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

1. MARY BAKER EDDY ESTABLISHED her church on the following economic principles: maintain liquidity; refrain from debt; and "separate the wheat from the tares."

2. MAINTAIN: "to keep in an existing state; to preserve from failure or decline; to sustain against opposition or danger; to continue or persevere in; to support or provide for: TO DEFEND."

3. REFRAIN: "to keep oneself from doing, feeling, or indulging in something; especially from following a passing impulse."

4. Our Leader never contracted a financial obligation without the full consent and support of her followers. She vested in them through her Manual By-Laws her judicial authority over the Directors of her Church. Mrs. Eddy limited the duties of the FIDUCIARY Directors only to transacting the business of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts."

5. She strictly required that the Directors report annually to the membership: 1) the amount of the members. funds on hand, 2) the amount of the members. indebtedness, and 3) the amount of expenditures made by the Directors in the members. behalf for each past year of operation. (Art.24, Sec.3, p.76).

6. There should be available on published record at least 90 or so, detailed financial statements to date, since 1910.

7. For a further fiduciary safeguard she established the Finance Committee under the members' authority to "keep themselves thoroughly informed" of the financial HEALTH of the church and to "unanimously endorse and render payable" all of the legitimate bills incurred by the Directors on the member' behalf; it being the individual responsibility beyond the members, of the Treasurer and each Director to properly manage the funds that belong beneficially to all the members of the Church. (Art.24, Sec.4, p.76).

8. "God requires wisdom, economy, and brotherly love to characterize all the proceedings of the members
of 'The First Church of Christ, Scientist'" (Art.24, Sec.5, p.77).

9. As a "Provision for the Future" -- the future deviation of her followers from the Manual, that she knew would eventually take place -- she directed her Committee on Finance, when and if they saw it, to admonish and correct each Director and if necessary to dismiss him or her for breach of trust and failure to comply with any committee admonitions.

10. Mrs. Eddy forbade any donations to be made from the church members. funds without her personal advice and consent. She made her donations individually and privately outside her church. And she herself never incurred a financial obligation in behalf of her church without the full consent of the members, and she expected the same consideration from them.

11. Prior to the building of her church edifice, the members pledged by vote the full amount of the projected cost of the structure. And each step of construction was payed for in full as it was completed. No debt was ever allowed to incur, hence no threat would occur to the continued existence of her Church.

12. She at one time said, "I cannot advise you regarding a Christian Science practitioner, but I most earnestly request that you select one who knows Christian Science history." (Divinity Course and General Collectanea, p.257).

13. Did you know that several years after Mrs. Eddy's passing the self appointed 5-member ecclesiastical Board of Directors overruled the By-Law by which Mrs. Eddy limited their salary to an already increased $2,500.00 per year, changing the Manual fixed amount; raising it four-fold to $10,000.00 per year without changing the Manual by-law and without notice to, or the knowledge of the governing members of the Church?

14. When the Board voted that increase in their own salary, they acted as judges and jury in their own case when such actions are forbidden by any elementary ethical principle long obtained. And the secrecy of the method renders it all the more reprehensible.

15. How many times have they increased their salaries again, and to what amounts since then?

16. No other Board in the English-speaking world is vested with such exclusive purportedly unrevisable power over spiritual and property concerns. The only other church organization in the Western World in which the church members have no voice in the management of their temporal or spiritual concerns is the Roman Catholic Church.

17. If the church members -- in obedience to the church Manual -- challenged at law the Board's presumed power of exclusive control in defiance of the Manual covenants that confer exclusive control on the members of the Church, the Director's self-constituted control would disappear.

18. The organization of The Mother Church rests solely upon the powers conferred by general statutes of law combined with and supporting the powers vested in the membership by the Founder of the Church, Mary
Baker Eddy.

19. Did you know that Mrs. Eddy required a separate by-law to establish such a resort as the Christian Science Benevolent Association, but that the self-constituted Board of Directors chose to revive the retired idea as a forbidden syndicate in 1916?

20. Finally opened in 1919 it has sent out more suggestions of sickness in its literature and otherwise to maintain its position than it could ever be a church ordained means of healing.

21. In 1965, the four year long building project at The Mother Church called the "Church Center" was announced. The Directors engaged the prestigious architectural firm I.M.Pei, and building activity began in 1967.

22. But did you know that the construction contract estimated originally to be for $8,000,000.00 was given out to the Aberthaw Construction Company on a cost-plus-basis without a firm bid? -- an open invitation to corruption, graft, and waste.

23. On top of this, Erwin D. Canham reported in his book Commitment to Freedom, page 382, in 1971, that the overhead of the Christian Science Monitor, then deeply in the red, was no less than $6,000,000.00 per year. And the Treasurer of The Mother Church told an inquiring member that it costs $25,000,000.00 per year to maintain The Mother Church operation.

