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One word for you:
One word for you: wind.
Please, BRA, for the love of all that's unholy, do something with that space to tame the gusts of frigid winter wind that slice through me on my walk to the Symphony T stop.
Doug
Please leave it alone
This is a beautiful public space. Please don't hem it in or build on it. If the Christian Science Church needs more money, may I suggest tearing down the Midtown Hotel and replacing it with something higher and more suitable for this setting?
Isn't the Christian Science
Isn't the Christian Science Plaza a public relations golden goose?
The Christian Science Church provides opens this great space with some nice (except for the office building) architecture to the public. Nothing but positive impressions. On the tourist maps. Model of civic contribution.
Contrast with the organized religion that Boston is best known for, the Roman Catholic Church -- known for spending decades raking in money from families while quietly serving up their children in a veritable city-wide whorehouse for pedophile priests. And when the gig is up, they start selling off parishes around which people had built communities.
Seems like the Christian Scientists know how to make a positive contribution to the city. I hope they keep it up.
Wow that comment is laced
Wow that comment is laced with some serious anti-Catholic sentiment.
Not that they didn't earn it or anything...
n/t
The Church of Faith Healing
Teaching people that they should rely on faith healing is not a "positive contribution" to anything. How many people have died because they believed Mary Baker Eddy's garbage?
Is Christian Science
Is Christian Science theology running a muck in Boston? Is there a mass swing towards conversions that I should know about?
Is Christian Science
Last time I saw it, the water in the reflecting pool looked pretty clear.
Bit of confusion?
I was referring to a different type of garbage. Sorry if I confused anyone.
I was just taking advantage
I was just taking advantage of the "amok/a muck" typo to make a dumb joke. Sorry if my bold text wasn't sufficiently bold.
Christian Science
I'm not a fan of the religion itself. I agree that telling people to avoid doctors is a bad idea.
BUT ... they publish an internationally-respected, award-winning daily newspaper, and I happen to think their complex of buildings is architecturally stunning.
Is it possible to separate these feelings?
(and in reply to others -- Christian Science is totally different from Scientology, an organization with no redeeming value whatsoever)
moral imperative
NO, it's a moral imperative that you do not appreciate the architecture or journalism because the religion believes that health care interferes with god's will. Likewise, if CSs did a lot of social work, such as feeding the hungry and providing shelter to the homeless, you'd have to condemn that too ;-p Americans seem ill-equipped to process ethical and moral issues. If you disagree with a position for ethical or moral reasons, it is a disagreement about that one thing, not about every other characteristic.
Thats my point too, it
Thats my point too, it doesnt seem like they are a major religious presence in this area. I dont consider the religion a threat. If anything they are really providing a public service because they could convert a whole lot more people to their religion if they just turned around and used the money from a sale of their property and newspaper to finance religious outreach.
Tear it down because it's affordable?
The Midtown Hotel is one of the few (if not the only) hotel near Copley that's affordable and more than halfway decent, even if it doesn't look terrific from the outside. Why tear it down? It's not fancy and luxurious, but that's why it's affordable. For many of the music schools and smaller colleges in the area, it's a place where they put up visitors to save some money. What's more suitable? Fancy, expensive, luxury hotel/condos? Because if you tear it down, I can guarantee you that that's what will go up.
Tear (Midtown Hotel) down because it's ugly and anti-urban?
I see your point, but the building is a blight on the neighborhood and looks like it belongs in some 1950s suburb.
Perhaps it could be re-facaded, and a floor or two added?
Look across the street for the blight
I assume you're talking about visual blight - for a much worse example of that, simply look across the street at the Christian Science complex of buildings (and no, I'm not talking about the church itself and the adjacent building, which are beautiful). The high-rise and the long building are hideous, depressing, and do not serve the area well at all. The reflecting pool and the fountain are fine, but the surroundings are atrocious. I understand that you don't like the look of the hotel (and I agree, it's not the prettiest thing), but I think that a facelift of the place would result in higher room rental rates for visitors. I imagine people who stay at the place are thankful for the decent rates, even if it isn't the most outwardly attractive place. If you want the neighborhood to not be so dismal and ugly, a better place to start is with those Christian Science Buildings (including the horrid apartment complex across Mass Ave).
while the own the land the
while the own the land the midtown hotel is on, ron druker has a ong term land lease so they are unable to change that property.
why?
Are the Christian 'Science' people leaving?
If so, good riddance. These "scientists" are the ones who purposely withhold medical treatment from their dying children, and whose beliefs revolve around the personality-worshiping of a pseudo-science crackpot who only spoke in gibberish.
http://www.atheists.org/christianity/xtianScience....
It always creeped me out that these wackjobs would entice innocents in with the Mapparium...it was like their own version of the "personality test" the Scientologists do, or the puppies and candy of people abducting children.
Mark Twain wrote an entire book about how stupid Mary Baker Eddy was:
Also: who died and made the BRA God?
