CSL’s COVID Vaccination Statement: The Good & the Meh

BY HARV BISHOP

In September 2021, COVID vaccination guidance was released by Centers for Spiritual Living (CSL), headquarters for the Religious Science movement. The movement can’t deny science, illness and poverty it said in part. That should be shouted at every center and in every Science of Mind course going forward. But there are also missed opportunities and hedging in the face of this unfortunately politically charged public health issue.

I greatly respect the authors,  spiritual leader Dr. Edward Villjeon, Dr. David Alexander, and Rev. Sunday Cote. They are some of the best voices for reason and justice in our movement. In my university day job, serious analysis and critique are a sign of respect. In other realms it can be incorrectly read as disloyalty or reduced to personal animas.

One thing  is personal. The friends, and family who have suffered with COVID and those who have died. We lost two relatives in the last few  weeks because vaccination is a political football and misinformation kills. One relative moved from California (vaccination rate 72%) three years ago to Tennessee (vaccination rate 52%).  New CDC national data from August 2021 shows that the unvaccinated have an 11 fold greater chance of death and a 6.15 greater chance of infection.

So despite the statement’s strengths, the missed opportunities must be addressed. A few days after the statement the US surpassed 700,000 COVID deaths. We are now at 741,00 and counting.

The statement buries the lead, with the most important part in its final sentences. That is preceded by hem-hawing about freedom of choice and calling vaccination “a personal matter.” Hedging doesn’t serve keeping churchgoers as safe as possible.

As a thought experiment, imagine a CSL statement being oblique about racism for instance, and going out of its way to acknowledge a variety of opinions about racism. As a matter of fact, we don’t need to do a thought experiment. Take the 2013 CSL statement on same-sex marriage which was direct and did not hedge its bets in any way or worry about offending those opposed.

I do not ascribe any ulterior motive to this statement. It’s a diverse movement and perhaps they hoped to reach more people by being oblique or making anti-vaxxers feel heard. It’s also possible its central message was simply lost due to excess verbiage by committee.

We often think of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy as more suspicious of modern medicine than Religious Science Founder Ernest Holmes.  While there is some truth to that perception,  New Thought Pastor Greg Stamper recently shared with me a March 2020 Christian Science Journal article quoting Mrs. Eddy telling adherents not to resist public health requirements including vaccination while also turning to prayer.

So, what would a more direct statement that doesn’t hedge it bets look like? You can see one example in this guest blog by Rebecca Harmon. Consider also the much more decisively worded guidance from the Unitarian Universalist association which advocates transparency about COVID safety measures, including disclosing vaccination status, while also acknowledging diversity of opinions. It begins “We know vaccination is how we end this pandemic and care for each other.”

Below I offer a revised, less tepid take of the existing CSL statement. Let’s begin the version by opening with that bold UU wording and by putting the most important recommendations and rationale  at the top. Open with highlighting COVID reality and what we need to do together for public health. I have drastically changed the hedging. Don’t open the statement by addressing vaccine hesitancy. Address vaccine hesitancy and freedom later when it can be balanced with the original statement’s call to consider oneness and our responsibility to others. Truthfully, it doesn’t take much to produce a more decisive statement. This revised version uses about 95% of the original remixed.

My additions are indicated in bold italics.

We begin this statement by acknowledging that we know vaccination is how we end this pandemic and care for each other. We acknowledge the pandemic that has killed more than 6 million people globally, and 700,000 plus in the US, and there is a new, more easily transmitted and dangerous COVID variant. Centers for Spiritual Living must address these realities and prioritize the safety of our members and the ministry teams who interact with them. 

What we need to do together 

• • This Executive Team, using our founder’s words as a guide, cannot in good conscience endorse religious exemptions against vaccines under the authority of Centers for Spiritual Living.
  • In addition to following public safety protocols, it is important that our clergy, teachers, study-group leaders, practitioners and other leaders who interact with our members be transparent about their vaccination, test and exposure statuses so that the people they interact with may make decisions for themselves about safety, masking and physical distance.

• Our many Centers should also be transparent about what precautions are required of attendees at services, including areas such as vaccination, masking and physical distance so that attendees can make informed decisions ahead of time about risk and church attendance. 

