List of Christian Scientists (religious denomination)

This list concerns the role that members of the denomination called Church of Christ, Scientist had in world history. For a list about Christians who are also scientists go to List of Christian thinkers in science.

Politics

Political figures

• Nancy Witcher Astor - in Sykes's Nancy the life of Lady Astor (1984), and her own letters, Nancy Astor’s Canadian Correspondence, 1912-1962, it is mentioned how much she promoted the religion; the effect it had on her election campaigns and her political views is mentioned in Karen J Musolf's From Plymouth to Parliament (1999)
• Fred B. Balzar^[1]
• Owen Brewster^[1][2]
• Ralph Lawrence Carr^[3]
• Thelma Cazalet-Keir - British Conservative Member of Parliament
• Thomas M. Davis^[4][5]
• David Dreier^[6]
• John Ehrlichman - Watergate figure ^[7]
• Sir Lionel Fraser - British banker^[8]
• Bob Goodlatte^[9]
• H.R. Haldeman - Watergate figure described as, in those days, "a Christian Scientist who neither smokes nor drinks"^[10]
• Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian - his death in 1940, which was when he was the British Ambassador to the United States of America, gained some attention due to his faith^[11]
• Egil Krogh - Watergate figure^[12]
• Scott McCallum - Milwaukee Sentinel mentioned how Wisconsin's Christian Scientists "finally got their prayers answered" by his election^[13]
• Henry Paulson - 74th United States Secretary of the Treasury^[14][15][16]
• Charles H. Percy^[17]
• Chris Shays
• Lamar S. Smith^[18]
• Stansfield Turner - Admiral and former CIA Director ^[19]
• William Hedgcock Webster - mentioned in a Salon article
• Margaret Wintringham - second woman to take her seat as a British Member of Parliament
• John D. Works - an early, possibly the earliest, example of a Christian Scientist in the US Senate^[1][20]

Arts and entertainment

Artists

• Willis Vernon Cole - writer put on trial for practicing Christian Science healing without a medical license^[21][22]
• Joseph Cornell - Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is said to have been very important to him and his art^[23]
• Evelyn Dunbar - English artist and muralist, employed as an official war artist during World War II^[24]
• Fougasse - noted cartoonist; taught at the Christian Science Sunday School in Sloane Square, London, UK, for a number of years (the church there is now called Cadogan Hall)
• Alberta Neiswanger Hall - composer of children's songs and composed musical settings for The Songs of Father Goose^[25]
• Godfrey John - Welsh poet and Christian Science teacher^[26][27]
• Mina Loy^[28]
• William D. McCrackan - writer, author of The Rise of the Swiss Republic^[29]
• Winifred Nicholson^[30][31]
• Violet Oakley - American artist known for murals and work in stained glass^[32]
• Sergei Prokofiev ^[33]

