UNITY continued School, and the "Silent-70” department, which is the mis sionary aspect o f the work, which is thus described in the same folder mentioned above: "The Silent-70 Department supervises the sending o f Unity literature to more than 5,000 institutions in many parts o f the world, including old folks’ homes, Army and Navy hospitals, Y.M .C .A . and Y .W .C .A . groups, Red Cross organizations, penitentiaries and leper colonies. W ee Wisdom, (the little children’s magazine) is sent to orphan ages, children’s hospital wards, schools for underprivileged children and to the Navajo Indian reservation. In many cases it is the only magazine in the Indian homes” (p. 19 ). "Unity publications are printed in Spanish, Dutch, French, Portuguese, German, Russian, Italian and other foreign lan guages . . . Unity also supplies free literature to persons in foreign countries who, because o f monetary restrictions, cannot send payment” (p . 2 0 ). It is also stated that 10,000 letters, telegrams and telephone calls are received each week. From this description, while it scarcely does justice to this incredible establishment, it can clearly be seen that the Unity School o f Christianity is provided with every facility for propagating its teachings throughout the world for years to come. It is sad, and a bit terrifying, that such means for dissemination o f propaganda should be in the hands o f those who do not believe or teach the true way o f salvation as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Back o f the lovely Unity facade o f "sweetness and light” with which all o f their work is thoroughly saturated are some o f the most soul-destroying and Scripture-denying doctrines ever foisted upon the world. This we will prove later on by quotations from their own writings. They themselves make no claim whatever to an orthodox interpretation o f the -Scriptures. While Unity School o f Christianity claims that it is not a church or a denomination, it maintains Unity Centers all over the U. S., the first one having been organized in 1906. These centers keep in contact with the headquarters through their Field Department. In 1933 an official statement o f faith was adopted at its annual conference. The hour o f worship is the same as that o f other churches. There is a definite ritual; Sunday schools have been organized, and marriages and funerals are conducted. While they stead fastly maintain that you may continue to be a Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian or a member o f any other denomina tion, and still belong to them, the fact is that those who go into Unity very deeply abandon their orthodox churches, even as do the followers o f Mrs. Eddy and other cults. Before ordination, their ministers must take courses determined by the Unity School, and only Unity literature may be used in their centers.
was sweeping the Eastern seaboard. At that time the M id west was practically an untouched field, and the cults did not reach the Far West for another two decades. Now the Pacific Coast, and particularly California, is the breeding ground for every "ism” under the sun. Indeed it has been declared that all one needs to start a new cult is to secure a palm tree under which to sit and a turban to wrap about one’s head! Unity is often confused with Christian Science, and no wonder, for there are many similarities in their teachings. Much o f the phraseology is the same; both are taken up with ontology, or the science o f being. This is not to be wondered at when one realizes that the founders o f Unity, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, were once ardent Christian Scientists themselves. However, the systems are now com plete and separate organizations. Both groups are eager to have this made plain for there has been bad blood between them in the past. They have nothing whatever to do with each other now. Unity developed in the following manner: Charles Fill more, a freight clerk without any higher education, married a schoolteacher who had attended Oberlin College. While she was a Methodist, he from a youth was interested only in spiritualism and other esoteric systems. They had two sons, and were expecting a third, when disaster struck. Charles Fillmore, then in real estate, lost everything in a boom, and Mrs. Fillmore was suffering from tuberculosis. J. S. Thatcher had started the Kansas City School o f Chris tian Science in 1887 and a Eugene B. Weeks from Chicago had come to establish the work. The Fillmores attended Weeks’ first class, and Mrs. Fillmore later stated that this was responsible for the entire work o f Unity. There she claimed that Truth (in these systems this word is always spelled with a capital) was revealed to her in this sentence:" "I am a child o f God, therefore I do not inherit sickness.” The third son, Royal, was born, and in two years Mrs. Fillmore’s tuberculosis was healed, she claimed, "miracu lously.” As a result, Mrs. Fillmore became an enthusiastic Christian Scientist, and her husband followed her lead in 1890. He had suffered for years from an abscessed hip which he now claimed to be healed by Christian Science although he remained a cripple all his life. B he Fillmores became so enamored o f Christian Science that they put out their shingle as "Healers and Teachers” and gathered a considerable group about them. They claimed they were now in touch with a limitless cosmic power which could overcome all human ills. They had a continuous rendezvous with the "universal Mind.” Soon the rumor went about that the Fillmores performed miracles "just by sitting in silence and thinking!” This was the beginning o f their custom o f "sitting in the silence” which is their particular form o f "prayer” and o f Silent Unity, o f which we shall have more to say later on. Actually they were taught their Christian Science by one
Origin
^
^ his sect, along with Christian Science, New Thought, Theosophy and other esoteric and eclectic systems, got its start just before the turn o f the century when an interest in things metaphysical
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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