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This
profile considers the Christian Science Monitor.
It covers -
introduction
The daily Christian Science Monitor (published
from Boston by the Church of Christ, Scientist) is of
interest as an example of an internationally recognised
newspaper that, like Bayard,
operates under the auspices of a religious organisation.
It has attracted a string of Pulitzer Prizes and other
awards for editorial excellence - arguably a reflection
on the weakness of much US journalism during the first
70 years of last century - but faces an uncertain future
because of changing demand in its markets and the ebbing
of support from its religious parent.
As of 2004 the Monitor had around 70,000 paying
subscribers, with perhaps twenty times that many readers
of its online edition.
the Monitor
The Monitor is published by the Christian Science
Publishing Society (CSPS), a tax-exempt not-for-profit
arm of the Church.
The Monitor boasts that in contrast to most US
dailies it does not rely primarily on news
services such as AP and Reuters
for international coverage, instead using its own overseas
correspondents and freelances in Europe, Africa, Asia
and Latin America.
For most of its history it was known for attention to
regions ignored by other US newspapers such as the Chicago
Tribune (the Boston
Globe and New York Times
were notable exceptions) and emphasis on quality journalism,
securing an elite readership independent of Church membership.
That advantage has waned as other quality newspapers have
become more readily available (whether in print or online
formats), "internationalisation of the American mind"
has been reflected in enhanced coverage by papers such
as the Los Angeles Times
and consumers have enjoyed greater diversity in sources
of news/analysis.
history and future?
The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded by Mary Baker
Eddy (1821-1919) who - following activity as an associate
of mesmerist Phineas Parkhurst Quimby - claimed in 1866
to have had a revelation (the "Biblical Truth")
after slipping on an icy pavement.
In the style of other US faiths during that period Eddy
began teaching - forming the Christian Science Association
in 1876 - and after writing The Science of Man
published Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures.
She formed the Boston-based Church of Christ, Scientist
and in 1881 gained a charter for The Massachusetts Metaphysical
College, with the National Christian Scientists Association
being established for non-Massachusetts residents in 1886.
Personal and doctrinal disagreements were reflected in
dissolution and reorganisation of the various entities
and associated publications such as the Journal of
Christian Science.
Both Eddy and the Church attracted attention regarding
their wealth and doctrines, with criticism that believers
were relying on faith rather than surgery or pharmaceuticals
and were thus endangering their lives or unnecessarily
succumbing to ailments. Adherents included Nancy Astor
and Lord Lothian; critics included Ambrose Bierce and
Mark Twain.
At the age of 86 Eddy faced an attack from Joseph Pulitzer,
a publisher whose own critics decrribed him as "a
rabid dog, foaming with distemper" but was conscious
of community interest in movements such as theosophy and
anthroposophy. McClure's Magazine and Pulitzer's
New York World supported efforts by two of her
sons and several associates, apparently out of sync with
the latest revelation (or merely moves in the inner circle)
to wrest control of her estate. In 1883 she had commented
that
looking
over the newspapers of the day, one naturally reflects
that it is dangerous to live, so loaded with disease
seems the very air. These descriptions carry fears to
many minds, to be depicted in some future time upon
the body. A periodical of our own will counteract to
some extent this public nuisance; for through our paper
we shall be able to reach many homes with healing, purifying
thought.
In
1908 she launched the Christian Science Monitor,
with a charter "to injure no man, but to bless all
mankind" (the sort of uplift adopted by Scripps,
Hearst, Pulitzer and other contemporaries) and otherwise
establish Christian Science's respectability. Somewhat
ironically, given Eddy's emphasis on faith, the Monitor
came to embody analysis rather than story-telling as a
key newspaper value.
At her death in 1919 control of the Church and the CSPS
passed to a small group of Directors. Growth of the Church
was explosive in the 1890s but tapered off following Eddy's
death and the population appears to have peaked in the
late 1930s. Detailed statistics are contentious but by
2000 membership is reported to be in serious decline,
with overall numbers down (to around 160,000?), low recruitment
and a worsening age profile of believers.
