Prayer and Politics: Spiritual Solutions for
Creative Government
Ron Ballard, C.S.B.
With elections and presidential races heating up, people are examining their political allegiances and ideas. Many are turning to prayer for a clearer plan of action. International speaker, Ron Ballard, says, “The contentious political landscape today requires a change in priorities, an allegiance to higher principles and courses of action. Relying on the divine nature to characterize our political attitudes brings insight, unity, and ingenuity. Letting the human yield to the divine in the process of governing, blesses all mankind.”
Saturday, October 2nd
11 a.m. to noon
Lewis & Clark Library
Contents
§ About the Christian Science Board of Lectureship
§ Contact Information, Press Release/Public Service Announcement
§ About First Church of Christ, Scientist, Helena
§
Sign Up for
a Reminder E-mail for this Lecture Event
§
A Testimony of Healing in the Wake of a Christian
Science Lecture
§ Sharing the Inspiring Introduction to the 1903 Lecture Held in Helena
§ Would Your Church be Interested in Hosting a Future Lecture?
§
Is There a Place
at a Christian Science Lecture for Someone Who Does Not Acknowledge Christ
Jesus?
About the Christian Science Board of Lectureship
The Christian Science Board of Lectureship is an international bureau of professional speakers that has been in continuous operation for over 100 years. The present Board of Lectureship consists of 51 speakers from 15 countries, including Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Japan, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and the United States.
When Mary Baker Eddy first wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures in 1875, it was not with a thought of organizing a new church, but with an intent to enlighten and enliven the practice of Christianity with a clearer understanding of its roots and to restore the lost element of Christian healing and practical spirituality taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus.
Four
years later, a new church was founded, in part to preserve and protect the purity
of this message, but there was never a change in the thought that Christian
Science itself is meant to serve Christianity and not a single denomination. It
is a religion in that there is a church, The Church of Christ, Scientist, and
it is also a system of Christian-based care and practical application that is
studied and practiced by people of many faiths.
In
1898 the Christian Science Board of Lectureship was formed with the purpose of
reaching out to all mankind, and to “… cement the bonds of Christian
brotherhood whose every link leads upwards in the chain of being.”
The
Board of Lectureship remains a primary form of outreach and sharing of
Christian Science, but does not proselytize for the Church. These speakers
share the Christian Science perspective on topics of interest or concern in the
communities they visit. They are talks that are not bound by the walls of a
single faith. They come from an understanding that the principles of
Christianity and spiritual healing transcend creed and apply to all of God’s
creation.
Mrs. Eddy
dedicated her book to “honest seekers for Truth,” and later writes: “Millions
of unprejudiced minds — simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the
desert — are waiting and watching for rest and drink. Give them a cup of cold
water in Christ's name, and never fear the consequences.” (page 570)
“Honest seekers for Truth
…” These are the intended audience of the Board of Lectureship.
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Our Speaker is
…
|
|
Ron Ballard, C.S.B., Member
of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship
Ron Ballard carries a life long interest in politics as well as his
love for Christian Science. Ron
graduated with a degree in political science from Claremont McKenna College in
California where he worked during college for a political campaign firm that
conducted campaigns for Congressional, Gubernatorial, and Presidential
candidates for several political parties.
Soon his interest in politics took a different turn as he began to see
the possibilities of prayer-based efforts in moving human thought to more
encompassing political solutions. He
left his position as a campaign consultant and entered the full-time healing
ministry of Christian Science, a field in which he has worked for almost 40
years.
His political interest followed him as he worked with clients on both
sides of the aisles in Congress and in the White House as well as in some state
houses. He discovered that many
political leaders and policymakers rely on prayer to make humane,
compassionate, and intelligent decisions.
He holds the conviction that all real social change comes as a result of
a change in human consciousness and that there is no more effective way of
helping that change than through prayer.
His contributions over the past few decades to the Christian Science
periodicals and the Board of Lectureship have focused on that conviction.
As a speaker on the importance and effectiveness of prayer-based
solutions for both personal and societal needs, Ron has spoken in many venues
including hospices, hospitals, health expos, interfaith conferences, domestic
and foreign policy organizations, youth organizations and conferences, and
college symposiums. Ron brings to his work a rich family background that has
its roots in the early pioneering days of the Christian Science movement and carries
a strong conviction regarding the place of Christian Science and its founder in
the establishment of the laws of God’s government of the universe.
During
this talk Mr. Ballard will bring out how prayer is a mental dynamic that
enables human thought to reach for higher solutions based on divine
intelligence. This kind of prayer challenges our thought to yield to a more
spiritual perspective and discover how God
governs. It is prayer that subjugates partisanship to divine Principle,
God. This lecture will explore how we can let the human yield to the divine and
thus experience more creative approaches to governing.
