Yesterday morning’s post — a straightforward story about the opening of a new reading room at the Christian Science church on Compo Road North — drew a surprisingly strong reaction.
One commenter said, “These people aren’t Christian.”
Another wrote that reading rooms “promote dangerous medical misinformation.”
A third reader — citing “4 major measles outbreaks between 1985 and 1994” — said that the Christian Scientists who did not treat children “should have been charged with murder and executed.”
Those words shocked and upset one long-time reader. Asking for anonymity, due to the “nastiness” of the comments, the reader writes:
I spent my childhood in the Westport Christian Science branch church, although I no longer attend any church. I choose to stay out of all organized religion at this time in my life.
We were part of the Westport church before it became the large and beautiful building it is today. We were there when it was the old army barracks building, and I loved that building as a church. The Sunday school was beautiful. And the sanctuary cozy and loving.
Westport’s First Church of Christ, Scientist …
The members were some of the most loving, caring, successful members of the church and Westport society. We had famous artists, musicians, actors, broadcasters, Madison Avenue men, realtors, lawyers and beautiful families. It was a wonderful atmosphere to grow up in.
To paint this broad brush of all Christian Scientists as some of the comments did? And in such a way that isn’t totally accurate, especially about most Christian Scientists?
Most people I’ve stayed in touch with received the COVID vaccine, and most are willing to vaccinate their children. As I understand it, they desire to obey the laws of land. Most do.
And many members of the church will go to doctors if need be. I know many Christian Scientists who have had surgery and received medical care if necessary. It is an individual choice, and many choose medical help from time to time.
… and the new reading room.
What I’m addressing mostly is the hate and nastiness of the comments on this post. Anyone is entitled to their opinion, but the cruel and nasty comments aren’t true of most Christian Scientists. It is like commenting on a whole race of people, and saying that a whole race of people are like the actions of a few.
Never paint a whole group with the actions of a few of a group. And people grow, and churches grow and learn.
My experiences with the medical world have been excellent. We have found many doctors and nurses willing to pray with their patients. I’ve seen a circle of nurses holding hands and praying with a patient.
Healing prayer and medicine aren’t as separate as depicted by some of the commenters. The gap is closing. I’m sorry if that is offensive to some. But it is what I’ve witnessed personally, as I pray every day.
I could say a lot more but I felt I had to speak to the most unkind and un-Christian comments. I will not even debate the “not Christian: debate. I guess the Lutherans started by Martin Luther would have issues too, as their church was started by a man.
Mostly, we need to give each other some room and some grace in this world. I hope the commenters can reflect on the hatred and judgment that came across in their writing. Talking about executing people??
It’s very easy to explode behind a keyboard, and it’s not what we all need now to lift up our world.
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Thank you, Dan for always enlightening us … on our 250th anniversary people still don’t realize that it’s about freedom and justice for all … That is exactly what we are trying to combat in this world, the hatred that people have in their hearts towards others. we all have the right in our country to worship and believe in our own ways ….. we all have the rights to our own beliefs ….
Do I get the anonymous reader’s “shock” and “upset” at the “surprisingly strong” reactions? I do.
If you strip everything back it always comes down to the same emotion, when people express hatred. Fear! Fear drives all negative responses. Fear of the unknown. Fear of something taking over. Fear ‘I won’t get mine’. Fear ‘someone will get more than me’. No getting away from it. Fear makes people mean! 🤔😏
one way to remove fear is education. Become familiar to facts versus falsehood. Fear is real. One example of fear is blaming immigrants for all the health problems in USA and high crime.
Consider doing an AI search on Christian Science religion. After reading it each individual can decide if is appropriate Schools. town cities have health departments led by educated professionals in public health. One recent example of vaccinations is in the USA military. Hegseth agreees with Christian Science. He removed the USA mandate for our military to get a flu shot. This vaccination policy was in effect for quite some time until Hegseth removed it. It is reported that 160 plus USA military soldiers in a Texas military base have the flu. Living in a community requires sound public health policy. Our community is affected by everyone’s health choices. Should public health be taught by preachers ? religious leaders. religious doctrine or educated professionals ?
The interim effectiveness for the 2025–2026 flu vaccine ranged from 22% to 41% against outpatient medical visits and 30% to 41% against hospitalization. Effectiveness was notably higher in children and adolescents compared to adults, largely due to the widespread circulation of an antigenically drifted A(H3N2) virus (subclade K) that mutated after the vaccine was designed.
No one should force you to put a chemical in your body.
herd immunity
countries with higher vaccination rates have better health care outcomes. The purpose of the flu vaccination is not just to prevent the flu but to limit the course of the flu if you get sick plus prevent death in older people. it’s also helpful to establish herd immunity to help the Population stay healthy. We depend on each others actions to stay healthy.
No adult was FORCED to put anything into their body. An individual may have been presented with such a requirement as a condition of employment, but they were always at liberty to accept those terms or not. That, is NOT the same thing as being “forced”.
It’s ok to be wrong Russ. Take a shot or you’re fired, sounds pretty “forced” to me.
