The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.^[1]

The CSM is a newspaper that covers international and United States current events. The paper includes a daily religious feature on "The Home Forum" page, but states the publication is not a platform for evangelizing.^[2]

On October 28, 2008, Editor John Yemma announced that the Monitor would be discontinuing their daily print version to focus on web-based publishing. Instead of a daily print edition, CSM would publish a weekly news magazine with an international focus.^[3]

Concept and inception[link]

Despite its name, the Monitor does not claim to be a religious-themed paper, and says it does not promote the doctrine of its patron church. However, at its founder Eddy's request, a daily religious article has appeared in every issue of the Monitor. Eddy also required the inclusion of "Christian Science" in the paper's name, over initial opposition by some of her advisors who thought the religious reference might repel a secular audience.^[2]

The Monitor's inception was, in part, a response by Eddy to the journalism of her day, which relentlessly covered the sensations and scandals surrounding her new religion with varying degrees of accuracy. In addition, Joseph Pulitzer's New York World was consistently critical of Eddy, and—according to many historians—this, along with a derogatory article in McClure's, furthered Eddy's decision to found her own media outlet.^[2]

Eddy declared that the Monitor's mission should be "to injure no man, but to bless all mankind."^[2]

The Monitor was originally published in broadsheet form but later switched to tabloid format. The newspaper has struggled since the 1960s to enlarge its circulation and turn a profit. The church's directors and the manager of the Christian Science Publishing Society were purportedly forced to plan cutbacks and closures (later denied), which led in 1989 to the mass protest resignations by its famed editor Kay Fanning (an ASNE president and former editor of the Anchorage Daily News), managing editor David Anable, associate editor David Winder, and several other newsroom staff. These developments presaged administrative moves to scale back the print newspaper in favor of expansions into radio, a glossy magazine, shortwave broadcasting, and television. Expenses, however, rapidly outpaced revenues, contradicting predictions by church directors. On the brink of bankruptcy, the board was forced to close the broadcast programs.

The paper has been known for avoiding sensationalism, producing a "distinctive brand of nonhysterical journalism".^[4][5] In 1997, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, a publication critical of United States policy in the Middle East, praised the Monitor for its objective and informative coverage of Islam and the Middle East.^[6]

Notable reporting[link]

Monitor staff have been the recipients of seven Pulitzer Prizes, the most recent in 2002.

• 1950, Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting: Edmund Stevens, for his series of 43 articles written over a three-year residence in Moscow entitled, "This Is Russia Uncensored."^[7]
• 1967, Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting: R. John Hughes, For his thorough reporting of Indonesia's attempted Transition to the New Order in 1965 and the purge that followed in 1965-66.^[8]
• 1968, Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting: Howard James, for his series of articles, Crisis in the Courts.^[9]
• 1969, Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting: Robert Cahn, for his inquiry into the future of our national parks and the methods that may help to preserve them.^[10]
• 1978, Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards, Journalism: Richard Strout, for distinguished commentary from Washington over many years as staff correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor and contributor to The New Republic.^[11]
• 1996, Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting: David Rohde, for his persistent on-site reporting of the slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in the Srebrenica Genocide.^[12]
• 2002, Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning: Clay Bennett^[13]

In April 2003, after being provided documents by a former Iraqi General, several news organizations (including the Monitor) reported that George Galloway was accused by a U.S. Senate Committee led by Norm Coleman of personally profiting from corruption within the United Nations Oil-for-Food program. The Monitor investigated the matter, concluding that the documents were "almost certainly forgeries," and, in response to a lawsuit by Galloway, apologized in court.^[14]

In 2006, Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for the Monitor, was kidnapped in Baghdad, and released safely after 82 days. Although Carroll was initially a freelancer, the paper worked tirelessly for her release, even hiring her as a staff writer shortly after her abduction to ensure that she had financial benefits, according to Bergenheim.^[15] Beginning in August 2006, the Monitor published an account^[16] of Carroll's kidnapping and subsequent release, with first-person reporting from Carroll and others involved.

Modernization[link]

The print edition continued to struggle for readership, and, in 2004, faced a renewed mandate from the church to turn a profit. Subsequently, the Monitor began relying more on the Internet as an integral part of its business model. The Monitor was one of the first newspapers to put its text online in 1996, and was also one of the first to launch a PDF edition in 2001. It was also an early pioneer of RSS feeds.^[17]

In 2005, Richard Bergenheim, a Christian Science practitioner, was named the new editor; shortly before his death in 2008, Bergenheim was replaced by a veteran Boston Globe editor and former Monitor reporter John Yemma.^[18]

In October 2008, citing losses of $US18.9 million per year versus $US12.5 million in annual revenue, the Monitor announced that it would cease printing daily and instead print weekly editions starting in April 2009.^[19] The last daily print edition was published on March 27, 2009. The Monitor continues to offer daily news online on its website and via email.^[20] Yemma stated that the move to go digital was made because they recognized that CSM's reach would be greater online than in print. He has also stated that in the next five years the CSM would work to increase their online readership fivefold, from 5 million page-views to 25 million.^[21]

As the paper has turned its attention to online storytelling, it has been breaking ground with multimedia projects like "Little Bill Clinton", a narrative serial following a year in the life of a young refugee.

The weekly magazine follows on from the Monitor's London edition, also a weekly, launched in 1960 and the weekly World Edition which replaced the London edition in 1974.^[22]

Radio and television[link]

MonitoRadio was a radio service produced by the Church of Christ, Scientist between 1984 and 1997. It featured several one-hour news broadcasts a day, as well as top of the hour news bulletins. The service was widely heard on public radio stations throughout the United States. The Monitor later launched an international broadcast over shortwave radio, called the World Service of the Christian Science Monitor. Weekdays were news-led, but weekend schedules were exclusively dedicated to religious programming. That service ceased operations on June 28, 1997.^[23]

In 1986, the Monitor started producing a current affairs television series, The Christian Science Monitor Reports, which was distributed via syndication to television stations across the United States. In 1988, the Christian Science Monitor Reports won a Peabody Award ^[24] for a series of reports on Islamic fundamentalism. That same year, the program was canceled and the Monitor created a daily television program, World Monitor, anchored by former NBC correspondent John Hart, which was initially shown on the Discovery Channel. In 1991, World Monitor moved to the Monitor Channel, a 24-hour news and information channel.^[23] The only religious programming on the channel was a five-minute Christian Science program early each morning.^[25] In 1992, after eleven months on the air, the service was shut down amid huge financial losses.^[26]

See also[link]

See more Wikipedia articles related to The Christian Science Monitor.

