How does the Christian Science Church still have so much money?

they probably should be monitored!

They don’t pay tax!

The accumulation of compound interest for a century and a half.

It’s not from newsstand sales of the Christian Science Monitor.

walked by this site on huntington many times and always had the same question, how do they afford this?

does Boston have a landmark status for iconic architecture? surely developers would want to raze this and put kleptocrat housing

They save tons on medical bills.

They also own a beautiful modernist building in downtown Chicago - I think that’s the case in many American cities.

My guess is that they own lots of lucrative property bought early in the 20th century when people still listened to their windy claptrap.

This massive parcel in Boston is also located in a prime section of the city that allows construction of the maximum 1000 feet for the city. The land the reflecting pool is on could probably subsidize the church for decades.

that was the question, does it have protected landmark status or could they sell to developers who would tear it down?

I went to one of their services once and it was just the most odd thing I’ve ever attended.

were you ill? did they pass around leeches?

While you have to go through a boring tour to see it, the Mapparium is wonderful. Get high first.

Since the building at the end is just a garage they could conceivably get four towers in there and still keep the avenue of trees.

It does have landmark status but money can undo anything and Boston has enough historical landmarks.

They have some good, spiritual, metaphysical teachings but their Sunday services are uninspired, letter-of-the-law, and bland. No one gives a well though out sermon - instead they simply have 2 people read from Mary Baker Eddy's teachings. In the city I live in there are hardly any Christian Scientists left. I've attended a few of their services and they're very boring. C.S. officials refuse to change their services and some of their beliefs and it's leading to the extinction of their religion. The old saying - Change Or Die.

[quote]The church does not require that Christian Scientists avoid all medical care—adherents use dentists, optometrists, obstetricians, physicians for broken bones, and vaccination when required by law—but maintains that Christian-Science prayer is most effective when not combined with medicine. Between the 1880s and 1990s, the avoidance of medical treatment led to the deaths of several adherents and their children. Parents and others were prosecuted for, and in a few cases convicted of, manslaughter or neglect. [Wikipedia]

Heh, natural selection at its finest.

R14 They are still not really accepting of homosexuality or gay rights and feel very uncomfortable with it which shows how out of date they are.

"They are still not really accepting of homosexuality*

I feel their pain!

What a waste of a pool. But then "Christians" waste so much. Why aren't they all out doing humanitarian things: helping the homeless, planting trees, picking up trash? That's what Jesus would do.

I'm not a "Christian" but if I was I'd live like the Amish or Mennonites.

[quote]How does the Christian Science Church still have so much money?

Same as every other religious organization on earth -- lots of gullible people.

I wonder if there are any left. They had a nicely build church and bookstore in my neighborhood. A few years ago I walked by the church and noticed it had been sold to a local private school. In 25 years I have never seen a soul in their reading room which has large windows. The Christian Science Monitor was considered a good, unbiased, newspaper back in the day. I haven't looked at it in decades.

It's a CIA front. No joke! They use the books as decoders. Every single copy of Key To The Scriptures, no matter the physical size of the book, has the exact same words on each page so it can always be used as a reliable key.

R21, Please explain "decoder."

It's quickly dying out. There are probably fewer than 25K adherents left in the country. This property in Boston will be the last thing they sell. They call this complex the "Mother Church". Selling it would be admitting the religion is dead.

Basic cryptography. A message is encrypted using a 'code', such as a text wherein, very simplistically, 1 might be substituted for A, 2 for B, 3 for C, etc. The recipient of the communique, of course, needs the code in order to decode the missive. Key to the Scriptures is a decoder that any intelligence asset can grab a copy of, nearly anywhere in the world they happen to be and they can do so without leaving forensic tracking data.

I'd like to purchase it for $6 billion (then put another $2 billion in refurbishing it). Put retail and restaurants in the ground floors; rent out the upper floors to businesses and rich people; keep the penthouse for myself...

Why won't MBS answer my request for a loan?

Call yourself a church and you pay no taxes.

Call yourself a Christian Church and all the idiots will give you their money.

Add the word science and fewer people will condemn you because, like, you’re Christian but not antiscience. So—more idiots give you more money.

Then you get into the media business with a news organization that is somehow pretty legit and that makes people think you’re legit as idiots give you lots of money.

And now you are rich.

R24, How about Loma Linda University and the associated fake meat creators nearby in Los Angeles County?

Several thoughts. Many Protestant churches are declining. Episcopalians are being called by right wingers the church of the gays and grays. Unitarians are dying out. Secondly, the church is so American. So many weird churches formed in the USA (e.g. Scientology, Mormons). Third, I knew a Christian Scientist, who was from an old Mainline Philadelphia family. I wonder if it was once a very WASPY church. Finally it reminds me of AA in its claims, which is not dying out but dropping in membership since its highest point in the 1980s.

R29 Each generation (boomer to gen x to millennial to gen z) has declining membership in churches. Until recently, the mainline denominations were declining and evangelical/Pentecostal SUV mega-campus churches were growing. That's not entirely true. Christian Scientists (like Unitarian, Universalists and Congregational) grew in the 19th century in New England among privileged classes. The robber baron wealth established endowments in the CSC that still generate wealth. Hence you have many large, beautiful CSC churches in urban areas that are virtually empty.

R28, that's Seventh Day Adventist, not Christian Science. VERY different denominations.

r28 is the moron who burps up every single useless, ignorant maggot-thought in her head.

One of the things that impressed us about CS is that they never asked us for any money. They even gave us their "Big Book" SCIENCE AND HEALTH for free!

There's a christian science church in North Hollywood California, whose Pastor is a Gay man married with 3 or 4 kids. The sermons are really funny and music was crazy good, because it's L.A. and everyone is a professional. The pastor gave sermon breaking down the lyrics of a Bon Jovi song. It was pretty creative.

They follow the Church of New Thought, which i think, is a watered down version of Christian Science.

R34 Lots of CSC ideas were foundational to offshoots (Religious Science, Science of Mind). Really, a lot of similarities to New Age thought with better architecture.

I've always found it weird that The Christian Science Monitor's movie reviews were included in Rotten Tomatoes, and among their Top Critics as well, I think. Who even reads and funds that shit anymore if their membership is so small? The CIA?!

Mary Baker Eddy never wrote about The Hershey Highway, or sex at all, as it is not relevant to the message.

Well, R36, the Christian Science Monitor has won 7 Pulitzers, and a bunch of other awards so they must have "clout".

R38 Right. Saying the newspaper in some way represents the church is like saying Duke is a Methodist church school.

They targeted wealthy people in their heyday. They have been rapidly selling off their buildings. The brutalist church near the White House is now a bland office building. Another one of their DC churches has been expanded and is now a hotel. They sold their beautiful main church in Cleveland to Case Western and the old folks home they had across the street is now split between a non-profit senior housing project and market rentals. They still have plenty of money.

r39, I didn't think they were affiliated with the church anymore, which is why I googled it. I don't keep tabs of on the CSM. Just thought it was interesting that they were so decorated.

I just remembered another connection. A dear friend of mine back in the 90s was dieing of AIDS. Raised Catholic he wanted nothing to do with the church. The person who attended him in his last weeks or months was a short dykey lesbian Religious Science minister. I learned that they were a breakaway from CS. I know nothing about their teachings. He had dementia at the end but he could indicate that he appreciated her care and attention.