True, But others believe a
True,
But others believe a man survived thousands of years, or that the embodiment of Christ rose from the dead.
All religion is funky.
Tollerance
What's with everyone coming down on other people's religions? Religion is something personal and private and people should generally be left alone to beleive what they want. The argument that some religion's particular beliefs are more harmful than others doesn't stand up. Sure some Christian Scientists don't use medicine but Catholics teach their kids that they are drinking the blood of Christ and the Amish shun, well pretty much everyone. Although I'm not religious, alot of people take solas from their religion and in general make the world a better place.
As to the BRA, you must not have lived around here very long if you don't understand that it might as well be god. See Scollay Square, the West End, the Southwest Corridor, the South Boston waterfront, and just about any building built downtown since the 1960s. God may have created the earth, but the BRA moves more of it where it wants, when it wants.
What's with everyone coming
What's with everyone coming down on other people's religions? Religion is something personal and private and people should generally be left alone to beleive what they want.
It's not a religion, it's a CULT.
Furthermore, most religions do not refute modern medical treatments. Some may teach not interfering with the will of "god", but they don't go so far as to tell you that you're imagining your own illness.
Christian Scientists basically tell people, "SUCK IT UP!"
Sure some Christian Scientists don't use medicine but Catholics teach their kids that they are drinking the blood of Christ and the Amish shun, well pretty much everyone.<?I>
Catholics do not "teach their kids they are drinking the blood of christ"- it's plain-as-day symbolism. Even if it wasn't, it's *harmless* by and large.
The Amish don't "shun pretty much everyone." They prefer a simpler life, that's all. They shun outside attention when the whole world shows up at their doorstep after a horrendous murder...
yeah they do
Sorry, you're wrong. It's called transubstantiation when wine and water is converted into the blood of Christ during the sacrament of the Eucharist. The Roman Catholic church believes in transubstantiation. Some christian protestant sects believe it is symbolic.
I will also take issue with you about CS being a cult but I don;t think I'll argue it with you.
Blood of Christ
No, it's true. Catholicism teaches that Communion is the actual body and blood of Christ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transubstantiation
I agree with you that it is harmless.
I went to catholic school
I went to catholic school for 12 years and can tell you that the official explanation is that the wine is literally the blood of God/Jesus. That fact was never pushed hard on us, but it was brought up, especially in terms of respect for it.
I always took the host, but have only had the wine a few times. Its not the prospect of the "blood" that bothers me. Rather its the fact that I tend to sit near the back and by the time I get to the front of the line hundreds of people have already touched their lips to the cup. The priest "wipes" it everytime with his cloth, but I doubt the cloth is protected by any sort of antiseptic treatment.
Sanitizing the wine glass?
Why's that necessary? Do you also sanitize doorknobs and stair railings and telephones and pens before touching them? Hands have just as many germs as mouths. People touch faces, mouths, noses, eyes, genitals, animals, etc. all day and then don't sanitize their hands before touching other things. Think about how animal waste and toxic chemicals are all over the ground, and we touch the ground with our bags and our shoes and our pets, then we touch those things or set them on "clean" surfaces. There are germs everywhere, and choosing to sanitize 0.0001% of the germ-covered surfaces you touch each day isn't terribly effective. This is why we have immune systems.
(Paging Swirlygrrrrrrrl to give a more scientifically sound explanation that doesn't evoke images of little grry-faced germs jumping onto things.)
Interesting
So you turn doorknobs with your mouth, do you?
I think the commenter would be less squeamish about touching the communion chalice with his hand.
I wash my hands before I eat, and I wash glasses after someone uses them. I don't think that's unusual.
it's all about you
WTF Garth. Why, in the end, is it all about you?
Because you love me so much
You are too stupid to participate in a discussion with the intelligent adults here. Please leave. I know you crave my attention. But you should go somewhere else, where people are uneducated and speak simply, because you will find it more fulfilling. I will never reciprocate your adoration.
i'll leave if you leave
Yea, that's what I want Garth. I want you to stop taking about yourself and start talking about me. You are so smart. You know me so well. Do you still think my mother is a C_A_K W_O_R_? (Do you want to buy a vowel?) Did you really have S_X with her or did you say that out of spite? Never mind, I'd rather you didn't talk about yourself. Now what's all this about when you wash your hands?
Is this why people around
Is this why people around here hate anons???
I noticed that people actually started paying attention to me when I got a name a few days ago.
How do you know he was talking about you?
It may have been that other anon, over there ...
Thank you for being a voice
Thank you for being a voice of reason lol.
Im not a germ freak , I have been known to drink from the same glass as close friends (Hey you gotta try this drink sort of thing.) I also tend to have hand sanitizer on my desk and have a strict floor things belong on floors and table things remain on tables policy. That in mind Im an old school camper, when you roast a marshmellow you do it on a stick not some metal thing you bought at Target (although truth be told I pull out my leatherman, wittle the bark off and run the stick over the flame for a few seconds before I insert the Marshmellow.)
