Lucia Greenhouse Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

Lucia Greenhouse talks about her childhood growing up as a Christian Scientist and why she eventually left the church.

Q: How old were you when your parents became Christian Scientists? Did you attend church with them regularly?

A: My parents converted to Christian Science before my earliest memory, so for me, my family's religion was something immutable, constant. For my parents, however, their conversion marked what could only be described as a radical departure, especially for my mother: her father was a doctor, her mother had been a registered nurse, and her brother was a plastic surgeon.

To hear them tell it, my father was first introduced to Christian Science as a boy during World War II, when his family was living in Fort Worth, Texas, where his stepfather  was stationed in the Army.  My grandmother - whose own mother had "dabbled in Christian Science" earlier in the century - enrolled my father in the local Christian Science Sunday school when my father began having terrible recurring nightmares.
Many years later, when my sister, brother and I were small children, our parents "turned to Christian Science" because a pediatrician said that my brother "had weak ankles and bad asthma, and might never lead an active boy's life." Within a few days of contacting a Christian Science practitioner, Sherman was ...