Entertainment figures

• Kenny L. Baker - singer who also acted in musicals; wrote hymns for the faith and later became a Christian Science practitioner^[34][35]
• Valerie Bergere - French-born actress of stage and screen^[36][37]
• Cornelius Bumpus - jazz musician, member of the Doobie Bros. and Steely Dan^[38]
• Blanche Calloway - bandleader; Cab Calloway's sister^[39][40]
• Carol Channing - although she did see a Dr. Bill Cayhand in cases of more severe medical problems^[41]
• Juanin Clay - American actress with roles in WarGames and The Legend of the Lone Ranger^[42]
• Joan Crawford - converted from Catholicism^[43][44]
• Doris Day - there is some evidence that she currently sees it solely as a philosophy, not a religion^[45][46]
• Colleen Dewhurst - discussed in pages 368-374 of her unfinished autobiography^[47]
• Robert Duvall - raised Christian Scientist, identifies as such, but non-practicing^[48][49]
• Georgia Engel - American film, television, and stage actress^[50][51]
• Horton Foote - playwright and screenwriter^[52][53]
• Charlotte Greenwood - actress and dancer^{[54][55][56][57]}
• Joyce Grenfell - niece of Nancy Astor, also wrote music^[58][59]
• Corinne Griffith^[60][61]
• Lionel Hampton - jazz musician^[62][63]
• David Liebe Hart - puppeteer, actor, singer and painter^[64]
• Howard Hawks - film director^[65]
• Peter Horton - actor^[66]
• Bud Jamison - actor active from 1915 to 1944^[67]
• Leatrice Joy - silent film star who retired to Greenwich, Connecticut, attending the church there for many years^[68][69]
• Alexandra Kent - ballet dancer^[70]
• Val Kilmer - reads scripture to a congregation in New Mexico^[71][72]
• Kay Kyser - Christian Science practitioner and active promoter^[73][74]
• Martin Melcher - producer, third husband of Doris Day^[75]
• Conrad Nagel - actor^[76][77]
• Michael Nesmith - member of The Monkees^[78]
• Antoinette Perry - Broadway director, mentor and actress; namesake of the Tony Awards^[79][80]
• Mary Pickford - Canadian-American motion picture actress; co-founder of the film studio United Artists; one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; in 1934, she published Why Not Try God?, a booklet touting Christian Science
• Ginger Rogers - had Christian Science beliefs and upbringing^[81][82]
• J. D. Salinger - joined it as well as various other faiths^[83][84]
• Lilia Skala - actress best known for playing the Mother Superior in Lilies of the Field; converted to the faith and mentioned it often^[85]
• Jean Stapleton - actress, best known for playing Edith Bunker^[86]
• W. S. Van Dyke - director of films, including The Thin Man^[87][88]
• King Vidor - director, producer, and screenwriter who won an Academy Honorary Award^[89]
• Anna May Wong - also believed in reincarnation; there are disputed claims she embraced some Taoist principles^[90][91]
• Alfre Woodard - actress who won awards for roles in Miss Evers' Boys, Radio, Memphis Beat^[92][93]
• Alan Young - founded a film and broadcast division for the Christian Science church,^[94] though he later was critical of the church as an organization^[95]

Sports

Athletes/sportspeople

• Adin Brown - U.S. soccer player^[96]
• Nile Kinnick - American college football player and Heisman Trophy winner^[97]
• Shannon Miller - American gymnast^[98]
• George Sisler - baseball player^[99]

Intellectual life

Academia

• David E. Sweet - founding president of Metropolitan State University and later president of Rhode Island College^[100]

Journalism

• Edward J. Meeman - American journalist^[101]

Exploration, invention, and science

• Neil Kensington Adam - British chemist who wrote the article "A Christian Scientist's Approach to the Study of Natural Science"^[102][103]
• J. Robert Atkinson - founder of the Braille Institute of America^[104]
• Edmund F. Burton - physician who left medicine for the study of Christian Science^[105]
• Laurance Doyle - researcher at SETI^[106]
• Dorothy Harrison Eustis - founder of The Seeing Eye^[107]
• Bette Nesmith Graham - inventor of Liquid Paper and mother of Mike Nesmith^[78]
• Charles Lightoller - surviving Second Officer of the Titanic^[108]
• Jer Master - Indian pediatrician who abandoned medicine for the faith^{[109][110][111]}
• Alan Shepard - first American in space^[112][113]
• Doris Huestis Speirs - Canadian ornithologist, artist and poet^[114]

