DAVID E. ROBINSON, et al, pro se______________________
Plaintiff
v.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, et al______
Defendants

AUTHORIZED LITERATURE

1. In the Christian Science organization, the independent publication of metaphysics by church members is simply not done.

2. After the demise of the Founder of the Church, Mary Baker Eddy, a Board policy was put into effect regarding “authorized” and “unauthorized” literature. “Authorized literature” is that which is approved by the Board. “Unauthorized literature,” published without the approval of the Board, usually costs the writer his good reputation in the Church, and in some instance, even excommunication.

3. Whereas, in fact, Mrs. Eddy writes in her book, Retrospection and Introspection, “A student can write voluminous works on [Christian] Science without trespassing, if he writes honestly, and he cannot dishonestly compose Christian Science.”

4. And in the July 1891 Christian Science Journal, she wrote, “I consider my students as capable, individually, of selecting their own reading matter and circulating it, as a committee would be if it was chosen for this purpose.”

5. Not once has Mrs. Eddy ever referred to “authorized literature.”

CENSORSHIP

6. In 1988, when this writer self published his first book regarding Christian Science, he was in no way prepared for the confrontation he would soon face. Many of his Christian Science friends became hostile toward him. He was accused of self-glorification and of looking upon himself as some sort of personal savior to the Cause. He was accused of being dissident and he was asked, more than once, to cease and desist his writing for the Church.

7. His Teacher of class instruction in Christian Science, tried to convince him to withdraw his book. She said that the Field was already class-taught, and needed nothing more, and if he refused to comply with her request, he would no longer be welcome at her students Association Meetings each year. But the injustice of the church hierarchy in this regard did not drive him away from the Church.

8. In the centralized organization of the Mother Church, “Boston” has always been the seat of power. In the Mother Church, there is money, prestige, and politics, as in any large organization, but there is one extreme aspect about this Boston organization: Its Board of Directors account to no one for its actions. No one at all, not even a pope. The Directors do not consult the members about the affairs of their church, in any way.

INFALLIBILITY

9. Should the faith of the Field in the right of the Directors to govern the hierarchy be destroyed, these five people would be stripped of their control over the misinformed church.

10. As the self-proclaimed Head of the Church, the five people who comprise the ecclesiastical Board of Directors wield absolute power over the entire organization. This form of ecclesiastical authority began when Mrs. Eddy passed on in 1910, and has been carefully nurtured by the church hierarchy over the decades ever since.

THE CHANGE IN THE CHURCH MANUAL

11. The Mother Church Manual is a book of bylaws governing the Mother Church. Written solely by the church founder, it is considered as inviolate by the members as is the textbook of Christian Science, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy.

12. In the Manual is found the Deed of Trust conveying the land for the Mother Church to four trustees and their successors in office, to be known as “The Christian Science Board of Directors.” This Trust was established in accordance with Chapter 39, Section 1, of the Public Statues of Massachusetts.

13. This Massachusetts Statute stipulated that a member of the Board of Directors of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, had to be a citizen of the State of Massachusetts, i.e. of the United States of America.

14. When Mrs. Eddy set up the government of her church, it was her wish that all of the Directors of the Mother church be citizens of the United States. However, in 1971, the Board of Directors approached the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and persuaded them to make a supposedly innocuous change in an obscure statute — to change the word “citizen” to the word “resident.” Thereafter, a change was made on page 130 of the Manual, where the footnote was revised. This change paved the way for Otto Bertschi, a citizen of Switzerland, to be appoint by the Directors to their Board, in possible violation of our Leader’s wishes.

15. This disconcerting revision to the bylaws in the Manual is upsetting to many Christian Scientists throughout the world-wide Field. It is the consensus of many that Mrs. Eddy would not have sanctioned such a change in the governance of her church.

16. This is not a mere technicality, but a matter of principle: Can our Leader’s divine demonstration of church government be altered by human whims — by persons either inside or outside our Movement?

17. The 1892 Deed of Trust could never be changed, not even by Mrs. Eddy [the granter] herself, and the Deed of Trust specified “citizen” at that time, and no “substitutions” in the Manual are allowed.

18. It is believed by many that Mrs. Eddy established the governance of her church on the basis of the Constitution of the United States of America. The Legislative function being the Manual and the Deeds of Trust. The Executive function being her personally appointed Directors. And the Judicial aspect being herself as a personal Revelator of God’s Will.

19. Concerning the Executive function of the United States of America, Article 2, Section 1, clause 5, states that: “No person except a natural born citizen...shall be eligible to the office of President...”

20. It is thought by many of Mrs. Eddy’s followers, that only a confirmed “citizen” of Massachusetts would qualify in her sight as a member of her Board.