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[[File:Science_and_Health_(Christian_Science)_and_the_Bible.jpg|thumbnail|320px|left|<i>Science and Health</i> by Mary Baker Eddy, and the <i>Holy Bible</i>.]]
in In the United States during the second half of the Nineteenth Century, states passed a series of laws that slowly established a medical licensing system. Elite Regular, Homeopathic and Eclectic worked to together to eliminate medical practices that they found ridiculous. After medical licensing boards were established, they began to target marginalized medical practitioners for illegally practicing medicine. Interestingly, one of the groups targeted by these boards were Christian Scientists even though they did not practice medicine in the traditional sense. Instead they used religion and metaphysics to fight illness. While they did not act like doctors, they often accepted money from the people that they were treating. By the end of the 19th Century, medical licensing boards began were aggressively filing criminal actions against Christian Scientists.
==The Theory and Beliefs of Christian Science==