We ended last week ([#topic=20020418#]) with one member seeking help on intimacy issues apparently stymied by idolatrous cathexes of beautiful men.

Most members found during our week of study and prayer that we held a number of people, places, things and even ideas in idolatrous embrace. One phoned in this little jewel, "Any concept of God is idolatry. The purpose of knowing the Truth is to get beyond knowing the Truth — i.e., to be the Truth."

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, idolatry is worshiping someone or something other than God as though it were God. Paul Tillich said it's "the elevation of a preliminary concern to ultimacy."Idolatry may be classified as either "gross"(addressing a person or thing as a god) or "fine"("attaching to a creature the confidence, loyalty, devotion that properly belong only to the Creator"). Love of nation and love of doctrine are examples of fine idolatry.

The "principle of mediation"holds that it is not necessarily idolatry to love a Bible, a saint, etc., as agents of God.

We found these ideas from classical religion resonated with our readings from authorized Christian Science sources. See for instance particularly Miscellany, p. 151: 21-11 (Mary Baker Eddy) where gross and fine idolatry are plainly set forth; and Miscellaneous Writings, p. 87: 6-14 where Mrs. Eddy says of the sensuous universe, "'I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied.'"

The latter statement is only part of Mrs. Eddy's much longer reply to a question asking whether it is correct to say that material objects are nothing. It shows her at her most tantric and was brought to the attention of our sufferer in pursuit of intimacy as directions for moving through paralyzing shame attaching to dualistic apprehension of physical beauty. This member also attended his first meeting of Sexual Compulsives Anonymous where he unveiled the notion that sex represented, for him, interiorization of all that "good out there". He said he knew better intellectually, but it was wonderful to have peers sitting quietly and listening to him as he went through his litany of foibles. Their exposure to air may remove some of them but he also told of an article in the Sentinel some time back where two people who worked successfully together but were married to others were wildly attracted to each other. They solved the problem by realizing that their love was the stimulus for their work and didn't need to be acted out in sex.

One member pointed out that Truth is constantly being conveyed to human thought through symbols, myths and various canonized truths — including physical and medical laws. They arrive in material or dualistic form and we avoid idolatry by finding the fact behind the fiction and living it. As the Hindu Deity Krishna states, "Whatever god a man worships, it is I who answers the prayer."

Discussion ranged over a broad array of idols.

1) The USA as sole superpower. The tendency has been to take this as an occasion for doing just as we please without reference to others. The latest crack in this facade came in the form of leaks before the meeting between Crown Prince Abdullah and President Bush hinting at oil cut backs if we don't get more evenhanded in Mideast negotiations. One member ventured the thought that there is but one Superpower; it's the I that is Us, the one and only being that is in Truth everyone.

2) Marriage. All the government and religious hoopla about its value and who is to be included within its precincts ( e.g., Gay and non-Gay) is blurring the unity of male and female in each individual. See Science and Health, p. 577: 4-11, and Matthew 19: 10-12 for a fuller handling of the belief in marriage.

3) Larry King's show with the Queer As Folk cast helped mainstream images of same-sex intimacy. It may have been as shocking to middle America as King's visit with the Christian Science Chairman last year. Same-sex kissing and life without materia medica: what are we coming to? Well, if nothing else, perhaps alternatives to entrenched idolatries.

4) The sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church owes something to the family model of father/priest and his children/parishioners. Most sexual abuse happens in the home. One member felt the church is "suffering on the cross for us all, working out a new standard of sexuality and understanding."For instance, what are the qualities that Gay priests bring to their duties? What is an appropriate age of consent? Is sexuality between a helper and the one helped ever OK?

5) Materia Medica. A member's lover has had a lot of help from a Barefoot Doctor — a member of a group of physicians who largely eschew Western medicine in favor of remedies from native cultures around the world. Another member said he liked this fresh image of medical treatment, but saw it and all other ways of medical treatment as material representations of the Health that comes always from God.

6) A member read the very last words written by the lover of a friend. They are poetic and transcendent declarations of love prompted by a gardenia given to the dying man by his lover the day before he passed away. Neither of the men knew of Christian Science and yet the whole work is about seeing through the veil of matter to permanent realities.

A couple of healings were reported.

1) A member was confronted with a sudden reaction to poison ivy. Among the ideas which healed him was this: any event in which there is a claim of more than one mind is idolatrous. It's a claim against the First Commandment. Previously he had seen idolatry as worshiping idols, like the golden calf, but was now able to see it in a greatly expanded way. He brought to our attention the quote we've used as our focus text. It helped him arrive at the absolute sense of the allness of Mind and its infinite manifestation.

2) Another member's car was stolen last weekend. He insisted that "loss is gain"(see the Christian Science Hymnal, number 207, verse 3). The next day he was convinced by politically connected associates to make a run for the New York State Senate. One of his first thoughts was "How can I do this without a car?"He has found he can get around very well by subway. One of his first calls was on his Catholic archdiocese to inquire as to their funding needs for community programs. The secretary seemed most appreciative that they were not being overlooked in this time of gloom for the church. His first campaign speech will be to a group of ecology enthusiasts. He'll arrive on a bicycle.

Partially in response to the foregoing we thought we'd look at Factions for next week.