Mission is prayer, healing

Thank you to Dennis Lythgoe for his piece, "How deep is the religious divide?" (Jan. 27). In it, David Knowlton, a sociocultural anthropologist, suggests that the Christian Science Church makes claim to a large number of members in certain states but does not dominate the states in which they reside the way Mormons dominate Utah.

Counting membership numbers has never been a focus of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Rather, prayer-based healing is the church's mission. Today, the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston (not to be confused with Scientology) remains active and publishes The Christian Science Monitor, a Pulitzer Prize-winning international newspaper. Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, wrote "With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren."

Colleen Scott

Murray