“Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
– Romans 13
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
-Galatians 3

A dear conservative friend I met years ago through our shared Christian Science faith, posted a letter she liked from a conservative Evangelical minister, Jeff Mullin, to Texas Rep. James Telarico. In this letter Pastor Mullin  lectures Rep. Telarico  about statements the representative has made that don’t seem to fit Jeff Mullin’s understanding of The Bible or Jesus’ teachings. I’m not going to repost or share Pastor Mullin’s whole letter – you can find it for yourself online. But I would like to respond to Pastor Mullin’s points as a progressive Christian Scientist, using passages from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (published in 1875, long before Rep. Telarico, Pastor Mullin, or myself) by the founder of the Christian Science church, Mary Baker Eddy.

Pastor Mullin: “1. Concerning Your Statement that God Is Non-Binary…”

Mary Baker Eddy writes:
“Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God… The ideal man corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth. The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In divine Science, we have not as much authority for considering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity.” (p. 517)

Pastor Mullin: “2. Concerning Your Statement That Other Religions Are Circling the Same Truth…”

Mary Baker Eddy:
“Jesus’ history made a new calendar, which we call the Christian era; but he established no ritualistic worship. He knew that men can be baptized, partake of the Eucharist, support the clergy, observe the Sabbath, make long prayers, and yet be sensual and sinful.” (p. 20)
“Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief. It was the divine Principle of all real being which he taught and practiced. His proof of Christianity was no form or system of religion and worship, but Christian Science, working out the harmony of Life and Love.” (p. 26)

Pastor Mullin: “3. Concerning Your Statement That the Bible Is Silent on Abortion…”

Mary Baker Eddy:
“According to recent lore, successive generations do not begin with the birth of new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individualities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look upon the simple ovum as the germ, the starting-point, of the most complicated corporeal structures, including those we call human. Here these material researches culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are devoid of metaphysics.” (p 5.49)
“The continual contemplation of existence as material and corporeal – as beginning and ending, and with birth, decay, and dissolution as its component stages – hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting-point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embryonic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for Deity.”

Pastor Mullin: “4. Concerning Your Use of Mary’s Consent to Defend Abortion Rights….”

Mary Baker Eddy:
“Jesus was the offspring of Mary’s self-conscious communion with God.”

Pastor Mullin: “5. Concerning Your Statement that Jesus Was a Radical Feminist…”

Mary Baker Eddy:
“One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself;’ annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.” (p. 340)
“Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the rights of the two sexes. Christian Science furnishes no precedent for such injustice, and civilization mitigates it in some measure. Still, it is a marvel why usage should accord woman less rights than does either Christian Science or civilization.
“Our laws are not impoartial, to say the least, in their discrimination as to the person, property, and parental claims of the two sexes. If the elective franchise for women will remedy the evil without encouraging difficulties of greater magnitude, let us hope it will be granted.” (p 63)

Pastor Mullin: “6. Concerning Your Statements About Biological Sex…”

Mary Baker Eddy:
“Gender means simply kind or sort, and does not necessarily refer either to masculinity or femininity.” (p. 508)
“Masculine, feminine, and neuter genders are human concepts.” (p. 516)

Pastor Mullin: “7. Concerning Your Support for Same-Sex Marriage and the Reinterpretation of Biblical Sexual Ethics…”

Mary Baker Eddy:
“Kindred tastes, motives, and aspirations are necessary to the formation of a happy and permanent companionship.” (p 60)
“Marriage should signify a union of hearts.” (p 64)
“Matrimony, which was once a fixed fact among us, must lose its present slippery footing, and man must find permanence and peace in a more spiritual adherence.” (p 65)

Pastor Mullin: “8. Concerning the Danger of Reshaping Christianity to Fit Culture…”

Mary Baker Eddy:
“Jesus’ promise is perpetual. Had it been given only to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural passage would read you, not they. The purpose of his great life-work extends through time and includes universal humanity. Its Principle is infinite, reaching beyond the pale of a single period or of a limited following.” (p 328-329)
“Love is impartial and universal in its adaptations and bestowals.” (p. 13)