References[link]

External links[link]

Boston portal

• Christian Science Monitor official website
  • About the Monitor
• Christian Science Church puts Monitor Radio up for sale, April 28, 1997
• Monitor Radio goes dark at end of this week, June 23, 1997
• Christian Science Monitor Going Mostly Online: PJNet.org video interview with editor John Yemma, November 17, 2008

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Christian Science is a system of religious thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of the Church of Christ, Scientist, as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science & Health With Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. In the textbook, she describes the teachings and healings of Jesus as a complete and coherent science which was demonstrated and proven through his healings.^[2] Mary Baker Eddy spent the two years prior to the publication of Science & Health documenting evidence for the healing of various diseases and other physical ailments. In the chapter "Fruitage," accounts of healing stated to be accomplished mainly by reading Science and Health are given (the chapter was appended to a much later edition than the original). Christian Science asserts that humanity and the universe as a whole are, in their true being, spiritual rather than material and that goodness and truth are real, whereas evil and error are illusory aspects of material existence.^[3] Christian Scientists believe that through prayer, knowing and understanding, all things are possible for good through God.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote that she learned the Christian Science method of healing as she recovered from an injury in 1866 after reading a Bible passage describing one of Jesus' healings. She believed that Jesus Christ's way of healing is available to all people, now as much as in biblical times. After this recovery, she studied the Bible for many years and documented her understanding in the Christian Science textbook titled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, copyrighted in 1875 and still in print today. The Bible and Science and Health are the foundation for Christian Science beliefs. "She concluded that Jesus was the practical demonstration of the spiritual power, a master healer who saved humans from sin, sickness, and death. His miracles were 'natural demonstrations of divine power,' a force available to any one with correct knowledge."^[4]

Beliefs and practices[link]

At the core of Christian Science is the claim that God and God's creation are entirely good and spiritual. Christian Scientists interpret literally the Biblical teaching that God is both good and almighty, and follow this to what they believe is a logical conclusion: that any form of evil is God's opposite and so must necessarily be unreal. Hence sin, disease and death are illusions, which when seen through, can be overcome--not just conceptually but in actual experience, through healing. Healing comes about as the human experience approximates more closely to the underlying, perfect spiritual reality. Christian Scientists hold that the reality of being and of all that God makes is spiritual, not material. They see this spiritual reality as the only reality and all else as illusion or "error."^[4] Christian Science acknowledges that all people seem to be experiencing a material existence, but holds that this material existence ultimately yields to a true, spiritual understanding of God and creation. They believe that this recognition of spiritual reality is how healing through prayer is possible.^[5]

Prayer, from the Christian Science perspective, does not ask God to intervene but is rather a process of learning more of God's spiritual reality—"awakening mortal thought," by degrees, to spiritual truth. Christian Scientists believe that the effect of this spiritualization of thought is shown in healing - physical, emotional, and otherwise. Health care of those for whom Christian Science is the preferred mode of treatment is typically not attempted through drugs, surgery, or other conventional methods but through Christian Science treatment, a specific form of prayer intended to spiritualize thought.^[5]

There is no formal requirement for Christian Scientists to use Christian Science healing or to eschew medical means.^[6] Christian Scientists, however, avoid using the two systems simultaneously in the belief that they tend to counteract or contradict each other. They believe material medicine and Christian Science treatment proceed from diametrically opposite assumptions: medicine asserts that something is physically broken and needs to be fixed, while Christian Science asserts that the spiritual reality is harmonious and perfect and that any belief to the contrary needs to be corrected.

Mary Baker Eddy defined Christian Science in these terms: "...the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony."^[7] She saw it as "...the natural law of harmony which overcomes discord."^[8] Mary Baker Eddy also taught that Christian Science is the Divine Comforter mentioned in the gospel of John.

Theology[link]

Christian Science addresses the theological problem of evil by teaching that evil is unreal and an illusion.^[8] Neither Genesis, nor the rest of the canon ever mention Adam as having awakened. This awakening is considered to be the "Christian Science revolution in thought". Christian Scientists believe that if the belief in evil is replaced by the understanding of the true universality of good, one's perception will also change, rendering the question "where did evil originate?" meaningless.

Christian Science differs from conventional Abrahamic theology as it regards God as both Father and Mother. This does not refer to any anthropomorphic characteristics, but to a concept of God that has qualities traditionally considered feminine (gentleness, compassion, nurturing and so on) and qualities traditionally considered masculine (strength, support, protection etc.). According to Christian Science, every person in their true spiritual selfhood as created in God's image or as God's reflection, embodies these qualities as well.

While some Christian Science teachings are unorthodox from the point of view of conventional Christian theology, as in the rejection of substitutionary atonement (see also penal substitution) and of Hell as a place of eternal punishment (see also Gehenna), others are orthodox--acceptance of the Virgin Birth, and of the Resurrection of Jesus. Christian Science is presented as a resurgence of primitive Christianity as a demonstrable scientific system.

Another way to illustrate the foundations of the theology of Christian Science is to consider the problems involved in the philosophy of dualism. Many belief systems posit a "god versus something else" or "spirit versus matter". Mary Baker Eddy in a sense followed the reductionism of her time, but instead of reducing all things to the material, she reduced all things to the spiritual.^[9]

Christ and the Trinity[link]

Christian Science distinguishes between "Jesus" the man, and "Christ" the divine manifestation. In considering the question of the relationship between divinity and humanity in reference to Christ Jesus, it is important to consider the Christian Science definition of God as "The great I AM."^[10] "As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being."^[11]

In Christian Science, Christ is the "divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error."^[12] Christ is completely divine and spiritual, but not material. Jesus, the son of God, therefore embodied Christ to such a degree that he, and he alone, can carry the title Christ. As a corporeal being, however, he was not the totality of Christ. Christian Scientists argue that Jesus never claimed to be God and that he implicitly denied it in Matthew 19:16–17.

Mary Baker Eddy claims that her teaching reconciles Judaism and Christianity: "...today, Jew and Christian can unite in doctrine and denomination on the very basis of Jesus' words and works. The Jew believes that the Messiah or Christ has not yet come; the Christian believes that Christ is God. Here Christian Science intervenes, explains these doctrinal points, cancels the disagreement, and settles the question. Christ, as the true spiritual idea, is the ideal of God now and forever, here and everywhere. The Jew who believes in the First Commandment is a monotheist; he has one omnipresent God. Thus the Jew unites with the Christian's doctrine that God is come and is present now and forever. The Christian who believes in the First Commandment is a monotheist. Thus he virtually unites with the Jew's belief in one God, and recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself declared, but is the Son of God."^[13]

Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Throughout all generations both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spiritual idea – the reflection of God – has come with some measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive Christ, Truth",^[14] and Christian Scientists believe that even today, the Christ continues to come to people, giving them a greater understanding of their wholly spiritual identity through healing and the destruction of sin.

