkward silences at Wednesday testimony meetings, a scab picked in church as a child, and explaining why it is funny to a husband unfamiliar with Christian Science.
The pets always had any veterinary attention they needed
Former Christian Scientists recall a grandmother who got pets veterinary care but kept children from doctors, and a family cat whose suffering and death went unacknowledged.
Straighten out your thinking!
Sharon recalls severe untreated burns on a foot at age nine, a painful infection, and a mother who said only to straighten out their thinking.
God was expected to provide
A former Christian Scientist raised in the UK describes a mother who hoped the writer would become a practitioner, and the confusion that followed.