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Directions
The Lewis and Clark
Library in Helena is at 120 S. Last Chance Gulch, at the end of the walking
mall. If you are driving, the entrance to the parking lot is off of S. Park
Avenue. There is free parking for 2 hours in the library parking lot (north of
the building) and on the side of the street by the library.
If you click this Map Link you will be taken to
Google’s maps. Simply click on the “directions” link in the upper left area and
enter your starting address. It will map out directions to the Library with the
final stretch on the appropriate S. Park Avenue.
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Contact Information
To
contact the chair of the Lecture Committee, Doug Lamb, Click here
to send an e-mail.
For basic information you can speak with committee member Barbara Hunter at (406) 442-4593
Click here to see PDF
of Press Release.
When done viewing the press
material you can use the back button on your browser to return to this page.
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About First Church Helena
This church is a branch church of the
Isaiah 54:2
Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the
curtains of
thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and
strengthen thy stakes.
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Is There a Place at a Christian Science Lecture for
Those Who Do Not Acknowledge Christ Jesus?
Imagine if it were Peter, Paul, James,
John, or Jesus, himself, who were giving this talk. What would they say?
Something like: “Absolutely, how about the front row?”
Christian Science is firmly based on the teachings of Christ Jesus, and members of the Christian Science church see him as the embodiment of the Christ Truth, the way-shower, that he is the prophesied one, and that he is all that he said he is. It is neither a small or unimportant thing to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ. But Christianity is far bigger than that understanding. Christianity calls to all of us. In John 8:58, Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am,” making clear that the Christ Truth does not have a beginning with the man Jesus. Mrs. Eddy expounds on this in page 333 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:
Christ is not a name so much as the divine title
of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal nature. The name is
synonymous with Messiah, and alludes to the spirituality which is taught,
illustrated, and demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the
embodiment. …
Throughout all generations
both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spiritual idea, —
the reflection of God, — has come with some measure of power and grace to all
prepared to receive Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets
caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which baptized these seers
in the divine nature, the essence of Love. The divine image, idea, or Christ
was, is, and ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God.
If you are inclined to come, you have all the call you need
to be welcome and entitled to an honored place.
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A Testimony of Healing
From the Christian Science Sentinel
Vol 104, No. 31
I had decided to take the vows of a monk. I accepted that there might not be long left for me in this life. I devoted my days to spiritual devotional meditations. This gave me strength, deeper and deeper peace — this despite my grave physical condition.
I used to be a ski instructor and a successful businessman. I had two small companies, organizing skiing trips and summer schools. It was a long way from there to being registered as physically handicapped. In my own words, I was “a basket case.”
As a child, I had had a bone disease. It left me with one leg shorter than the other and curvature of the spine. That didn’t stop me from living an active sporting childhood. I played soccer and tennis, surfed and cycled. I remained an active sportsman after leaving school.
Then in 1995 I suddenly started losing weight. Doctors were unable to explain this. I had months of tests and drug treatments. Eventually, they concluded that I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I could not tolerate certain food. I was also suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The muscles on my back and neck had wasted away, exposing the weakness in my neck caused by the curvature of the spine. By the end of 1997 I had reached the weight of 7.5 stone [105 pounds]. I could not tolerate any food, except boiled brown rice and raw grated vegetables, suffered regular neck dislocations, and was bedridden.
Then in the spring of 2001 I saw a poster advertising a local lecture. It was about a woman I’d never heard of — Mary Baker Eddy. I couldn’t understand why the idea of it wouldn’t go away. I had no connection to or interest in this lady. And I had no desire to learn anything about her. Not to mention that the venue of the lecture was hard for me to access as a handicapped person. But the idea still would not leave me. It kept going round and round in my mind. So in the end I decided to go to the lecture.
Slowly, painfully, and patiently I was able to reach the lecture hall. I was exhausted and in some considerable pain.
What I heard made me feel uneasy. I was hearing the word Scriptures. As a young boy, I had felt very uncomfortable with people who were into “The Scriptures.” I was hearing the word healing a lot also. I had spent a lot of money on every type of complementary or natural therapy, from acupuncture to zone-therapy and many in between. I had not come to this lecture for a healing. I was fast losing interest.
These words from Science and Health were mentioned: “God is at once the centre and circumference of being” (pp. 203—204). It was then that the lecturer had my attention! I immediately thought to myself, “How on earth can God be ‘the centre and circumference of’ this being? This being that is so full of sickness, pain, and deformed bones.”
