Christian Science Church Struggling Financially
Sunday, April 04 2004 @ 12:20 AM EST
Copyright 2004 by Gretchen Passantino
Still caught in the throes of decades-long shrinking membership, the Christian Science Church, headquartered at its First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston and publishers of the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper The Christian Science Monitor, has taken some strong cost-cutting measures over the last two months. The Church has cut 125 jobs from its national staff and decreased the budget and number of pages of the Monitor.
According to The Boston Globe, the church also has a new financial chief, former J. P. Morgan investment banker Edward J. Odegaard, who will govern the day-to-day finances of the church. Odegaard also attributed the financial crunch to insufficient oversight of church spending. Odegaard explained, "We are coming off the back of roughly five years of having launched several major programs here at the church. After having added so much, we didn't feel we were operating in the most efficient and clear fashion." In an effort to attract new followers, the Church built a $50 million library and started a $55 million renovation of the historic headquarters grounds.
The Christian Science Church was started in the mid-1800s by a Boston woman, Mary Baker Eddy, who attributed the power of her mental religion with "healing" her of chronic illness and a bad back. She became the author of many articles and publications, including the "Bible" of Christian Science, Science and Health with the Key to the Scriptures. Christian Science is a type of religious gnosticism, teaching that the only reality that exists is God -- everything and everyone is divine. Christian Science also denies the reality of matter, sin, sickness, evil, and death. The "key" to health in Christian Science is to realize, practice, and believe that sickness is, to use Eddy's words, "an error of mortal mind." In other words, sickness is not real. Eddy herself wore glasses and self-administered morphine and other medications until her death in the early 1900s. Today Christian Science members are encouraged to practice meditation and obtain the religious services of a Christian Science practitioner rather than depending on medical science, medical personnel, medications, and/or surgery. The Christian Science Monitor is a general newspaper that covers international and national news and is especially known for its thoughtful analysis.
Expenses for the Christian Science Church exceeded revenues by nearly $8 million in 2003, when the church experienced its first annual financial loss in a decade. The Globe conducted an analysis of the Church's public financial filings and discovered $60 million in accounting errors. Church officials blamed the errors on their auditors.
For the full story: Christian Science Church Cuts 125 Jobs.
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