The Trinity in Christian Science is found in the unity of God, Christ, and divine Science, or: "God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter."^[15] (This differs from the traditional Christian view defined in the Athanasian Creed).^[16]

Atonement[link]

In the chapter "Atonement and Eucharist" of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Atonement is the exemplification of man's unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life and Love." ^[14] By Christ's atonement, man is reconciled to God, rather than God being reconciled to man.^[14] In the same chapter, she writes that "Justice requires reformation of the sinner....One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. That God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made." ^[14]

The Hereafter[link]

There is no concept of eternal punishment in Christian Science: hell and heaven are both regarded as states of thought. Death is not necessary for the experience of heaven: heaven or harmony can be experienced here and now to the extent that one's thought is elevated to a spiritual level. Indeed, Christian Science teaches that death itself is an illusion, and that it can, and will, be ultimately conquered through the conquest of sin, as taught by Christ Jesus and exemplified in his life. A person who seems to die does not "go" anywhere: he/she simply adjusts to another level of consciousness which is inaccessible to those they have left behind. Mary Baker Eddy states "Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science interprets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man."^[17] She believed however that God is "a law of justice as well as of mercy" and that it is not possible either for sinners or the just to receive their full reward in the human experience: "It is useless to suppose that the wicked can gloat over their offences to the last moment and then be suddenly pardoned and pushed into heaven, or that the hand of Love is satisfied with giving us only toil, sacrifice, cross-bearing, multiplied trials, and mockery of our motives in return for our efforts at well doing." ^[18] She was scathing in regard to conventional religious views of the hereafter, as well as of their broader social consequences: "If changeableness that repenteth itself; partiality that elects some to be saved and others to be lost, or that answers the prayers of one and not of another; if incompetency that cannot heal the sick, or lack of love that will not; if unmercifulness, that for the sins of a few tired years punishes man eternally,--are our conceptions of Deity, we shall bring out these qualities of character in our own lives and extend their influence to others."^[19]

Near death experiences are accepted by Christian Scientists as evidence of the hereafter, and have been known to them at least since the 19th Century. According to Wikipedia's article on the subject, the modern public interest in Near death experiences (qv) began somewhere between 1975 and 1981. Mary Baker Eddy writes that persons in the process of passing on may see and call the names of those who have passed before them.^[20] However, Christian Scientists do not believe that it is possible to communicate with so-called "spirits of the dead", and so do not believe in, or participate in Spiritualistic seances.^[20]

Prayer[link]

Christian Science teaches that prayer is a spiritualization of thought or an understanding of God and the nature of the underlying spiritual creation.^[21] The world as it appears to the senses is regarded as a distorted version of the world of spiritual ideas: the latter is the only true reality. Prayer can heal the distortion, bringing spiritual reality (the Kingdom of Heaven in biblical terms) into clearer focus in the human scene—not changing the spiritual creation but giving a clearer view of it. (An analogy would be adjusting the lens of a telescope or microscope until a clear image appears.) The result is healing. According to Christian Science there are not two creations, a spiritual one and a material one, but only a spiritual creation which is incorrectly perceived as material.

In the Old Testament, Christian Scientists point to the healing of a skin disease from which Naaman suffered, by the revelation of a propensity to anger on his part, and the development of humility instead 2Kings 5:1-14; and to the insistence of the mother of the child healed by Elisha that, contrary to appearances, her child was well when it seemed to be dead 2Kings 4:17-37.

Christian Scientists believe that in the New Testament, Jesus is implying the existence of an underlying spiritual harmony that can be demonstrated through faith in its existence.^[22] They look to Luke 8:22–25 where Jesus calmed a storm through prayer and implied that his disciples could have done so also if they had sufficient faith, to Luke 8:49–50 where Jesus stated that a young girl who had apparently died could be well again if faith was shown, and to Mark 9:17-29 where he teaches that everything is possible through the prayer of one who believes.

Christian Scientists believe that prayer works through love – in its Christian sense of unselfish, unlimited and unconditional awareness of the spiritual identity of another – and that this is the way Jesus Christ healed. Their aim is "to reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing"^[23] which, they believe, was lost after the early centuries of Christianity. They cite such Bible texts as Mark 16:17–18; Matthew 10:8 in support of their contention that Christian faith demands demonstration in healing. This is a faith in the omnipotence of God, which according to the Christian Science interpretation of the Bible such as Luke 17:5–6, logically rules out any other power. The Christian Science view, citing Matthew 21:22; Matthew 7:7–11, is that Jesus taught that we should claim good as being present, right here and now, and that this will result in healing. Christian Scientists point to Jesus' teaching in John 14:12 that his followers would do "greater works" than he did and that a person who lived in conformity with his teachings would not be subject even to death, in John 8:51.^[24]

An important point in Christian Science is that effectual prayer and the moral regeneration of one's life go hand-in-hand: that "signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demonstrate its divine origin, to attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world."^[25] Christian Science teaches that disease is mental, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and power of ill-health – an ignorance of God's power and goodness. The chapter on "Prayer" in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, gives a full account of healing through prayer, while the testimonies at the end of the book are written by people who believe they have been healed through spiritual understanding gained from reading the book. Christian Scientists claim no monopoly on the application of God's healing power through prayer, and welcome it wherever it occurs.^[26]

Christian Science does not teach that one needs to pray through Jesus Christ as a sole mediator. Christian Science holds the belief that Jesus of Nazareth was not God, but the Son of God. Therefore, the position held by literalists that one must pray through Jesus alone was not held by Mary Baker Eddy.

Healing[link]

The basis of Christian Science healing is the view that "man" (the male/female spiritual being who appears as an individual human being) is the reflection or expression of God who is wholly good and perfect, and therefore man is perfect. Christian Scientists believe that God loves every individual, because God is the creator of all.

Christian Scientists believe that sickness is the result of fear, ignorance, or sin, and that when the erroneous belief is corrected, the sickness will disappear. They state that the way to eliminate the false beliefs is to replace them with true understanding of God's goodness. They consider that suffering can occur only when one believes (consciously or unconsciously) in the supposed reality of a problem. If one changes one's understanding, the belief is revealed as false, and the acknowledgement that the sickness has no power, as God is the only power, eliminates the sickness.

Christian Science makes an important distinction between the healing of sin (or moral evil) on the one hand, and the healing of sickness or disease on the other. Mary Baker Eddy writes: "The only difference between the healing of sin and the healing of sickness is, that sin must be uncovered before it can be destroyed, and the moral sense be aroused to reject the sense of error; while sickness must be covered with the veil of harmony, and the consciousness be allowed to rejoice in the sense that it has nothing to mourn over, but something to forget."^[27]

Medicine[link]

As detailed below, the perspective regarding Medicine represents one of the most notable aspects of Christian Science.

Many Christian Scientists use their healing system as their first choice for treatment over medicine, including drugs and surgery. They believe in following what they regard as the example of Jesus, bringing the real or ideal man more clearly into thought and consequently into human experience. Christian Scientists believe that Jesus was "the Wayshower", a proof by example of the divine method of healing sin, sickness and death. According to the Christian Science belief, there are no limits to the type of medical conditions that can be healed through prayer.