The Church enjoyed substantial income during its early
years and among other investments acquired property around
the 'Mother Church' campus in Boston. Those resources
were used for many years to subsidise production of the
Monitor and other CSPS publications - despite
claims that Eddy "expected and required" the
Society to be profitable - with funding of the CSPS over
the past decade reportedly being over 12% of overall church
spending (US$1.37 billion) and recent subsidies of the
Monitor amounting to around US$8 million per
year. That is of concern, given suggestions that aggregate
spending is outpacing member contributions and legacies
- reported as US$83 million in 2003 - and that the unrestricted
endowments have eroded to around US$50 million.
That erosion reflects spending on projects such as enhancement
of the campus (upwards of US$155 million) and an apparently
disastrous expansion into electronic media during the
1980s. The CSPS established a 24-hour cable television
channel called The Monitor Channel (competing with CNN)
and a UHF television station in Boston. It also launched
MonitoRadio - a well-regarded news program based on the
Monitor and featured on many US public radio
stations - along with the World Service shortwave radio
station and a monthly magazine titled World Monitor.
That activity was slashed in 1992 after reported
expenditure of US$300 million.
other CS imprints
Periodicals of a more sectarian nature from the CSPS include
the
- monthly
Christian Science Journal, launched in 1883.
It features reports of healing, "illustrates an
understanding of the spiritual laws" and provides
a worldwide directory of Christian Science practitioners,
churches and reading rooms.
- weekly
Christian Science Sentinel, a similar publication.
- Herald
of Christian Science, published in 12 languages
with "practical examples of what Christian Science
teaches about the availability and utility of the laws
of God"
The Church has an international shortwave radio station
(WSHB) located in South Carolina (a station in Saipan
was sold to Radio Free Asia), and produces religious radio
and television programs
studies
The major study of the Monitor is editor Erwin
Canham's Commitment to Freedom: The Story of The Christian
Science Monitor (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1958).
Eddy is profiled in Martin Gardner's The Healing Revelations
of Mary Baker Eddy: The Rise and Fall of Christian Science
(Buffalo: Prometheus 1993). Gillian Gill's more sympathetic
Mary Baker Eddy (Reading: Perseus 1998) and Mark
Twain's deliciously acerbic 1907 'Christian Science',
available in his Christian Science (Buffalo:
Prometheus 1993) edited by Vic Doyno. Bliss Knapp's The
Destiny of The Mother Church (Boston: CSPS 1991),
which argues for Eddy's divinity, attracted criticism
over claims that publication was driven by a US$97 million
bequest
to the Church.
The Church is explored in Stephen Gottschalk's The
Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life
(Berkeley: Uni of California Press 1973), Robert Peel's
Christian Science, Its Encounter With American Culture
(Garden City: Doubleday 1965) and Paul Carter's The
Spiritual Crisis Of The Gilded Age (DeKalb: Northern
Illinois Uni Press 1971). Memoirs by disaffected members
are a minor genre; a recent example is Caroline Fraser's
God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian
Science Church (New York: Metropolitan 1999).
Paul Ivey's Prayers in Stone: Christian Science Architecture
in the United States 1894-1930 (Urbana: Uni of Illinois
Press 1999) highlights the quest for respectability and
solidity through architecture as a counterpart of the
Monitor.
chronology
1876 Eddy forms Christian Science Association
1879 founds Church of Christ, Scientist
1881 Massachusetts Metaphysical College chartered
1881 Eddy ordained as pastor for Church
1883 Christian Science Journal founded
1886 National Christian Scientists Association formed
for non-Massachusetts residents
1889 Eddy dissolves Church, College and Christian Science
Association
1889 Journal turned over to National Christian
Scientists Association
1892 Church reorganised
1892 Journal transferred to Church
1907 campaign by Pulitzer and
others against Eddy
1908 Christian Science Monitor founded
1947 Knapp's The Destiny of The Mother Church
ruled heretical
1984 Monitor launches Monitor Radio
1986 buys WQTV Boston
1991 start national cable service Monitor Channel
1992 sells WQTV to Boston University
1992 closure of The Monitor Channel cable network
1997 closure of Monitor Radio service
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