The Denver Jewish news., 1922-01-18
"Why JewsTurnt to Chri-
stian Science"
Continued from page u

ana says: we give you ne uhu
health. Judaism ASKS of the Jew his
life and life that shall be holy. 1T
is not an easy thing to withstand
what Christian Science purports to-
offer the Jew, life and peace and we'll
being in the place of unrest and dis
comfort and death.
Not that I mean to imply that
Christian Science tolerates moral IL
cense or offers freedoms from ethical
restraint. but its stress is altogether
changelessly upon the good to he
granted to life rather than upon the
best that must be eSacted from life.
To the Jew dwelling in n world of
ethical impcrativcs hard and austere,
this invitation to dalliance in the
primrose path Is tempting almost to
the point of irrcsistibleness, For the
lew has wandered in the straight and
narrow road prescribed for him by the
suprc,se sanctions of his religion on
the one hand and the cruel Oppres-
sons of n hostile world on the other.
After careful reading of the text.
book of the Christian Science move
mcnt and n longtime study of the
problem. that is involved in 1t. ! nm
prepared to say that the chiefest
reason that has moved Jews. though
for the greatest part they have been
unconscious of their spiritual motiva-
ton to reject Judaism and accept
Christian Science, has been the fact
that Judaism is a religion stern and
unyielding in its cxactions. Hard and
heavy have been the burdens that have
been imposed by the world without,
hard and heavy have been the obliga-
tions imposed from within. Such has
been the genius of Judaism that 1t has
responsibility. I do not maintain
that Christian Science or its votaries
are Indifferent to conduct, but in the
last analysis and reduced to its simp-
lest terms the slogan of Christian
Science is: Be Well and you will be
happy; not Do Right happy or not.
One of the moral shortcomings of
our time is that we are made pleas
ure-seekcrs, that too much of life is
given TO the quest of pleasure. Is
there very much difference between
the attitude OF the present-day world
which makes of pleasure a veritable
religion and the religion the supreme
aim of which is to make itself pleas
ant and life painless? "a
1 do not wish TO stress tliis, for i
| have meant to be constructive rather
than critical. but after all what is 1t
that the Jewish seeker finds within
Christian Science walls? He finds n
world brought to his feet. no exactions.
no demands, no compulsions. and. il
any. these are so mildly put as to
sound like drawingroom hints.
What does ii mean to have n re-
| ligion without exactions and demands? ?
| If there be no wrong in the world.
| then man may he ground down and Op-
pressed without need of protest. If
there be no disease. then industrial
accidents and occupational diseases
need not be guarded against. If there
are no deaths, then wars toll of mil
lions is nothing but an error of the
mind and a delusion of the spirit
against which humankind need not
rise up in order to ,end the reign of
nnbrotherly slaughter. After the bare.
stark, harsh demands and exactions
- do, Il lI
unexacting songs of Christian Science
fall pleasantly indeed upon the long
harrassed AMI relentlessly compelled
hearts within Israel.
Christian Science is rooted in some
part in the fundamental Christian
eaching-Resist not evil. Christian
Science is carrying the doctrine one
step further than it was carried by the
founder of Christianity. for it denies
that evil is. 1t must, because of its
denial ignore evil. assuming that if it
be ignored it will not be.
But what Christianity really meant
and taught was not that evil was not
to be resisted but that evil-doers were
not to he resisted, that vengeance was
not to be sought and wrought as
against the doers of wrong Many cell
turtles ago the Rabbis said: Condemn
the sin but forgive the sinner. Not
TO resist evil would imply that we
had no right to build up n dam, the
bursting of which was imminent and
might overwhelm the inhabitants Of
the land.
But that We're a very different thing
from resisting not evildoers. We are
not quite prepared to make the obser-
walton of Shakespeare our rule of life.