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Why did Medical Licensing Boards prosecute Christian Scientists for practicing medicine during the 19th Century

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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. <ref>Portions of this article are published here with the permission of the copyright holder, Sandvick, Clinton (2016)<i>''Defining the Practice of Medicine: Licensing American Physicians, 1870-1907.'', unpublished manuscript.</i></ref> 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==
==Conclusion==
Christian Science struggled to acquire legal recognition in the early twentieth century. Schloepflin identified thirty-eight states between 1900-1915 that attempted either to ban the practice or force all Christian Scientists to comply with medical licensing laws. But over the twentieth century, many states gradually carved out limited exemptions for Christian Scientists. As licensing and examining boards continued to apply pressure to Christian Science, leaders within the Christian Science community shifted away from the professional practice of Christian Science medicine. Christian Science leaders later recognized that “healing the sick [was] a consequence of Christian Science practice and not its prime object.”<ref>Schloepflin, 161-166, citing Farlow, <i>Relation of Government</i>, 6.</ref> Still, Christian Scientists continued to ply their trade and charge patients for their services into the 1980s.
 
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[[Category:United States History]] [[Category:19th Century History]] [[Category:Medical History]]
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