24. "This cost isn't declining; it is escalating day by day; any apparent life is now due to the financial gifts and endowments given to the church over the past 50 years." (Beal's Crisis in the C.S. Church, pp.84,85).

25. What happened to Mrs. Eddy's MANUAL directive, Art.24, Sec.3, p.76, regarding the Directors' reporting to the members 1) the members. funds on hand, 2) the members. incurred indebtedness, and 3) the Directors' expenditures in behalf of the members for the past year(s)? Where are the Manual demanded annual financial statements, of the members, to the members, and for the members?

26. In 1973, the final construction phase of the new Church Center began, which was now to include the addition of a new Portico, changing the focus of The Center, from the original Edifice, to the Saint Paul street Extension Facade, to "provide easier and more gracious access to the church auditorium."

27. The architects model of the Extension in 1904, before Mrs. Eddy.s passing, did not show any features which were not actually constructed at that time by its completion date in 1906. Also, in conjunction with building of the Portico, the .lady with the lamp. was removed from inside the front cover of the Sentinel where it had been relegated by Mrs. Eddy.

28. The Church Center building fund was officially closed at the end of August in 1973 but the financial needs "of The Mother Church" were announced as "substantial and urgent." At this same urgent time the Directors announced their trip to the British Isles and 17 cities in Europe. And at the start of 1974 it was announced that the Monitor would no longer be published on Saturdays and that the Pleasant View Retirement home for Christian Science Practitioners was to be closed, and that a new fund was established "to aid developing areas of the world," and that a new fund was established "to reduce the deficit of the Monitor that was draining the church treasury."

29. It was announced that by June the former residents of the Pleasant View Retirement Home for Christian Science Practitioners were "happily re-situated" and that the Chestnut Hill Sanatorium would still be operated by The Mother Church, the cost of half of which was provided by bequests and gifts from church members and by The Mother Church. (Beasley, The Continuing Spirit, p.255).

30. These costs to The Mother Church had escalated to $1,500,000.00 by the time of the closing of the Pleasant View Retirement Home for Christian Science Practitioners and the incorporating of the Arden Woods Sanitorium in California.

31. The report of the annual meeting of The Mother Church boldly declared that: "The building of the Christian Science Center did NOT produce the economic challenges we faced during the past year" ; recession and inflation were blamed as the culprits. But a later issue of the Boston Globe reported that the original contractors bid was not $8,000,000.00 but $28,000,000.00. And the final cost was over $82,000,000.00 in mid-1970 dollars!

32. At this same time, the Director.s publicly began repudiating Mrs. Eddy's "place" in Bible prophesy; stating that Mrs. Eddy is NOT the "second witness" of Revelation 11:3 which she assuredly is; Jesus being the manifest witness of Christ, and Mary Baker being the manifest witness of Christian Science, "these are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth." (Rev. 11:3,4) (see The Bible As Healing; the Science of the Christ outlined in the Revelation of Saint John, pp.82,83).

33. This long standing position of The Mother Church had been published in 1943, reprinted several times over the years, and been released in pamphlet form and sold in the Reading Rooms.

34. In the fall of 1975, on the centennial anniversary of the publishing of SCIENCE AND HEALTH, it was announced that "the Church Center in Boston cost more than anticipated and Pleasant View would be sold!"

35. After the last residents were displaced by January of 1976, an auctioneer was hired by the Directors at 10% of sales, and "bickering, bag, and baggage" descended to complete "the rape of Pleasant View." Then, despite an impartial later appraisal of close to $10,000,000.00, the entire property was sold to become a medical facility for the mentally impaired, for the sum of $2,000,000.00.

36. Who gave and got the benefit of the $8,000,000.00 "discount?"

37. Do we still wonder why Mrs. Eddy dissolved the Board of Directors and The Mother Church at her passing?

38. Did you know that in another case involving donated property at about that same time, the grand daughter of Mary Todd and President Abraham Lincoln (Mary Lincoln Beckwith) died in December of 1975 leaving her entire estate to the membership of The Mother Church; the 412 acre estate known as "Hildene," built by Robert Todd Lincoln, son of the 16th President. Mrs. Beckwith also left the church membership $425,000.00, in addition to the $612,000.00 real estate.

39. It was left to the church members as a memorial to Mary Todd and President Abraham Lincoln, and Mrs. Beckwith's mother. Nevertheless, regardless of the fact that in all cases involving large bequests the designated recipients are morally bound to follow all of the donor's wishes, if they use the donor's bequest, the Board of Directors of the to be dissolved Mother Church sold the estate supposedly at market value, and supposedly "for the advancement of the Christian Science religion."

