Posted inChristian Science

The Matthew Code & My Experience With Hypocrisy at Principia

Originally published on 

 

(15) If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. (16) But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ (17) If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or tax collector.
(Matthew 18:15-17 – New International Version)

The Matthew Code, as the above quoted Bible verses have come to be known, was thrown at me and my fellow students at Principia College time and time again, and is a part of the moral code that Principia students are required to abide by. Now, I read the above verses, and I clearly come away with a certain interpretation, and no, I do not need anyone else’s interpretation to gain what I feel to be clarity on what these verses say and mean. It’s simple: if you encounter someone doing something wrong, you go to them directly on your own and talk to them about it; if they don’t listen, and don’t acknowledge that they’ve done something wrong, you bring a couple of friends (preferably mutual friends) along; if that fails, then you go to higher authorities to have the situation corrected and ‘balanced’, so to speak. You do not go to the authorities first. Now, I’m talking of someone committing minor moral offenses. If I see someone robbing a house, assaulting, or murdering, I’ll go straight to the police, no questions asked.

In the context of being a Principia student, I saw it as: if I encountered someone breaking the rules, I’d confront them myself first and seek to redress the situation that way, and if that didn’t work, go up the Matthew Code ladder from there. That’s how I saw it when I did have my own encounter with rule-breakers while I was at Principia. In practice however, the administrative authorities at Principia had a different take on the Matthew Code, and most of us students knew that, and many of us saw it as hypocritical. They wanted you to skip past the first few steps.

Posted inChristian Science

The Principia & The Measles

The Principia School and College experienced measles outbreaks in 1985, 1989, and 1994. The following are related articles from newspapers, academic journals, CDC reports, books that discuss the outbreaks, and Principia College’s policies regarding immunization as of February 2014.

A 2009 article in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch provides a brief overview of the events:

In 1985, three Christian Scientists affiliated with Principia College in Elsah died, and 712 students were quarantined on campus, when an outbreak of measles sickened more than 100 people.

In 1989, another measles outbreak at Principia sickened nearly 100 people, including some off campus, not affiliated with the school.

In 1994, another outbreak spread to the Principia, which serves students pre-K through senior high in St. Louis County. Nearly 200 people contracted measles that year, including a doctor from Barnes-Jewish Hospital and an infant, both of whom were infected by Principia students off campus. Hundreds of Principia students and their parents ultimately decided to be vaccinated during the outbreaks, but many opted against vaccination. (source)