Mary Baker Eddy was critical of materialistic medicine, while admiring the humanity of medical practitioners. She wrote: "The materialistic doctor, though humane, is an artist who outlines his thought relative to disease, and then fills in his delineations with sketches from textbooks." ^[28]However, the Christian Science Church does not generally or formally forbid the use of medicine by its members. Though Christian Scientists respect the work of medical practitioners, most of them prefer to use prayer and to rely on what they believe to be divine power. Christian Scientists who choose to rely on medical treatment for a specific problem normally give up Christian Science treatment for the period of treatment. This is because one treatment approaches healing from a material and the other from a spiritual perspective. Because the method of prayer includes denying the reality of matter and affirming the perfection of the individual – while medicine is used to fix matter and a person with a problem – these two means are seen as incompatible and indeed as tending to work against each other when used simultaneously. Most Christian Scientists are practical when it comes to using material aids such as vision correction, splints for broken bones, and dental services, and will use what seems appropriate at the time. However, numerous claims of healings of near- and far-sightedness, dental problems and broken bones have been reported in the periodicals published by the Church.^[29]

Mary Baker Eddy's views on this subject are as follows: "If Christian Scientists ever fail to receive aid from other Scientists – their brethren upon whom they may call – God will still guide them into the right use of temporary and eternal means."^[30] She also stated, "It is impossible to gain control over the body in any other way [divine Mind-Prayer]. On this fundamental point, timid conservatism is absolutely inadmissible. Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized".^[31]

Philosophy[link]

Christian Science might be considered as a form of theistic monistic idealism: there is but one (spiritual) substance which is God, Mind, in whom all are embraced.^[32] The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy cites Christian Science as a radical form of philosophical idealism.^[33] In "Mind Underlies Spacetime: An Idealistic Model of Reality," Daniel A. Cowan offers a philosophical explication of some Christian Science teachings.^[34]

Christian Science rejects philosophical materialism and teaches the unreality of matter. The central thesis of Christian Science is found in a short paragraph which begins: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter . . . [and it concludes:] Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual".^[35] The paragraph is read each Sunday in Christian Science churches at the close of worship. According to Christian Science, what is called the material world is a distortion of the underlying spiritual reality or divine idea, a distortion that can be corrected through prayer that realises spiritual reality and matter's unreality. The everyday world as it appears to the material senses, is regarded as a projection or externalization of distorted/distorting beliefs. (Such beliefs may be held consciously or unconsciously, individually or collectively.) Mary Baker Eddy writes: "Delusion, sin, disease and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down." ^[35] In reality--as distinct from material illusion--there is but one Mind, not many. The reality of each person is believed to be a spiritual idea only and not born of the flesh. Therefore, sin, disease and death are illusions, as the material body is an illusion. Indeed, the demonstration of immortality is possible and, eventually, inevitable.^[36] Christian Science teaches that Jesus overcame death as the ultimate demonstration of spiritual reality.^[37] A crucial difference between the metaphysics of Christian Science and other metaphysical teachings is that Christian Science involves the integration of thought and practice: it insists on healing (moral and physical transformation) rather than merely obtaining a clearer intellectual understanding. Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "When every form and mode of evil disappear to human thought, and mollusk and radiate are spiritual concepts testifying to one creator,--then, earth is full of His glory, and Christian Science has overshadowed all human philosophy, and being is understood in startling contradiction of human hypotheses; and Socrates, Plato, Kant, Locke, Berkeley, Tyndall, Darwin, and Spencer sit at the feet of Jesus."

Love[link]

Christian Science teaches that the spiritualization of consciousness should have a practical effect on physicality, as well as on moral regeneration. This teaching was articulated by Mary Baker Eddy who, from the perspective of a female thinker, rejected the "coldness" of traditional philosophy and emphasized the importance of spiritual love as well as abstract thought, and the integration of thought and feeling. She taught that it is not enough to think true thoughts: our consciousness must be imbued with the love which is God, and furthermore, that love must be lived as well as felt. She referred to the futility of mere intellectualism, stating: "If we would open prison doors for the sick, we must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor bury the morale of Christian Science in the grave-clothes of its letter. The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love".^[38]

Christian Scientists believe that people should love in a spiritual or Christian sense, in other words express agape love to others (as distinct from physical or material love). Loving, in Christian Science, is seeing, understanding, witnessing to or upholding, and accepting as valid only the spiritual identity of each individual as God's likeness, expression, or idea. This spiritual identity consists of an individual's own particular reflection of the qualities or attributes of their Maker/Creator/God, such as love, purity, innocence, spiritual understanding, etc. In Christian Science terms, these are the real qualities that constitute our true spiritual being, eternally known to God and maintained by God regardless of what the finite material senses testify to. These qualities cannot be perceived materially but only through spiritual sense, which Mary Baker Eddy defines as "a conscious, constant capacity to understand God".^[39] This is an understanding of what God is and what humanity's relationship to God is.^[40]

Evil[link]

The Christian Science position on the nature of evil may be stated as follows: "Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent. Every mortal must learn that there is neither power nor reality in evil".^[41] This statement should not be taken as meaning that Christian Scientists ignore the belief of evil and its effects, but they do not see evil as either an aspect of God, or as a real power separate from God. Evil is not fundamentally "real" because it is not part of God's being or his creation. But it may appear to be real as a mistaken concept of God and man, and consequently must be "seen through" rather than ignored. Christian Scientists believe God and his creation to be wholly and only good.^[42]

To answer the question whether God punishes evil-doers, Christian Science teaches that any thought or action contrary to a person's God-given goodness results in some kind of suffering, just as the misunderstanding of a mathematical principle results in an incorrect answer. The principles of mathematics do not cause the mistakes; rather, the mistakes are the result of a misconception of the principle. From God's perspective, evil does not exist because he/she has created all and it is good.^[42]

Science[link]

The claim of Christian Science to be scientific is based on induction (Inductive reasoning)--rather than, for example, on being able to produce falsifiable theories (see falsifiability). Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "Christian Science must be accepted at this point by induction. We admit the whole, because a part is proved and that part illustrates and proves the entire Principle." (Science and Health, p. 461).

Christian Scientists are not creationists, religious fundamentalists or biblical literalists. Because of this, and also because they regard the material world as fundamentally unreal, Christian Scientists have no intellectual problem with the theories of contemporary biology, geology, or cosmology--for example in regard to the origin of mankind, the literal occurrence or non-occurrence of a worldwide flood, or indeed the age of the earth itself. (However, they sometimes object to detailed descriptions of disease as tending to reinforce the symptoms described in the consciousness of the viewer or listener, with the consequent danger of externalizing these mental images on the body as physical symptoms.) Christian Science periodicals occasionally cite developments in cosmology and physics as indicating how contemporary science is coming to an understanding of the illusory nature of time and materiality.^[43]

Christian Scientists regard the story of the creation in the Book of Genesis as having symbolic rather than literal meaning. However, Mary Baker Eddy also believed that the theory of evolution wrongly portrayed man as mortal rather than spiritual: "Theorizing about man's development from mushrooms to monkeys and from monkeys into men amounts to nothing in the right direction and very much in the wrong."^[44] Thus, from a spiritual point of view according to Christian Science, both creationism and evolution are false as they both proceed from a belief in the reality of a material universe. However, Christian Scientists do not oppose the teaching of evolution in schools, nor do they demand that alternative accounts be taught: they believe that both material science and literalist theology are concerned with the illusory and mortal rather than the real and immortal. In fact, where it came to material theories of creation, Mary Baker Eddy herself showed a preference for Darwin's Theory of Evolution over others.^[45] Likewise, Christian Scientists, as part of their endeavor to follow more spiritual lives in an apparently less-than-perfect world, do not abandon normal physical needs such as eating or being properly clothed.^[46]

Organizations[link]

Church of Christ, Scientist[link]

Students of Christian Science are usually, though not always or necessarily, members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist (also called The Mother Church) in Boston, Massachusetts.