40. By the price of immorality, mismanagement of church-membership funds, and lack of Christian Ethics, the Christian Science Church Center was built, and the just completed construction project was proving to be a source of embarrassment to the church.

41. Did you know that the Contractor for the nearby Prudential Center had asked to bid on the Christian Science Center? After he had studied the plans he was told by the Directors that he could not bid on the Center because they were going to sub-contract the project themselves.

42. The Contractor had told the Directors that he would give them a firm bid not to exceed $30,000,000.00.

43. He had built the Prudential Center for $25,000,000.00 and fulfilled his contract. This included a 53 story high-rise Office Building, underground parking, and a large complex of stores. The Church Center with its 26 story Administration Building, parking for 500 cars, Portico, Sunday School Building, and Colonnade cost over $80,000,000.00! Why? And who got the benefit of the $50,000,000.00 difference?

44. Since it was our [the members] money, we are entitled to a thorough investigation and detailed accounting as to why the cost of the Center was so shockingly out of line; almost 3 times the admitted bid and 10 times the bid stated at the beginning. The "Kerry letters" of that period report many of the specifics of this fiasco.

45. And in the January issue of the Journal of 1978, Branches were suggestively offered "by-law guidelines" in which appeared the noteworthy "requiremen" that disbanding Branches agree to transfer their remaining assets to the self-constituted Board of Directors in Boston.

46. In April of 1978, the long existent "Mangel's Fund" was finally announced, after being "on the shelf" for some time, to aid small Branch Churches. This fund was little known by the Field until specifically mentioned in the Kerry letters when The Mother Church was approaching bankruptcy, kept alive by income from bequests and legacies; and borrowings that "robbed Peter to pay Paul," and many Branch Churches were severing their ties with Boston and the Church was disintegrating into opposing factions.

47. In 1986 The Mother Church purchased Boston TV Station WQTV. This action supposedly marked "new directions for The Mother Church" indicating that "new horizons were then opening for broader service to
humanity."

48. On August, 1987, the decision was made to discontinue the Monitor as a daily newspaper and transform it into an electronic medium. And the following month The Mother Church lost its appeal in the copyright extension case for SCIENCE AND HEALTH, when the unconstitutional Special Act Of Congress became null and void.

49. In September of 1988, a half-hour TV News program (World Monitor) debuted on the Discovery Channel at an estimated cost of from $20,000,000.00 to $22,000,000.00 per year. World Monitor magazine appeared one month later at a further cost of $2,000,000.00 for 3 months in 1988 and, $7,000,000.00 for 1989.

50. The Monitor had been reduced by half to a 16 page paper with color and no advertising as a continuing part of the move away from spiritual means and methods towards an increased reliance on the secular.

51. The new scaled-down Monitor was dubbed "USA Yesterday" because of its outward similarity to "USA Today" but its inability to cover breaking news. The Publishing Society had to pay huge penalties to abort their contracts, betraying former loyal printers who "could not print the paper in color."

52. According to the Los Angeles Times of February 20, 1989, the media burden of The Mother Church for fiscal year 1988 was $51,600,000.00 and $65,100,000.00 for 1989. And the Directors of The Mother Church borrowed $15,000,000.00 from its Pension Fund.

53. According to reports the 110 year old church had used up nearly 2/3rds (66%) of its liquid assets in launching its TV and broadcasting operations; in just 3 years.

54. TV ventures lost $20,000,000.00 in 1989, and the Church's Boston TV Station lost $10,000,000.00 more. TV programming in 1990 cost $30,000,000.00 with only $10,000,000.00 in revenues. Costs for the World Monitor TV News show came to another $30,000,000.00 with only $4,000,000.00 in revenues.

55. How can a nonprofit institution so long afford to grossly ignore the impersonal laws of the marketplace?

56. A letter from the Treasurer in October, 1990, appealed for an additional $37,000,000.00 in donations from the Field. But on a weekend in March, five months later in 1991, a retirement party was held in Washington, DC to honor longtime Monitor correspondent Godfrey Sperling Jr. at an estimated cost of from $20-$30,000.00. The Directors presented Mr. Sperling with a $2,000.00 gift and an all-expense-paid vacation valued at up to $4,000.00 more. All officials were flown down from Boston to DC and housed at the Capitol Hilton at the church members' expense.

57. The following month the Treasurer of The Mother Church wrote to the retirees regarding their Pension Fund: "because of the funds strong position, I am able to transfer [borrow] [steal?] $25,000,000.00 from this fund during April of 1991." This made the total borrowed from this fund amount to $40,000,000.00 supposedly to support the churches electronic media projects.