I just feel like it would be akin to kissing 200 people in the same night. Is it going to kill you , most likely not, is it a bit skeevy, sure is! I try not to do that...
Yes, the risk is low
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/01/local/me-b...
However, it is certainly not unusual to be bothered by the idea of drinking out of the same cup as many other people, risk or no. Taking the host and skipping the wine is an acceptable alternative.
You Rang?
There was much interest in the potential to spread contagion via communion cups once HIV arose, and there is renewed interest given superbugs in our midst.
I saw one study from the late 1990s where some German researchers cultured a host (pardon the pun) of nasty germs off a communion chalice rim after communion, but the concentration of organisms wasn't considered to be a threat to healthy people.
HIV and other viruses don't seem to concentrate in saliva in sufficient numbers to poison a chalice, if they could survive the wine (doubtful). More recent studies have failed to turn up any differences in health status among those who partake of a common cup.
There are additional theories as to why chalices don't spread disease. Chief among them is the acidity and alcohol in the wine, combined with the silver in the chalice. All of these are antimicrobial.
The chalice isn't a problem...
... but I had a friend who had to test an everyday substance to look for germs when she was in nursing school, and she tried some holy water. She found all kinds of germs in there.
Well, We've Certainly Gone Far Afield
Let's go further!
Assuming faith in the teachings of the Catholic Church, IF you really possess faith in a benevolent God, you would have to also believe that He will not let you become infected with some hideous disease via partaking of His sacraments during mass.
Discussion?
(Minus the part about the Catholic Church - I'm lapsed, in that regard - I pretty much believe everything in that paragraph. Therefore, my position is out there, and I'll just sit back and wait for the various anons to go at it.)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
A secular view
If chalice sharing created massive outbreaks of disease (any more than large groups of people mingling ...), the ritual would likely have been modified at some point.
If your talking about the
If your talking about the holy water they have at the back of church your supposed to use to bless yourself coming and going then I can see why. God (get it) only knows how many people stick their fingers in there between cleanings/changings. My older aunts and uncles insist on dipping their fingers in deep and then almost splash it on their forhead to do the signs of the cross. I on the other hand dable the tip of my pointing finger in the bowl just low enough to touch the top of the water.
Somebody musta forgot ...
to boil the hell out of it!
Holy shit!
Now that's sacrilegious!
Actually I think if you boil
Actually I think if you boil it, then bless it you should be all set. I dont see how boiling will do it any good, it has two high volumn uses a week (sometimes more)
Why don't the priest's
Why don't the priest's incantations over the water that make it 'holy' make it permanently clean?
Cult?
If the Christian Scientists are a cult, what religion isn't? What makes it a cult? I personally like medicine, but its really none of my business - or yours - if some Christian Scientists don't. Its also a bit of an over-generalization to suggest that all Christian Scientists don't use medicine just as its an over-generalization to suggest that all women muslims wear head scarves. If your issue is that no religion should be accepted that accepts practices that could potentially harm its followers then you would pretty much have to do away with all of them. Despite what you say about Catholocism some Catholics - many of them former Catholics - find the idea of transubstantiation terrifying and recount scary memories from childhood of being told they were eating the flesh anf blood of christ. You would also have to reject islam, as parts of the Koran, if literally interpreted, allow all kinds of nasty things to happen to women. The great thing about our country is that if you don't like your religion, or any religion, you don't have to practice it. You can just believe what you wan't and leave everyone else alone.
The Hard Part
And the Christian Scientists seem to have a much better handle on this second (and more important) part than most of your non-"cult" religions.
Definition of cult
Cult: A religion I strongly disagree with.
Whatever
Scientists, Scientologists, whatever. The only redeeming part of that space is the fountain and that's only because kids like it in the summer. Otherwise, it's a relic of that coke-driven 1970s obsession with "unite d'habite" and needs to be obliterated, post haste.
I think...
...that Scientology and Christian Science aren't exactly the same.
No. In fact, they're quite different from each other.
Christian Scientists definitely have a certain belief or beliefs, which many people don't agree with. However, unlike many Scientologists, Christian Scientists don't go around trying to brainwash, convert, and bully (vulnerable) people into converting to and joining their cult, at least not in the same way, if one gets the drift.
I think it can use some
I think it can use some updating but I wouldnt want to see it drasticly changed. I cant imagine what that land must be worth with all of those big buildings around it. I would say if the Scientists need the money they should allow a portion of the land to be made into a taller building and maintain the rest of the footprint as it is. That area just wouldnt be the same without their glorious pool.
As for the person questioning the BRA I would watch out. They might hear you and decide to build a dump right outside your window...
Reflecting pool
I believe it is an integral part of their air-conditioning system, so I doubt that it's going away.