"On April 12, 1879, it was voted at a Christian Scientist Association to organize a church to commemorate the words and works of our Master, a Mind-healing church, without a creed, to be called the Church of Christ, Scientist, the first such church ever organized." At this meeting, "on motion of Mrs. Eddy, it was voted,--To organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing." "The charter for this church was obtained in June, 1879."^[47]

The first building in the world constructed as a Christian Science Church was erected in 1886 in Oconto, Wisconsin and still stands at the corner of Main Street and Chicago Street.^{[48][49][50][51][52]} The original edifice of the Mother Church was completed some years later on Saturday, December 29, 1894, just in time for the first service held there the following day. ^[53]

There are also Christian Science "branch churches." Each Sunday, church members hold services where citations from the Bible and Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy are read by lay members of the church. These Readers are voted into office by the members of the church for a limited period of time (usually for three years). Churches will most often hold mid-week public Testimony Meetings, a time in which anyone can testify to what they believe to be the healing power of the Christ in their lives. A person describing him/herself as a Christian Scientist may be a member of a branch church and/or of The First Church of Christ, Scientist (or sometimes of neither).

Christian Science churches maintain Reading Rooms in most major cities in the world, in which Mary Baker Eddy's writings can be read, borrowed or purchased, together with the Bible, related concordances and commentaries etc. Many Reading Rooms also have bound volumes that contain articles on Christian Science and accounts of healing spanning more than 125 years. Christian Science literature is increasingly available on-line.

Some Christian Scientists, after having had class instruction on how to heal effectively, become what are called Christian Science Practitioners. These are people who, after years of healing, go into the public practice of healing. Practitioners devote all of their time to healing and charge for their services. However, except under very special circumstances, they may not take legal action against patients for non-payment of fees.^[54] As with other health professionals, they are obliged to keep their patients' confidences and are instructed to make concessions in the case of indigent patients.^[54] It should be noted that there is no physical manipulation, or laying on of hands in a Christian Science healing treatment.^[55]

Other intra-church organizations[link]

The Christian Science Joint Broadcast Committee formed in 1998 with the support of the branch churches in Phoenix, Arizona.^[56] Operations of telephone, internet and broadcast activities across Arizona have expanded ever since that time. Tucson, Prescott, Window Rock, and Phoenix have local access to national programming broadcast by the Christian Science Publishing Society.

Other groups[link]

Throughout the history of Christian Science there have been a small number of dissenting people whose status is unacknowledged by the Boston organization. Such dissenters often point to certain "estoppel" clauses of the last Church Manual issued by Mary Baker Eddy before her death which, had they been interpreted literally, would have led to a radical decentralization of the Christian Science Church. The issue has involved the Church in repeated litigation brought by dissenters, most prominently between 1919–22, when a group of Trustees of the Christian Science Publishing Society filed a suit against the Christian Science Board of Directors.^[57] The current controversies that exist within the Christian Science Church include the format of the weekly Bible Lessons and a debate as to whether, or to what extent, the use of the King James Version of the Bible should be replaced by that of more modern translations.

Social views[link]

Christian Scientists generally defend the separation of church and state as affording a protection for civil freedom and religion. However, Mary Baker Eddy insisted on obedience by Christian Scientists to state laws in regard to health care. Progressive for her time, she was in favor of women's rights, and rejected the "corporeal punishment" of children.^[58] While she generally steered clear of politics per se, she stated her support of the Monroe Doctrine^[59] as well as her opposition to imperialism and economic monopoly.^[60] The Christian Science Monitor, which she founded, has traditionally been a staunch defender of civil liberties and individual freedom; nonetheless, it also supported the prohibition of alcohol.

There are no specific references to homosexuality in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. Her writings prescribe the living of a morally decent life, which is not an explicit condemnation of homosexuality, but it may account for some of the discomfort with homosexuality seen within some Christian Science communities. There is some dissent among Christian Scientists as to what exactly the position with regard to homosexuality ought to be; in this matter, as in others (such as abortion), the Church chooses not to have an official position, as it is considered that each individual Christian Scientist should seek their own highest sense of right through prayer.

Controversies[link]

Controversies around Christian Science usually involve scientific, medical or theological issues.

Scientific controversies[link]

Skeptics such as James Randi^[61], John Thomas Sladek^[62] and Joe Nickell^[63] describe Christian Science as a pseudoscience. The argument that Christian Science is pseudoscience has also been made at some length in The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience.^[64] Gale's Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics uses it as an example of a religion trying to associate itself with science.^[65] The notion of Christian Science being "real" science has also been disputed by philosopher John Searle^[66]. However, the term "Christian Science" as used by Mary Baker Eddy predated modern philosophical definitions of scientific method. She did not claim that Christian Science was comparable to the natural sciences, and in fact specifically distanced it from them: "Christian Science eschews what is called natural science, in so far as this is built on the false hypotheses that matter is its own lawgiver, that law is founded on material conditions, and that these are final and overrule the might of divine Mind." ^[67]

Medical controversies[link]

Critics of Christian Science point to epidemiological studies showing higher mortality rates among Christian Scientists than those using conventional medicine, and a lack of evidence for the efficacy of Christian Science aside from anecdotal evidence.^[68] A study reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention^[68] compared graduates of the Christian Science school Principia College to graduates of a Seventh-day Adventist college (Loma Linda University). The Christian Science school's cohort had a higher overall mortality rate than the comparison cohort (though the dietary habits of Seventh-day Adventists may make them less susceptible to some diseases than the bulk of the population, possibly biasing the result).^[68]

There are cases of individuals who have died following their choice of Christian Science care over medical treatment; however, defenders of Christian Science counter that no similar burden is placed on medical science to explain those who die each year under conventional medical care, nor those given up as incurable by medical practitioners, some of whom recover after seeking Christian Science treatment.^[29] The CDC also reports on two measles outbreaks in communities of Christian Scientists: one in 1994^[69] and one in 1985 in which three people died.^[70] These cases help inspire continuing controversy over religious exemption to vaccination requirements.^[71]Defending the record of Christian Science, Robert Peel writes that "nosocomial illness--an umbrella term for a whole catalogue of infections acquired inside the hospital--has proved fatal to some patients who entered the hospital for treatment for a very minor ailment."^[72] Peel cites a 1978 estimation that of "32 million persons admitted to American hospitals each year, about 1.5 million develop some kind of nosocomial infection, and 15,000 die of it."^[73] (See also Iatrogenesis.)