Notable people raised in Christian Science

• Jean Arthur - raised in the faith
• Richard Bach - bestselling author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull; was a reader in the Christian Science Church until the early 1970s^[115]
• Grace Mann Brown - author and lecturer related to Christian Science, Divine Science and New Thought Movement; founder of the Order of the Essenes; worked in the administration of Unity Churches and the New Thought Alliance; editor of Christian Science and New Thought magazines and journals
• Jonathan Carroll - raised in the church by Jewish converts to it, but no longer practicing^[116]
• Hart Crane - raised in the faith, but never very observant^[117]
• Christina Crawford - mentioned in Mommie Dearest
• Ellen DeGeneres - was not vaccinated as a child and says she felt "left out"^[118]
• Daniel Ellsberg - his parents were Jewish converts to Christian Science^[119]
• Hugh Jaynas - A biologist and all around famous proctaligist.
• William Everson - had Christian Scientist parents; became a member of the Dominican Order for 18 years^[120]
• Stewart Farrar - abandoned the faith in favor of agnosticism and then Neopaganism^[121]
• Paul Feig - creator of Freaks and Geeks; his Christian Science upbringing is mentioned in Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin^[122]
• Henry Fonda - raised Christian Scientist, but drifted later in life^[123]
• Ralph Giordano - German writer; his parents were members of the Christian Science Church; this is mentioned in his autobiographical novel The Bertinis
• Kelsey Grammer - informally raised in the faith, but left it after his sister's murder^[124][125]
• Spalding Gray - used his Christian Science upbringing for humor^[126][127]
• Keith Green - his Jewish mother was a practicing Christian Scientist^[128]
• Howard Hawks - registered as Christian Science and his mother was of that faith; he may have stayed active^[65]
• Ernest Hemingway - his mother was a practicing Christian Scientist
• Jim Henson - in his twenties he was a Sunday School teacher in the faith, but fifteen years before he died he wrote to a Christian Science church to inform them he was no longer a practicing member^[129][130]
• Audrey Hepburn - her mother was a devout Christian Scientist, but she chose not be attached to any particular religion^[131]
• James Hetfield - of Metallica, his "The God that Failed" is one of many songs that are a response to it^[132]
• Bruce Hornsby - rock musician^[133]
• Jack Kemp - raised Christian Scientist, he later became a Presbyterian^[134]
• Helmuth James Graf von Moltke - his parents were Christian Scientists^[135]
• Marilyn Monroe - her mother was obsessed with the faith, but was only minimally involved in her life due to mental illness
• V. S. Pritchett - his father was a Christian Scientist and he was raised in the faith, but later was disparaging of it^[136]
• Chris Shays - active member for most of his life,^[137][138] but no longer a practicing member^[139]
• John Simpson - BBC journalist^[140]
• Danielle Steel - mentioned in interviews^[141]
• Julian Steward - his mother was a devout convert
• Elizabeth Taylor - raised in the faith, but converted to Judaism on marrying Eddie Fisher; remained Jewish until her death and joked of herself as "a nice little Jewish girl"^[142]
• William Thetford - his parents were of the faith, but left when he was seven due to the death of their daughter
• Robin Williams - his mother was a Christian Scientist^[143]

See also

• Church of Christ, Scientist
• Manual of The Mother Church
• Demographics of the United States Congress

