So-called fundamentalism is sweeping through the world's religions today — causing a lot of pain, even wars, ethnic cleansing and executions. Aside from our members' general concern over the situation, we saw an urgent need for healing since Lesbians and Gay men are often at dire risk of harm at the hands of adherents of these movements. We were clear that fundamentalism is a sin and that it is a severe misuse of the word "fundamental" since the concentration is on material forms and rites that have lost touch with whatever spiritual foundations they may once have represented.

Amazingly however, the healing of these horrors is just at hand in the very term all this foolishness is hiding behind. As one member observed "Forms hint at Facts and we need to find and live the Fact, not the form. Then the form will not hurt us or anyone."

We spent quite some time discussing identity — questions like who am I, where does evil come from, am I an amalgam of good and evil, do I have a mortal mind? Soon we saw that each of us is living at a mythological level if we are seeing ourselves as mortal or dualistic concepts. But it is essential to remember that a mortal is a version of God's man, the conscious infinitude of existence. Just as we would suspend disbelief in a movie we do so in life, usually until some pain drives us from our personal theatrical presentation into a richer appreciation of our selfhood. And a new script is acted out — but the point is that if we are in touch with what we're representing of God's presence in this piece, it will be a blessing for one and all. When and if it loses contact with the living presence of Life and Love, we have become the very religious bigots and zealots we decry.

One can only marvel at Mrs. Eddy's foresight in removing the sacraments from the grasp of matter and encouraging her followers to seek the pure spiritual significance of baptism, marriage, communion and so forth. This frees them up for individual living and meaning — surely a boon to Gay people usually excluded from the rites of sclerotic belief systems.

A dedicated student of Christian Science ought to be able to attend any religious ceremony and get the Truth out of it. Even a Gay student attending a homophobic rant (a.k.a. sermon) should be able to translate it into God-speak and thereby find and live the fundamentals of Being, thus healing the problem. At least there would be no snoozing as so often happens in the comforts of our cozy CS ritual.

Other points covered:

• Christian Science fundamentalism may be driving the public away from our doors. Certainly many of us have found this when church Scientists expatiate on homosexuality or other subjects they have no qualification to speak about. We need to keep in touch with the rudiments of our faith, and be prepared to drop forms and words that do not convey the Science.
• We love homophobes, but not their sin. The student of Christian Science can go further — much further. We know that everyone is now complete, perfect.
• All science and religion are really Christian Science since we're all seeking Truth.
• If someone thinks he has found the truth, watch out — there's some new bigotry forming.
• Fundamentalism arose in the 19th Century as a reaction to the onrush of science. It's an attempt to explain with literal, "scientific" means the points set forth in the Bible. Christian Science arose out of the same milieu. To paraphrase Mrs. Eddy — with the problem comes the solution.

Healings:

One member, having to make business decisions and having been advised badly by professionals he'd employed for years, opened his thought to direction from the one Mind and secured precisely the right information, very unexpectedly, from two different strangers.

Another member found himself suddenly terminated from a new job under false pretenses which the employer refused to discuss. Our member was quite hurt and angry initially but soon realized that he really did not fit in with the social atmosphere at that place and that the work was not at all what he should be doing. He was able to forgive the employer in light of these greater realities and almost at once business prospects in his chosen field picked up.

Another member had lunch with a student of Christian Science from another city. He only rarely gets to see this friend who thanked him for saying on their last visit that one should read the Bible as science fiction and enjoy it at a symbolic level. Our member found himself saying "Why, you can read your life the same way — as science fiction." They both looked stunned but our member found this statement most helpful in considering our topic of fundamentalism this week. Later he told another friend what he'd said and got this response, "You mean you're just a figment of your own imagination." This gave our member a great sense of the sheer whimsy of the presentation or appearance of things. But also a heightened sense of how to deconstruct the fiction into its underlying Science. A few days later as what looked like being a pretty depressing business meeting unfolded he was able to get quickly off the surface and rejoice in the Truth of Being — and the meeting went extremely well.