Mary Baker Eddy counseled that Christian Scientists should obey the law (respecting quarantine, for example) and that sometimes Christian Scientists will be examined by a doctor for informational purposes, although she disapproved of physical diagnoses.^{[citation needed]}

Health of children[link]

With respect to children, two important rights are in apparent opposition – the rights of children to medical care, and the rights of parents to make decisions about the well-being of their children. The position that constitutional protections of freedom of religion allow parents to choose the method of healing which best benefits their children, contradicts court rulings which state that children cannot, on the basis of parental belief, be denied what is regarded as essential health care.^[74]

In the United States, the constitutional guarantee of protection of religious practice from intrusion by government has been used by Christian Scientists and other religious groups to seek exemption from legal requirements regarding medical treatment of children in more than three quarters of the states. There are statutes in 44 states which allow that children are not to be deemed neglected because they are receiving treatment by spiritual means according to the tenets of a recognized religion. While these exemptions take different forms and interpretations in different states, the effect has been to limit the ability to prosecute parents for medical neglect of children as a result of religious practice.^[75]

'Spiritual' healthcare reimbursements[link]

In November 2009, it was reported that the Christian Science movement had lobbied for the inclusion of a provision in the proposed legislation for U.S. healthcare reform that would allow for insurance reimbursement of affirmative prayers, including those practiced by Christian Scientists.^[76][77] The legislation was sponsored by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), John Kerry (D-Mass.), and the late Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), the latter two representing the state where the church is headquartered. The House version of the bill ultimately was stripped of this provision, but it was reintroduced in the Senate version in December.^[78] Furthermore, the Senate version of the bill would prohibit discrimination against "religious and spiritual health care".^[78]

Theological controversies[link]

Christian Science theology is sometimes criticized by mainstream Christians because of its assertion that evil and the material world are illusions, its definition of the "Christ", its explanation of the Trinity, its de-emphasis on a personal God and its rejection of anthropomorphism, its rejection of the teaching of everlasting damnation, and its view of Jesus as the "Way-shower" (see moral influence theory of atonement) rather than as one whose death per se provided for humanity's atonement for sin. See chapter "Atonement and Eucharist" in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.^[79] (See also Atonement in Christianity)

Christian Science doctrine is not fundamentalist, and has been criticised by fundamentalists who believe that the Bible is both inerrant (biblical inerrancy) and free of internal contradictions. Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "The decisions by vote of Church Councils as to what should and should not be considered Holy Writ; the manifest mistakes in the ancient versions; the thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testament, and the three hundred thousand in the New – these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole into the divine record, with its own hue darkening to some extent the inspired pages."^[80] While Christian Scientists sometimes interpret Bible passages symbolically that others interpret literally, in other cases the situation is reversed and they interpret passages literally that others interpret figuratively (e.g. John 8: 51).^{[citation needed]}

Some Christian theologians characterize Christian Science as a cult^[81] though Mary Baker Eddy constantly turned her students away from any tendency to place her on a pedestal.^{[citation needed]} A basis of such criticisms includes her comment in reply to a questioner who asked how she knew there ever was such a person as Christ Jesus. She replied "If there had never existed such a person as the Galilean Prophet, it would make no difference to me. I should still know that God's spiritual ideal is the only real man in His image and likeness."^[82] This is often interpreted by opponents of Christian Science as Mary Baker Eddy downgrading the importance of Jesus. Christian Scientists claim, however, that she is instead making a basic metaphysical point in response to a question doubting the historical existence of Jesus, raised by a Unitarian minister, Rev. Wiggin (ibid).^{[citation needed]}

Publications[link]

The Christian Science church publishes a weekly periodical called the Christian Science Sentinel, a monthly publication called the Christian Science Journal, a non-English publication called The Herald of Christian Science, and the international, award-winning news web site, the Christian Science Monitor (which is also available in a weekly hard-copy format). A project is currently under way to make all back issues of the Christian Science publications (Journal, Sentinel and Herald) available on-line.^[83] The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel document instances of healing claimed to have occurred through the use of Christian Science prayer. Testimonies of healings reported in Christian Science publications are sometimes drawn from cases in which a doctor confirmed the initial condition and the subsequent healing, according to the testifier.^[29] The verification process requires the contact information for three people (one a member of "The Mother Church") who "have either witnessed the healing or can vouch for its accuracy based on their knowledge of [the testifier]," according to the Christian Science Publishing Society website.^[84]

In popular culture[link]

• Mark Twain wrote a pejorative essay on Christian Science in 1903.^[85]
• Saki burlesqued Christian Science in his short story "The Quest" (c. 1910).
• In Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides (1993) (ISBN 0-446-67025-1), Chase Buell's father is a Christian Scientist.
• In the TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm, the episode "The Benadryl Brownie" (2002) features a character who is a Christian Scientist.^[86]
• Mr Leonard in The Night Watch, a novel by Sarah Waters (Virago 2006), now filmed, is a professional Christian Science healer in London.
• The title of Tony Kushner's 2011 off-broadway play The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures makes reference to Science & Health.
• In the Family Guy episode "Livin' on a Prayer", the parents of a child with cancer refuse treatment for their son because both parents are Christian Scientists.
• In the Couch Surfers episode "The Christian Scientist Guy", the surfers stay with a Christian Scientist (Ithamar Enriquez) who takes them to a "Alternative Religious Science Fair". Their host's project attempts to prove the existence of a higher power by demonstrating how complicated pine cones are.
• Spalding Gray (whose mother was a Christian Scientist) in Gray's Anatomy attributed some of his reluctance to accept surgery for macular degeneration to his upbringing. However he ultimately refuses Christian Science healing because the practitioner insists that Gray only rely on Christian Science. Gray wanted to try multiple alternative treatments.

