This profile considers the Christian Science Monitor.
It covers -
- introduction
- the Monitor
- history and future?
- other CS imprints
- studies
- chronology
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