I also remember hearing that God means “good” and that this “good” fills all space at all times. With that, I started to feel angry What was “good” about all that I had suffered for all those years? What was ‘good” about being registered as physically handicapped and incurable at the age of 35? I was enraged! Preoccupied with this tirade of angry thoughts.
Suddenly however, something changed. My mind became completely quiet. I noticed a lessening of the pain. First in my stomach, then in my neck, and then in my knees. I felt as if I was no longer trapped in an undernourished, lopsided, and painful body I felt I was a detached silent observer who was witnessing an increasing sense of ease. This ease was replacing the constant feelings of pain and disease. It was just like an ice cube left on a warm windowsill, gently melting and changing shape. So were the feelings of pain and stiffness gently melting and changing shape in me — loosening me from the stiffness that had trapped me for so many years. I was really stunned.
The simple ideas of Truth had transformed my painful body into one of almost sensationless ease. I was in shock at what happened next. I walked from the lecture hall with long, effortless strides, my head held high, chest out, with no pain, fatigue, or limitation. I walked the whole journey home — approximately one mile — and arrived overflowing with joy and amazement at what was happening to me.
I slept like a baby that night, and woke early to the thoughts of how God was good. God was really “the centre and circumference of my being.” I remembered other ideas shared at the lecture the night before. There was this from Genesis: “God created man in his own image.” And this: “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”
Rolling out of bed, I experienced my next shock. I stood up perfectly upright, instead of the usual feeling of being lopsided because my legs were of different lengths. I was balanced standing tall in bare feet. Just as I tried to get this clear in my mind, I heard the words, “We must radically rely on God for our good.” These were words that I had not consciously remembered hearing at the lecture. They seemed to have such authority I was in no doubt as to their validity I was compelled to take all of the footplates out of all of my left shoes, there and then.
Then I had an overwhelming urge to go to the shops and buy all the ingredients of a normal breakfast—things such as tea, sugar, milk, cereal, bread, butter, and honey I had not been able to eat any of these foods for six years. I ate a wonderful, “normal” meal without even a trace of reaction or food intolerance. I remember thinking that these were not shocking changes but a return to the norm. I should expect more and more of them.
Two days later, I walked to my first-ever Christian Science church service. I began studying Science and Health regularly through the weekly Bible Lessons from the Christian Science Quarterly.
Within four weeks I had gained almost 4 stone [56 pounds] in weight. I was able to eat and digest every type of food. I walked over two miles every day and returned to cycling, hiking, and swimming. I literally felt reborn, with a new lease on life. I was aware
that my life was of God and could never be taken from me. It couldn’t be diminished in any way or be dependent on any material circumstances.
I had attended a Christian Science lecture with no expectations, and I left it with no limitations. I was freed for life.
Phillip Hockley
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Sharing
the Inspiring Introduction to the 1903 Lecture Held in Helena , Montana
The following appeared in
Judge S.J. Hanna of
While not a member of the Christian Science association, yet I deem it an honor, as it is a pleasure, to be permitted to introduce the distinguished speaker of the evening.
The time has come when men of every creed, should welcome truth, come in whatever garb it may. This is an age of results, and I am one of those who believe that anything that brings about good results is entitled to the respect of all fair-minded men. Christian Science, so-called, needs no apology from any one.
Whatever tends to combat the spirit of evil in human nature, whatever drives out baseness and unworthiness, and treachery and cruelty from the minds and hearts of men, ought to have our support. That which seeks to displace darkness with light. And to heal mental and moral and physical disease and deformity, is worthy of every commendation.
The torrent of the passions often often overwhelms the call of conscience; and any moral force that helps to stay that flood and permit the voice of spirit to be heard above the tumult, is a worthy factor in the world’s civilization. That which drives evil from the heart, which brightens life and uplifts humanity, should have generous welcome as one of the great moral forces of the world.
When we look about and see numbers of the most intelligent and progressive men and women of the community, -- not only here but everywhere throughout the country, -- who have been lifted by the teachings of this Science from conditions of suffering and physical disease to happiness and health, is it not the part of ignorance and folly to affect to be flippant in the discussion of such a beneficent force in human affairs?
I am in favor of anything that brings healing to sorrow, that uplifts the fallen, that binds up the wounds of mankind, and that religion is best which shows the noblest results and does the most good.
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Would Your Church be Interested in Hosting a Future Lecture?
We would
be delighted to partner with other churches in the Helena
If you have such interest, please contact the church clerk, Craig Wright, at (406) 422-0222 or Click here to send an e-mail.
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