See also[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• "A Century of Christian Science Healing", The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1966.
• Asser, Seth M.; Rita Swan (April 1998). trics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/101/4/625 "Child Fatalities From Religion-motivated Medical Neglect". Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. http://pedia trics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/101/4/625. Retrieved 2006-10-17. 
• Benson, Robert Hugh, "Christian Science"
• Corey, Arthur, "Christian Science Class Instruction", DeVorss, 1950.
• Cowan, Daniel A, "Mind Underlies Spacetime: An Idealistic Model of Reality,"San Mateo, CA: Joseph Publishing Co., 1975.
• Eddy, Mary Baker, "Prose Works Other than Science and Health", Trustees Under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy, 1925.
• Gill, Gillian, Mary Baker Eddy, Reading, Mass.: Perseus, 1998
• Gottschalk, Stephen, "The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life," Univ. of California Press, 1973.
• Hartsook, Andrew W., "Christian Science After 1910", The Bookmark, 1993.
• Kimball, Edward A, "Lectures and Articles on Christian Science," Edna Kimball Wait, nd.
• "Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them", Boston, The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1961.
• "Notes on Mary Baker Eddy's Course in Divinity [etc.]" [AKA "The Blue Book"] Rare Book Company, nd.
• Orcutt, William Dana, "Mary Baker Eddy and Her Books", Boston, The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1950.
• Peel, Robert, "Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery", Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966.
• Peel, Robert, "Spiritual Healing in a Scientific Age," San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1987.
• Sweet, Bill, "A Journey Into Prayer," Xlibris, 2007.
• Twain, Mark, Christian Science: With Notes Containing Corrections to Date (1907)

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Portal:Christian Science

Authorized by The First Church of Christ, Scientist or the Christian Science Board of Directors

• ChristianScience.com – FAQs on Christian Science healing, videos, and online discussion boards
• The Mother Church Youth – A Global Healing Community of Young Christian Scientists
• spirituality.com

Dissenting, secessionist or independent groups

• Kappeler Institute (Based on Doorly's teaching, it treats Christian Science as a science rather than a religion
• Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent
• The Bookmark, an independent source of literature on Christian Science
• Directory of Independent Christian Science Organizations
• Healing Unlimited—independent Christian Science resource
• Mary Baker Eddy Institute

Additional Online Resources

• more information on the Mary Baker Eddy Library Website
• more information on the Longyear Museum website
• Resource for Christian Science literature
• Resource for lectures on Christian Science

Criticism of Christian Science from atheist, Christian, and other perspectives

• Christian Way: Former Christian Scientists for Jesus Christ
• Criticism by Frank R. Zindler (www.atheists.org)
• Bellwald, A.M., Christian Science and the Catholic Faith (1922)

Wikimedia sister projects

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Christian Science". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Norm Coleman
United States Senator from Minnesota
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Dean Barkley
Succeeded by	Al Franken
52nd Mayor of St. Paul
In office 1994–2002
Preceded by	James Scheibel
Succeeded by	Randy Kelly
Personal details
Born	Norman Bertram Coleman, Jr. (1949-08-17) August 17, 1949 (age 62) New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican (1996–present) Democratic-Farmer-Labor (1988–96)
Spouse(s)	Laurie Coleman; 4 children
Residence	St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Alma mater	Hofstra University University of Iowa College of Law
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	Judaism
Website	ColemanForSenate.com

Norman Bertram Coleman, Jr. (born August 17, 1949) is an American attorney and politician. He was a United States senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009. Coleman was elected in 2002 and served in the 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. Before becoming a senator, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, from 1994 to 2002. Previously a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), Coleman became a Republican in 1996.

Coleman's 2008 US Senate re-election bid, in which he was challenged by Democrat Al Franken and former senator Dean Barkley, was long unresolved. His term ended on January 3, 2009, and after a six-month legal battle in which he lost each of his contests, the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously declared Franken the election winner by 312 votes (out of over 3 million cast) on June 30, 2009, prompting Coleman to concede.^[1][2]

As of 2011, Coleman works as an adviser^[3] and board director^[4] with the Republican Jewish Coalition.

In 2010, Norm Coleman served as Chairman and CEO of the American Action Network.^[5] In April 2011, Coleman joined Hogan Lovells, an international legal practice, as senior government advisor in their Washington D.C. office.^[6] As of 2012, Coleman continues to serve on the board of directors to the Republican Jewish Coalition and as Chairman of the American Action Network. Coleman is also on the National Advisory Council for the US Global Leadership Coalition, a bipartisan committee that promotes interntational engagement, and includes every living former US Secretary of State.

Early life[link]

Coleman was born in New York, the son of Beverly (née Behrman) and Norman Bertram Coleman, Sr.^[7] His family was Jewish (his paternal grandfather had changed his surname from Goldman to Coleman).^[8] He was a graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn and Hofstra University on Long Island. New York Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, attended high school with Coleman; Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are both graduates of the same high school.

During his time at college, Coleman was an active member of the 1960s counterculture and a liberal Democrat. "Carting a bullhorn around campus, he'd regularly lecture students about the immorality of the Nixon administration and the Vietnam War."^[9] He successfully ran for president of the student senate during his junior year. Under Coleman, the senate refused to ratify the newspaper's editor and her co-editor and cut some funding to the newspaper. But after refusing to swear in the editor on four different occasions, the senate finally backed down.^[9] He allegedly smoked marijuana,^[10] and he celebrated his 20th birthday at the Woodstock Festival.^[11] He worked as a roadie for Jethro Tull and Ten Years After, amongst others.^[11]

Legal career[link]

Coleman attended Brooklyn Law School from 1972 until 1974 but later received his Juris Doctor from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1976.^[12] Coleman then joined the office of the Minnesota Attorney General as a prosecutor, eventually rising to chief prosecutor and then solicitor general. Coleman left the Attorney General's office upon being elected the mayor of St. Paul.^[13]

In April 2011, Coleman joined Hogan Lovells, an international legal practice, as senior government advisor in their Washington D.C. office.^[14]

Personal life[link]

Norm Coleman with his wife Laurie

Coleman married actress Laurie Coleman^[15] (née Casserly) in 1981. They have two children, Jacob and Sarah. Two other children died during infancy (Adam, 1983; Grace, 1992) from a rare genetic disorder known as Zellweger syndrome.^[16]

Coleman is a member of the Freemason fraternity, having been made a Mason at sight in 2003 by then Grand Master of Masons in Minnesota, Neil Neddermeyer.

Health[link]

On September 11, 2009, Coleman announced he had been diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, even though it is a typically reversible condition.

Political career[link]

Mayor of Saint Paul[link]

In 1993, Coleman was elected mayor of St. Paul as a Democrat.^[17] One of his first actions as mayor was the elimination of underfunded retirement health benefits for city workers, which saved St. Paul taxpayers millions of dollars.^[18]

One of Coleman's best-known accomplishments as mayor of Saint Paul was bringing professional hockey back to Minnesota. In 1993, the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas, Texas. On June 7, 1997 the NHL awarded Saint Paul an expansion franchise, later named the Minnesota Wild, that would play a new arena in downtown at the site of Civic Center Arena. The new arena, later named the Xcel Energy Center, was built through a public-private partnership, with $65 million from state taxpayers and $30 million from the city of Saint Paul.^[19][20]

Coleman also successfully fought property tax increases, successfully freezing property tax rates^[18] for the eight years he served as St. Paul Mayor.

