Changes

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><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''Defining the Practice of Medicine: Licensing American Physicians, 1870-1907.'', unpublished manuscript.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.

Christian Science was described by Mary Baker Eddy as a “medicoreligious hybrid” that combined physical well-being with religious beliefs. In 1875, Eddy published a book titled <i>Science and Health</i>. This widely read text started the Christian Science movement and created a unique example of faith healing in the United States. While Christian Science initially was perceived as simply another type of faith healing, over time it acquired notoriety and acclaim unusual for spiritual healing. During the 1880s and 1890s, the movement picked up steam and became a legitimate challenger to scientific medicine. By the 1890s, state courts and legislatures debated whether Christian Scientists practiced medicine under state licensing laws.<ref> Rennnie, B. Schoepflin, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057PT5QS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0057PT5QS&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=418222696df98aa8813ccbf56ad868a8 Christian Science on Trial: Religious Healing in America]</i>, (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2003), 5-7, Kindle edition.</ref> 

Just as Regulars had demonized Homeopaths and Eclectics in the past, licensed physicians from the three medical sects worked together and relentlessly attacked these new medical specialists. Licensing united the three sects against these new interlopers. While the sects still viewed medicine somewhat differently, their differences were not nearly as great as those between them and these new medical apostates. Additionally, Regulars, Eclectics, and Homeopaths dominated medical licensing, and they did not want these specialities to flourish unchallenged. Licensed physicians directed their state organizations to prosecute Christian Scientists.<ref> Martin Kaufman, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801812380/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0801812380&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=fc098bc176c2836b5de9ac93ecde334b Homeopathy in America: The Rise and Fall of Medical Heresy]</i> (The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1971), 141-142.</ref>

Christian Scientists were never able to acquire the same type of legislative protections for their practice rights as other groups such as Osteopaths. Arguably, they did not need protection from medical licensing laws because state courts were less willing to rule that they practiced medicine. Unlike Osteopaths who did everything in their power to look, act, and behave like traditional doctors, Christian Scientists’ practices were dramatically different. As Osteopathic medical schools began to teach students about surgery and obstetrics during the first decade of the twentieth century, Christian Scientists still focused on religion and metaphysics.<ref>Gevitz, Norman, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801878349/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0801878349&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=4ea84b3161968b10fddc519bf72cc35b The DOs: Osteopathic Medicine in America]</i>, 2nd edition, (John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1982, 2004), 69-70.</ref> Osteopathy quickly began to adopt aspects of Regular medicine, and it was even wryly noted by a Regular medical journal that the American School of Osteopathy recommended a book list to its students where one-hundred-and-twelve of the one-hundred-and-eighteen books were written by Regulars.<ref> “Another Phase,” <i>California State Journal of Medicine</i>, Vol. V, No.2, (1907): 20, http://books.google.com/ebooks.</ref> Even more problematic was that when Christian Scientists treated patients, they did not behave as doctors and their practices did not resemble traditional medical care. Even though Osteopaths did not utilize drugs, they physically performed active services such as manipulating limbs, joints, and muscles. The differences between the two specialities were stark.

Ultimately, Christian Scientists sought protection from state legislatures. Christian Scientists pursued two different paths with state legislatures. In some cases they attempted to argue that they deserved to be licensed professionals. Some leaders of Christian Science movement in the 1890s and 1900s sought to professionalize its ranks by establishing orthodox practices, creating medical journals and societies, and building Christian Science medical schools. These efforts were controversial and did not draw support from Eddy.  Other members of the church took an alternative path and argued that they should be exempted from licensing laws because they were practicing their religion. After several states “prohibited Christian Science practice or forced practitioners to comply with medical practice acts” and others exempted Christian Scientist from medical practice acts and protected their rights, Christian Scientists began to favor lobbying for exemptions from licensing laws.<ref> Schloepflin, 164-166.</ref> These two different approaches to legalization represented a split within the Christian Science community between healers who made a living treating patients, on one hand, and religious adherents, on the other.