References

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3. NGA
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5. Time Magazine
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14. PBS
16. Forbes
17. Archived October 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
18. The Washington Post
19. Columbia Journalism Review
20. Adherents.com
21. The New York Times, January 27, 1911: “Science Healers to Fight Test Case”
22. The New York Times, New York NY, October 4, 1916: "Annuls Conviction of W.V. Cole, Healer"
23. Guggenheim Collection
25. "The Songs of Father Goose" Open Library. Retrieved May 6, 2013
26. Christian Science Association of the Pupils of Godfrey John, C.S.B
27. Poetry of Godfrey John
28. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Modern Poetry bios
29. Flower, B. O., "Reckless and Irresponsible Attacks on Christian Science" The Arena, Vol. XXXVII, January to June (1907). The Brandt Press, Trenton, N.J., U.S.A., p. 59. Retrieved June 22, 2013
30. The Scotsman
31. Art Gallery
32. Prayers in stone: Christian Science architecture in the United States, 1894-1930 by Paul Eli Ivey, pg 79
33. Prokofiev, Sergei (2012). Anthony Phillips (translator), ed. Diaries 1924–1933: Prodigal Son. London/ Ithaca: Faber and Faber/Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-571-23405-9. p. 65.
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41. CNN
42. Brady, David E. (15 March 1995). "Obituaries : * Juanin Clay; Actress, Director". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
43. IMDB
44. BBC
45. The Telegraph-Herald of February 27, 1976: "I guess the soda fountain became such a big thing because at the time, I was a Christian Scientist, and when you are a member of the church, you don't smoke or drink"
46. Doris Day: "the cutest blonde of them all" - The Films of Doris Day
47. Colleen Dewhurst: Colleen Dewhurst,Tom Viola: 9780743242707: Amazon.com: Books
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49. IGN
50. Funny Ladies by Michael Karol, pg 104
51. Hartford Courant
52. The Eagle
53. U of Texas
54. AP via The Tuscaloosa News of February 20, 1949
55. Charlotte Greenwood by Grant Hayter-Menzies
56. The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville by Anthony Slide, pg 214
57. Daily Mail of 16 June 2008: "Greenwood and her composer husband Martin Broones were particularly obsessive practitioners of Christian Science."
58. Search Results
59. The joy of Joyce by Chris Patterson in the Watford Observer
60. Handbook of Texas
61. Trivia on Religions and Their Famous Members Christian Science | Trivia Library
62. [Deathwatch] Lionel Hampton, jazz musician, 94
63. The Independent
64. Metzger, Richard (August 20, 2009). "David Liebe Hart: Christian Scientist; Puppet Guy on Tim and Eric Awesome Show; Famous Los Angeleano". Dangerous Minds. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
65. Adherents.com
66. The Milwaukee Sentinel of March 9, 1984
67. Bud Jamison entry at threestooges.net Archived May 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
68. Schenectady Gazette Obituary - May 15, 1985
69. Sunday Herald - Mar 17, 1963
70. The Washington Post
71. Spirituality.com
72. Jewish Journal
73. The Palm Beach Post of March 1, 1980
74. Kay Kyser.net
75. TCM
76. The Des Moines Register's "Famous Iowans"
77. Hollywood Time Machine
78. Wired
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87. "W. S. Van Dyke Dies, Film Director, 53". New York Times. February 6, 1943. Retrieved 2009-07-17. Marine Corps Reserve Major. Recently Had Completed 'Journey for Margaret'. Axtor at Age of 7 Months. Produced 'Trader Horn', 'Thin Man' and 'Naughty Marietta'. Once With D. W. Griffith. Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke 2d, motion-picture director, died at his home in Brentwood shortly before noon today. His age was 53 Van Dyke, ...
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93. Adherents.com: "As an adult (after college) and as an artist I thought about what was real, what sustained me -- it was Christian Science."
94. The Miami News of July 23, 1976
95. LA Times on Alan Young's memoir: Although he remains a devotee of writings by Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, he is no longer a churchgoer.
96. Boston Sports Media Archived December 14, 2004, at the Wayback Machine.
97. ESPN
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100. "Dr. David E. Sweet, 51, Dies; Head of Rhode Island College". The New York Times. 18 September 1984.
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102. http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/rschg/biog.html Royal Society of Chemistry HISTORICAL GROUP biography page]
103. The Christian Science Journal
104. J. Robert Atkinson Longyear Museum (June 10, 2013). Retrieved June 18, 2013
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106. SETI Archived December 22, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
107. Ascarelli, Miriam, Independent Vision: Dorothy Harrison Eustis and the Story of the Seeing Eye, Purdue U. Press, 2010, p.106
108. Lieut. C.H. Lightoller, RNR (October 1912), "Testimonies From the Field", Christian Science Journal, XXX (7): 414–5
109. "An interview: Why I left the medical profession for Christian Science" Christian Science Journal (April 1980). Retrieved June 17.
110. Dr. Jer Master, Biographical intro to "Prayer and Your Child's Health" Guide to Child Care. Retrieved June 17, 2013
111. "Dispelling illusion through spiritual truth" Deccan Herald (March 18, 2004). Retrieved June 17, 2013
112. Obit Eagle Tribune obit
113. Time Magazine
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115. Time Magazine
116. Adherents.com
117. New York Times Archived October 25, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.
118. HRC
119. Sydney Morning Herald
120. Encyclopædia Britannica
121. Farrar, Janet and Stewart
122. Superstud
123. Adherents.com
124. Times Online
125. MSNBC
126. The Guardian
127. Contemporary Lit
128. No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green
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130. Toledo Blade
131. Adherents.com
132. Song Facts
133. Adherents.com
134. The New York Times
135. Archived June 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
136. New Criterion Archived July 13, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
137. CNN
138. Principia Alumni Archived March 17, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
139. Connecticut Post Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
140. The Observer
141. Adherents.com
143. The religion of Robin Williams, actor, comedian

External links

• Adherents.com "Famous Christian Scientists"
• Political Graveyard section of "Christian Scientists"
• Trivia Library on the topic
• The Handbook of Texas (For uncertain reasons, many names here can be found on that site.)