58. Then the 24-hour Monitor Channel debuted the following month on May 1st, 1991.

59. Its a given that, You don.t put the "fox" in charge of the "chicken house!"

60. The Washington Post of April 4, 1991, stated that media losses, according to published figures undisputed by The Mother Church have totaled more that $100,000,000.00 over the last 2 years (1989-1991), while many employees who deal with the Sunday School, college organizations, and Branch Churches have been .laid off. [fired].

61. At the annual meeting in June, The Mother Church announced the publication of "The Destiny of The Mother Church", by Bliss Knapp; not mentioning that the church would collect, in accordance with the Wills of Eloise Mabury Knapp and her sister, $93,000,000.00. ($100,000,000.00 by the time of settlement). Mother Church Archivist, Lee Johnson, was fired shortly before this decision was made; these same Directors had repudiated "Mrs.
Eddy's Place" which is in complete accord with Mr. Knapp's book, only 6 months before in a letter to Christian Science Teachers.

62. The Big News in the Church at the beginning of 1992 was the resignation of the editors and associated editors of the periodicals on February 25. Their resignations were followed by a flood of other resignations, with copies going to the Field. Between that time and now, the 3 Trustees of the Publishing Society had been fired and replaced 3 times!

63. The Knapp Wills stated that if The Mother Church failed to live up to their promise to follow the specified requirements of the Wills, the money would go to Stanford University, and Museum Associates, in California. Delays in the first installment resulted in more "borrowings," from the Pension Fund, the MONITOR Endowment fund, and the trust established by Mrs. Eddy's Will in 1910.

64. Other Big News of 1992 was the decision to sell the Monitor Channel, or close in down by June 15th. Although it's unclear how much of our $250,000,000.00 investment in "electronics media" went directly to the Monitor Channel or even to the alleged target, that "fantastic fortune" had cable insiders perplexed and amazed.

65. During the 3 years since 1989 the Pension Fund had been reduced from $130,000,000.00 to $3,000,000.00. Who really got the benefit of the $127,000,000.00 difference in the draw?

66. In a report of September, 1992, the following financial tallies were disclosed: 1) the Monitor, 7 years, 1985-1992, $138,000,000.00; 2) World Monitor Magazine, 4 years, 1988-1992, $36,900,000.00; 3) Monitor Radio and Short Wave, 8 years, 1984-1992, $105,300,000.00; 4) TV Projects, 3 years, 1985-1988, $23,500,000.00;

5) Monitor Channel, 1 year, 1991-1992, $89,100,000.00; 6) WQTV Channel 68, 6 years, 1986-1992, $61,700,000.00; and 7) TV Closedown, $65,900,000.00, for a Total of $520,000,000.00 -- more than half a BILLION! of the members' dollars. Mrs. Eddy would be appalled.

68. The Boston Globe of March 3, 1993 reported that the US Postal Service was investigating the use of non-profit mailing rates by the church, because of the "commingling" of exempt with for-profit activities. The church at times also failed to pay the Massachusetts sales tax on taxable for-profit items.

69. In early 1993 The Mother Church announced it would shut down the World Monitor Magazine because it "showed no prospect of making a profit or of even breaking even." Its deficit for 1992-1993 was $3,200,000.00. The Church's TV Station WQTV was sold to Boston University in June of 1993 for $3,800,000.00 after the Church's investment in it of $60,000,000.00 since its purchase 7 years previously in 1986.

70. Reports at the annual meeting of 1993, stated that contributions were down 8% and because of the reduced income, the Church had arranged for a $5,000,000.00 line of credit with the Bank of Boston. The Mother Church had lost $23,000,000.00 on publishing and broadcasting during that year.

71. Again: Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, established her church essentially on these economic principles: maintain liquidity; refrain from debt; and "separate the wheat from the tares."

72. Neither the spirit nor the letter of Mrs. Eddy's Church Manual have been obeyed since December of 1910. As of 2000 A.D. there should be 90 detailed financial statements published in hard copy form for the Field in accordance with MANUAL Art.24, Sec.3, p.76.

73. It is each church member's duty in obedience to the church Manual to challenge the fraudulent Board's unlimited power of exclusive control in disregard of the Manual covenants that confer that control on the members of the Church.

74. It is as though the Directors started with 20,000 baskets-full taken from the Field and decreased them with great effort and fanfare to but 5 loaves and 2 fishes in return, when the Vine should be nourishing the Branches that bear the Fruit, not the Branches nourishing the Vine.

75. "Where have all the flowers [dollars] gone / long time passing?"

76. The fox should not be allowed to devour the chickens at the trough, the fox should be ejected from the farm! Unlimited growth characterizes a malignancy called "Cancer."
3
77. "And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin."

78. "This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel; Thou are weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres; Thy kingdom is divided." -- Daniel 5:25-27.