On what do we base our recommendations? 

Our teachings honor medical science and prayer

Because vaccination decisions are often influenced by religion (1) or sincerely held spiritual beliefs (2), we are compelled to confirm that there are no precepts or strictures against vaccinations or receiving medical treatment of any kind within Centers for Spiritual Living.

We do not deny the existence of illness and celebrate public health improvements that save lives

Ernest Holmes cautioned us not to say everything is all right when it is all wrong. (3) We don’t say that people aren’t poor, sick or unhappy. We do not deny the existence of illness, nor do we deny the need for hygiene or medical assistance. We unite with these modalities, are grateful for their assistance and cooperate with their efforts in every way. Though we may explore why sickness exists when the original Cause is harmonious and perfect, we will neither deny nor minimize the extraordinary work being done in the field of medical science.

Nevertheless, we can add something important to the care and healing of our physical bodies: the understanding that we are primarily spiritual beings with a mind and a body, and we have the tool of spiritual mind treatment to augment and enhance medical science, but it does not replace it. Indeed, we give thanks for and celebrate public health achievements that have saved lives worldwide.

Personal freedoms must be balanced by acknowledging Oneness and care for the vulnerable

We have great love and compassion for the diversity of thought that exists among our members. We acknowledge that as spiritual beings, we are self-determining, have freedom and are at choice. We ask members to apply their freedoms for the greater good, and to consider how public health is an expression of oneness. And most importantly, we urge our members to think about how to ensure the safety of the most vulnerable among us, who cannot be vaccinated.  

Our founder, Dr. Ernest Holmes, wrote that in the practice of Science of Mind, there is no place for “arrogance or the holier-than-thou attitude. The great have always been humble. The great have always been kind. The great have always been lovers of humanity.”

The following are relevant quotes from Holmes and some additional resources. 

In the early days of spiritual therapeutics, it was believed that a practitioner could not successfully treat patients if they were being attended by a physician or if they were using material methods for relief. Now we know that this was based on superstition. We no longer give it any serious thought. The metaphysician feels it a privilege to be called into consultation with a physician or with a psychologist. They have learned to appreciate the fields of medicine and surgery. 

— Ernest Holmes, “Living the Science of Mind,” page 263

We do not deny the body, nor do we deny the mind. What we do is affirm the Spirit. We believe the body should be properly cared for — that is the office of the physician.

— Ernest Holmes, “Living the Science of Mind,” page 527

The physician and the surgeon can patch up this physical body of ours, and the psychologist or psychiatrist can help us to straighten out our emotional tensions, for all of which we should be grateful.

— Ernest Holmes, “Living the Science of Mind,” page 402

One of the chief offices of spiritual mind healing is to relieve the mind of fear, to compose the thought and permit it to reflect the deep inner feeling that comes from conscious union with the Spirit. Science and religion should walk hand in hand in the accomplishment of this purpose.

— Ernest Holmes, “Living the Science of Mind,” page 253

Unity is the basis of all that there is. There is but one God, one Mind, one Spirit and one Power. When I embody myself in my thoughts selfishly, I am separating myself from that which I think would be my good. You may think this is a very subtle thing and could not be the reason for so much trouble. It is the foundation of most of our troubles. I am unconsciously separating myself from my good.

— Ernest Holmes, “Love and Law,” page 231.4
Centers for Spiritual Living Executive Team

Resources:

 

1. A list of spiritual organizations’ stands on vaccinations from Vanderbilt University – https://www.vumc.org/health-wellness/news-resource-articles/immunizations-and-religion
2. An example of explanations of sincerely held religious beliefs (California) from Mark Spring, CDF Labor Law, LLP – https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/defining-sincerely-held-religious-9250227/
3. Dr. Ernest Holmes on the integration of medical science in spiritual healing, page 252, “Living the Science of Mind,” “Let Us Not Fool Ourselves”
4. Vaccine equity concerns: https://www.who.int/campaigns/vaccine-equity
5. “12 Things to Know” from Johns Hopkins Medicine: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/covid19-vaccine-hesitancy-12-things-you-need-to-know
6.  Faith traditions that do not endorse vaccine exemptions: Many faith leaders say no to vaccine    exemptions – The Columbian