The visit of a newsman who may want to write about us did not impede the flow of ideas but seemed to sharpen things up.

Sin is not an inviting topic; it has virtually retired from polite conversation except among conservative religionists and Christian Scientists. Mrs. Eddy's 19th century readers must have had a broader understanding of it than we, who tend to think "illicit sex" when we hear the word. Members felt it was worth the effort, however, to get some clarity on this term for an infraction which Christian Science places on a level equal to both sickness and death.

A member started the discussion by commenting that no act per se could be seen as sin; for instance having a glass of wine or cheating on his income tax. Another objected to the cheating example: "It's the same as taking money out of my pocket." Another added that he would have killed an enemy during his war service if threatened; surely this would not be a sin.

After some back and forth, we got a principle out of this; everything has to be seen and evaluated within its context. Perhaps a drink for most people is no sin, but what of the alcoholic; it could be deadly for him and those in his path. There might be some kind of Robin Hood argument in favor of tax fraud in certain cases. The problem arises when one leans on drink or fraud to the exclusion of God's totally beneficent presence. Most religions preach this and if their adherents understood why sin is unnecessary they would benefit from the statements put forth.

Our chairperson spoke in favor of empathy as the only real way to be sure one is not sinning. Both Christ Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy recommended that we love God with all our minds and souls etc. and our neighbor as ourselves. The only way to accomplish this, said he, is to be the one Mind God, to judge one's motives and actions from the standpoint of what Love, Life is demanding and also to put one's self in the other person's place (i.e., the Golden Rule).

Next, the seven deadly sins took a drubbing. They are pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth. Today many of these are seen as valuable. For instance, lust and gluttony (which includes alcoholism and drug addiction) are what drive sufferers to spiritual awakening through 12-Step programs or Christian Science. Envy and covetousness are forms of desire which, Mrs. Eddy and others tell us, is prayer. Anger is prized by psychotherapists as something to recognize, get up and trace to its roots. Pride (akin to the basic Greek notion of sin as hubris) does seem an enduring problem as does sloth. (Of the two, one member said he prefers sloth and may celebrate Gay Sloth in June).

Modern psychology ascribes many sinful traits to poor upbringing or chemical imbalance. The wounded Eros brought on by such conditions can leave anyone a wreck, unless therapy and, let's add Christian Science, are brought to bear. The Swiss psychologist Alice Miller has shown that even Hitler's outrageously sinful career was set in motion by psychic inflictions in his youth.

Religious absolutists might dismiss the foregoing discussion as an attempt to wriggle out of calling a sin a sin, but our point was only that today we have many ways of seeing sin and supporting one who is seeking healing. Anyone with his nose pressed against a bakery window and dialing a peer in Overeaters Anonymous for help in surrendering to Higher Power will know how much more valuable this modern technique is than all the thunderbolts of an earlier time.

We were now ready to go deeper with Christian Science in the healing of sin, once the sufferer has decided to be rid of it. The decision itself is usually based on suffering — what the 12-Step people call "bottoming out". For the benefit of our visitor we described the difference between the first and second chapters of the book of Genesis — i.e., the spirituality of the former and the materiality of the latter version of creation. On this difference rests Christian Science healing and Science and Health is 700 pages of insights, exhortations and examples thereof. The orthodox concept of "original sin" could be equated with the supposititious cause of all error — the belief in matter or existence apart from God. Christian Science treatment gathers its force from mentally, spiritually realizing only perfection where the material senses say sin is going on. A member read page 393, lines 4-15 from Science and Health. Included are these sentences: "Mind is the master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority." These explanations led right into some testimonies of the healing of sin.

1) One member recounted an experience years ago when he left a grubby Lower East Side bar, after much drinking, and went home with a drug addict and a friend. There he got involved in a heated argument and rant about spiritual healing. Later, the addict produced his grandmother's copy of Science and Health and told our member to read it. In the next few weeks he devoured the book and slowly his life regularized itself, he found a new center of gravity and the addictions dropped away (he went to AA for quite a while). Today he is a solid student of Christian Science and one of the founders of our group.

2) Another member had prayed for years to be cleansed of his homosexuality, as several of the Christian Science practitioners and teachers he consulted with indicated he must in order to be healed of a tumor sticking out of his head. Finally freed of these helpers and doing his own work, he suddenly realized that his love, as the reflection of the one Love, God, was as good as anyone else's. There was a huge emotional release. His internalized homophobia retreated as did the tumor — overnight!

3) Another member and his lover engaged in spouse swapping with a couple they had just met. After a while he and his new friend were still at it but his lover and the other man had parted. One night the man arrived for a session while our member's lover was still in the apartment — he was to stay in the living room while the two sex buddies proceeded to the bedroom. Our member felt nothing but sexual desire, but the other man was unable to function and finally said he just could not engage in sex while he felt the pain of our member's lover, sitting alone in the living room while his lover was in the bedroom with another man. He had to leave and our member's only reaction was rage. It has taken him years of therapy and Christian Science to finally feel how egregious this whole episode was. "Thank God I can finally feel!" he said to us.

4) A member had been feeling old and burned out recently and prayed about it. He realized that the falling away of mortal beliefs about life and love was the vestibule through which the divine reality can arrive on the scene. See Science and Health, page 597 for the definition of Wilderness. This week he had a dream which had his sister saying, "I'm just trying not to look like grass." He interpreted this as a fractured alchemical soror or anima in the guise of Osiris, indicating the potential for growth and fertility, particularly in the area of feeling and spirituality. That evening, while talking to a very dear friend, he suddenly found himself agreeing to a trip which will certainly solemnize the shake up of stale concepts already underway in his psyche.

We took some time on the school shooting in California. Where was the sin there? In the kid, his parents, the school, the peers and so on? We quickly concluded they were all culpable but felt as Christian Scientists we cannot stand aghast at nothingness but must bring the healing vision recommended by Mrs. Eddy based on her intuition of how Jesus saw such tragedies (see the readings, Science and Health, p. 476: 31-5). We noted the gathering consensus that something must be done to handle rampant bullying and homophobia. Surely the time has come for adults to teach children about their self worth and tolerance for others, just as they teach them to brush their teeth and wipe themselves. Otherwise they'll be unfitted to function in a pluralist society and could end up shot for their bigotry.

Next week we'll look at the Internet as a symbol of the oneness and allness of Mind. This week marks the first anniversary of the peak of the Nasdaq at 5000 — today it's at 2000, giving a hint of the suffering among employees, managers and investors.