Also you can’t support “my choice, my body” selectively. You either do or you don’t.
– New York State: State health data showed that over 31,000 healthcare workers at hospitals, nursing homes, and other providers were terminated, furloughed, or forced to resign due to non-compliance.
– Northwell Health (NY): Terminated approximately 1,400 employees (under 2% of staff).
– Advocate Aurora Health (IL/WI): Terminated 440 employees (less than 1% of workforce).
– Henry Ford Health System (MI): Lost roughly 400 employees to resignations over the mandate.
– New York City Municipal Workers: Fired 1,428 employees in early 2022 who refused to comply. The vast majority (914 people) worked for the Department of Education.
– Washington State: Reported that nearly 1,900 state workers either quit or were fired for refusing the shot.
– According to Defense Department data reported by CNN, more than 8,000 U.S. service members were discharged across all branches for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine before the military mandate was officially repealed by Congress.
during Covid Fox News policy was to get vaccinated to get into the building or take a Covid test to prove your negative. I believe Hannity and Carlson were vaccinated. When Trump almost died of Covid he ran to the military hospital to get monoclonal antibodies. He Didn’t request bleach or ivermectin. He wanted the best USA science and medical facility He didn’t get treatment or recommendations from Kennedy
David believes in his Freedumb!
And in each and every case, not a single individual received a shot, much less were forced to do so. Just sayin’.
Welcome to the world of hate! We have all these signs around that say “Hate has no home here!” However, many people still hate people that are different than them or have different opinions or different religions. I don’t understand (actually I kinda do) how people can claim something or someone is “unchristian “ when Christianity is based on the Old Testament which is Judaism. There is so much antisemitism out there and always has been, yet, we as Jews are “unchristian, because we believe the messiah will come and Christianity is based on Judaism and then evolved based on a Jewish man, Jesus, and his death. All religions were started by humans because it was humans who wrote down the stories and legends and put them into the Old Testament, Torah ,and the new testament and the Loran, etc. The stories are how all religions were communicated to next generations either in writing or word of mouth. Even the Christians left Europe for religious freedom to start the US of America due to being forced to follow the Church of England or other religious persecutions.
Please let everyone believe what they want to believe religiously and keep church and state separate like our forefathers wanted and wrote into our constitution. The reading room and open library is a genuine kindness letting people choose what they want to read and believe in.
There isn’t a right and a wrong way to believe or pray or choose not to pray. There is a right and a wrong way on how you choose to treat other people though! Look in the mirror and determine what you want to be. A person who is nasty to others or kind to others.
Basically, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it!
Not surprised at all. Towns like Westport love to virtue-signal with signs like “Hate Has No Home Here” and “Everyone Is Welcome”, yet they’re often the most insular, regressive, and intolerant places when someone actually steps outside the approved narrative.
Some residents here have no problem advocating for or justifying policies that amount to collective punishment and war crimes, while others viciously scold fathers for daring to question vaccines or want to protect their own children from rushed medical mandates. The same crowd that preaches tolerance and “do no harm” is quick to paint an entire faith community as dangerous zealots deserving execution for the actions of a few.
The irony is thick: the loudest voices calling for grace and open-mindedness are often the first to show none when opinions differ. Live and let live only seems to apply one way in this town.
I don’t think you should judge one’s tolerance by their willingness to accept intolerance.
Make Algae Grow Again!
“tolerance of intolerance” line doesn’t apply when the “intolerance” you’re defending is people casually calling for the execution of Christian Scientists or viciously attacking parents who question medical mandates for their own kids.
Make Algae Grow Again: Best slogan for Westport: green on the outside, toxic on the inside.
Frankly, I’m an atheist who (internally) views all religions with a comparable level of contempt.
But I was kind of surprised at how off-the-rails that comment section went.
I appreciate the words of the writer of this piece.
Anyone can cherry-pick information about any religion and make it look bad (or great, as they wish for their agenda). Also, every religion has their contingent of “true believers” who insist one must follow the absolute letter of the law to the exclusion of common sense, other points of view, and the spiritual nature of its teachings.
The indicated hate messages refer to specific court cases of a tiny number of Christian Scientists who failed the test of responsible parenting and science. This is absolutely not endorsed within the Church. What is endorsed is a reasonable approach to medical science, the right to an individual’s control of their own body, and a Gnostic-like theology for understanding the spiritual “Christ-truth” taught by the human Jewish rabbi Jesus, the one who put into practice the miracles of a unitary omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God (hence the Catholic Church’s condemnation of Christian Science as a non-Christian cult due to CS’s rejection of the Trinity, equality of women leaders at all levels in the hierarchy, and emphasis on universal access to miracles of primitive Christian healing revelations rather than sainthood privilege).
The kernel of most hate is ignorance.
Two of your readers replied with the most insightful comments — ignorance and fear are the twins that drive hatred. I am not surprised that those twins reside in some Westporters. It is a sad day, indeed, that some people are angry enough to speak out with such vehemence. We can do better than that — I know we can.