Hello David,
Thank you for your question. I'm so glad you found the CS church members "friendly and sincere" - good to hear it!
Every student of Christian Science turns to God first for guidance and then will take whatever decisions are needed, based on their highest sense of right. We make our own decisions, based on prayer. We are most cetainly allowed to do whatever we need to do. There are no church dictates and no, people will not be disfellowed or expelled. Gosh - perish the thought!
Most of us have had solid proof of reliable healing through prayer, so it's just natural to turn to God first, rather than as a last resort. In my own family we were hardly ever sick, except when my mother (the Christian Scientist) was away and my Dad, a hypochondriac, was in charge! If I felt unwell when I woke, I was crawl into bed with my mother, who always studied our Bible Lesson first thing and usually by the time she had finished it (and reading it out loud to me) I was well.
However when my brother was born with crossed eyes and they didn't improve, she took him all the way to an eye specialist in Switzerland. Her church friends were all very supportive.
And when I fell off my bicycle, aged 8, she took me straight to hospital where I had my broken arm set, but I couldn't stand the itching that the plaster caused, so a couple of days later, she took me back and asked the doctor to remove it and try to put another on that wouldn't be so tight. When it came off she asked if he would X-ray it again and he was amazed to find it had already set perfectly, so he put a sling on it and told me to keep it on for a week and she looked out into the garden that afternoon, where I was playing with my friends, waving my arms around and the sling was hanging around my neck. (At the time of the accident the doctor had said it was a bad break and would take about 6 weeks to mend.)
My mother died just a couple of weeks short of her 101st birthday. Her two sisters and brother, who were not Christian Scientists and who relied on medicine and doctors all their lives, all died in their 80s.
You might find this article helpful:
https://www.christianscience.com/pr...entists-and-respect-for-the-rights-of-others2
In case you wondered, yes i've been wearing a mask and have had a COVID vaccination (the second coming up in two weeks time). I'm doing this not out of fear or concern for my own health, but out of respect for others' fears. I see this as a way to live the Golden Rule.