During his time as Mayor, St. Paul’s job rate grew by 7.1 percent and 18,000 jobs were added.^[18]

While many praised him for his “pragmatic”^[18] leadership style and successes in revitalizing St. Paul, critics labeled him an "opportunist" and Coleman frequently found himself at odds with the more liberal members of the Democratic Party. In 1996, he was sometimes booed at party events or excluded from them altogether.^[21]

In 1996, Coleman joined the Republican Party and was reelected in 1997 as Mayor of St. Paul, defeating Democrat Farm Labor Party nominee State Senator Sandy Pappas.^[22]

Coleman's lobbying for the hockey team and arena raised his profile around the state and made him contacts that would help him in his later runs for statewide office. In 1998 he lost a bid for governor of Minnesota to former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, a member of the Reform Party of Minnesota; the DFL candidate was Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III.^{[citation needed]}

U.S. Senate[link]

Coleman had made plans for a second run for governor in 2002, but was persuaded by Karl Rove and George W. Bush to run against incumbent Senator Paul Wellstone in that year's Senate election. The White House was determined to unseat Wellstone, and felt Coleman, with his popularity in heavily Democratic St. Paul, offered the best chance of doing so. Coleman easily won the Republican nomination.

Coleman and Wellstone were neck-and-neck in most polls for most of the campaign.^[23] Wellstone died in a plane crash on October 25, 2002. The Democrats named former Vice President Walter Mondale to replace Wellstone on the ballot. Mondale had held the same Senate seat from 1964 to 1977. Coleman narrowly defeated Mondale in the election, winning by just over 61,000 votes out of over 2 million statewide. Coleman succeeded Dean Barkley, who had been appointed by Ventura to serve the remaining two months of Wellstone's term.

In April 2003, Coleman told a Capitol Hill reporter that he was a "99% improvement" over Wellstone because he had a better working relationship with the White House. Many Wellstone supporters found this offensive and insulting, and at least one member of Congress urged Coleman to apologize. Coleman issued an apology, explaining that he was referring specifically to the reporter's question about the differences between his and Wellstone's relationship with the White House, and saying in part "I would never want to diminish the legacy or memory of Senator Paul Wellstone, and I will accept full responsibility for not having been more accurate in my comments." ^[24] In 2004 Coleman campaigned for the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), but was narrowly defeated for the post by North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole in a 28-27 vote.^{[citation needed]}

Political positions[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Norm Coleman

Coleman's politics have changed dramatically throughout his political career. In college, Coleman was a liberal Democrat and was actively involved in the anti-war movement of the early 1970s.^[25][26] He once was suspended for leading a sit-in protest.^[27] He ran for student senate and opined in the school newspaper that his fellow students should vote for him because he knew that, "These conservative kids don't fuck or get high like we do (purity, you know)... Already the cries of motherhood, apple pie, and Jim Buckley reverberate through the halls of the Student Center. Everyone watch out, the 1950s bobby-sox generation is about to take over."^[16][26]

While running for mayor in 1993, Coleman wrote in a letter to the City Convention Delegates: "I have never sought any other political office. I have no other ambition other than to be mayor." He goes on in the same letter to say:

I am a lifelong Democrat. Some accuse me of being the fiscal conservative in this race — I plead guilty! I'm not afraid to be tight with your tax dollars. Yet, my fiscal conservatism does not mean I am any less progressive in my Democratic ideals. From Bobby Kennedy to George McGovern to Warren Spannaus to Hubert Humphrey to Walter Mondale — my commitment to the great values of our party has remained solid.

In December 1996, Coleman announced he was leaving the DFL party to join the Republican Party. He cited his frustrations with the Democratic Party and his belief that the Republican Party offered the best chance to continue his efforts to hold the line on taxes and grow jobs.^{[28] [29]}

Coleman's critics, mostly DFL party leaders, speculated that his switch was motivated by his known aspirations for statewide office.^[30] As an abortion opponent and a frequent adversary of public employee unions, Coleman's positions put him at odds with the DFL Party leadership in Minnesota. In a letter to supporters announcing the switch, Coleman wrote that “while the political party I belong to changes, nothing about how I govern or what I believe changes at all.”^[31] He was re-elected as St. Paul Mayor in 1997, with nearly 60% of the vote.

Prior to becoming a Republican and running against him in 2002, Coleman had chaired Wellstone's Senate re-election campaign in 1996. While making the Wellstone nomination speech at the 1996 state DFL convention, Coleman stated: "Paul Wellstone is a Democrat, and I am a Democrat." At this point in time, tensions were so high between Coleman and the DFL party that a number of delegates at the convention were loudly booing Coleman's speech.^[32]

Coleman was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership. In March 2007, National Journal ranked Coleman the fourth most liberal Republican in the Senate. GovTrack, an independent tracking website, also describes Coleman as a "moderate Republican" based on their own bill analysis.^[33]

In September 2008, Coleman joined the bipartisan Gang of 20, which was seeking a bipartisan solution to the American energy crisis. The group pushed for a bill that would encourage state-by-state decisions on offshore drilling and authorize billions of dollars for conservation and alternative energy.^[34]

He received a 14% progressive rating from Progressive Punch^[35] And he scored a 73% conservative rating by the conservative group, SBE Council.^[36] In contrast, Minnesota's other senator at the time, Democrat Mark Dayton, received a score of 90% progressive and 9% conservative by the same groups.^[35][36]

Energy Independence[link]

Coleman was a strong supporter of bi-partisan efforts to create American independence from foreign sources of energy.^[37] This included support for development of alternative sources of energy such as wind, ethanol, and biofuels.

In 2005, Coleman successfully led a bipartisan coalition of 34 Senators in securing a renewable fuels package as part of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which included new standards for renewable fuels and an extension of tax credits for biodiesel, small ethanol producers and wind and livestock waste.

Coleman supported additional oil exploration in the outer continental shelf, but maintained a campaign promise to oppose drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).^[38]

On December 11, 2005, Coleman voted in favor of invoking cloture on, thus advancing, a defense appropriations bill that included oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Critics viewed this as a contradiction of 2002 pledge to oppose such drilling.^[39] Coleman stated that he did so because although he planned to vote against the bill, he did not believe that a filibuster was warranted. His vote notwithstanding, the filibuster held, and Coleman voted to strip the ANWR provision from the bill in a subsequent vote.^{[40][41][42][43][44]}

Coleman received a score of 33% for 2007 from the League of Conservation Voters,^[45][46] in their view taking the pro-environment position in just five of fourteen cases.

Fiscal Issues[link]

Coleman was generally regarded as a fiscal centrist who supported increasing the minimum wage and safeguarding pensions while at the same time supporting broad tax relief and the line-item veto.

Coleman played an important role in the passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. In addition to safeguarding the pensions of all Americans, the legislation is credited with saving the pensions of over 24,000 Northwest Airlines employees and retirees in Minnesota.^[47]

Coleman consistently voted to increase the minimum wage as Senator.^[48]

Coleman had a consistent record of voting for broad tax reform. Coleman supported reductions to the capital gains tax, the marriage penalty, and supported the doubling of the child tax credit. Coleman also supported elimination of the AMT and death tax. Coleman supported efforts to make permanent the tax code enacted by the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003.^[49]

As a member of the Small Business Committee, Coleman supported the Microloan program from elimination, supported funding for Small Business Development Centers and the HUBZone program, successfully extended tax relief for Section 179 expensing, and cosponsored an amendment to increase funding for the SBA by $130 million.^[50]