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31. One does this by silently “arguing” away the appearance of evil: Ibid., 64.
32. in Christian Science the evil thoughts of others make us sick: Ibid., 65.
33. Eddy was giving lectures to packed theaters around the northeast: Ibid., 1.
34. That September, Eddy appointed her editor of the fledgling Christian Science Journal: Ibid., 81.
35. my mom went to work for the Largo Police Department in Largo, Florida, in 1984: P. Gerard, interview, July 11, 2015.
36. they hadn’t had a victim advocate in months: P. Gerard, interview, March 28, 2016.
37. One afternoon, a client wandered away from his group home and was picked up by police: P. Gerard, interview, July 11, 2015.
38. Florida legislators toughened the state’s domestic violence laws, enabling police to make arrests on misdemeanor assault or battery charges even if they hadn’t witnessed an incident: Gibeaut, “Domestic Violence Arrests May Slow Vicious Cycle.”
39. at the time, there was no state- or countywide protocol for responding to domestic violence calls: P. Gerard, interview, July 11, 2015.
40. there wasn’t even a domestic violence detective on the Largo police force: P. Gerard, interview, March 28, 2016.
41. Officers would show up, walk the offender around the block, then take him home: P. Gerard, interview, July 11, 2015.
42. victims recanted their claims, which seemed like a waste of everyone’s time to the officers: P. Gerard, interview, March 28, 2016.
43. Florida legislature passed a law enabling victims to take out injunctions for protection against their abusers: Phillips, “Spouse Abuse Laws Helping Victims.”
44. law enforcement generally considered matters between spouses to be private: P. Gerard, interview, July 11, 2015.
45. When officers responded to a rape call, or a child sexual abuse call, or a domestic violence call, they were supposed to call my mom to the scene: P. Gerard, interview, March 28, 2016.
46. “I’m your victim advocate! Use me!”: P. Gerard, interview, July 11, 2015.
47. That year, the local chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) began lobbying the Police Standards Council: Whitney, interview, March 31, 2016.
48. in 1986, the county passed the policy: P. Gerard, interview, March 28, 2016.
49. Soon after, the Standards Council formed a Domestic Violence Task Force: Whitney, interview, March 31, 2016.
50. She had returned to a puritanical religious approach in Christian Science, eschewing all other schools of metaphysics: Ibid., 15–16.
51. She considered herself something of a prophet with a sole claim to truth: Satter, Each Mind a Kingdom, 82.
52. In the year since her editorship began, Hopkins had shown herself to be an important actor in the Christian Science movement: Harley, Emma Curtis Hopkins, 15–18.
53. In 1885, thirteen months after hiring Hopkins, Eddy abruptly dismissed her: Satter, Each Mind a Kingdom, 81.
54. With encouragement from Plunkett, in late 1885 Hopkins left her husband and son to move to Chicago: Ibid., 82.
55. By spring 1886, she’d founded the Emma Curtis Hopkins College of Christian Science: Harley, Emma Curtis Hopkins, 38.
56. she founded, alongside a group of prominent students, the Hopkins Metaphysical Association: Satter, Each Mind a Kingdom, 82.
57. by the end of the following year, between seventeen and twenty-one Hopkins Metaphysical Associations were operating across the country: Ibid.; Harley, Emma Curtis Hopkins, 51–52.
58. By the end of 1887, she had personally instructed six hundred students: Satter, Each Mind a Kingdom, 82.
59. Hopkins taught that God is all, God is good, and God is Mind: Ibid., 86.
60. Hopkins strongly opposed teachings about sin and repentance: Ibid.
61. Hopkins taught them to “enter the silence” and meditate on “affirmations” and “denials”: Ibid., 87.
62. “I AM power of Life to the universe”: Newman, “The Radiant I Am by Emma Curtis Hopkins (Animated).”
63. In Hopkins’s ideology, God is Father, Son, and Mother-Spirit, or “Holy Comforter”: Melton, “Emma Curtis Hopkins: A Feminist of the 1880s and Mother of New Thought,” 93–94.
64. 1986, the year Pinellas County passed its Preferred Arrest policy: Whitney, interview, March 31, 2016.
65. they could rip up their injunction in front of a police officer and the officer couldn’t do anything about it: P. Gerard, interview, July 11, 2015.
66. There were no domestic violence units in state attorneys’ offices, and no protocol for prosecuting abusers if victims refused to testify: Neal, “Agencies Rated Poorly on Response to Abuse Cases.”
67. Plunkett had absconded to New York with the mailing list for Truth: Harley, Emma Curtis Hopkins, 44.
68. Hopkins transformed the College of Christian Science into the Christian Science Theological Seminary: Ibid., 83.
69. deemphasizing the professional aspect of Christian Science and emphasizing ministry: Ibid., 44.
70. she met one-on-one with every advanced student in his or her final year, developing an individualized curriculum for each: Ibid., 46.
71. The seminary’s first ordination ceremony was held in January 1889: Satter, Each Mind a Kingdom, 84.
72. “Divine Truth has come at last to give woman her proper status in the world”: Harley, Emma Curtis Hopkins, 84.
73. In the seminary’s lifetime, Hopkins would ordain hundreds of female ministers: Ibid., 64.
74. Myrtle Fillmore attended a mental-healing seminar in Kansas City, Missouri, held by the New Thought teacher E. B. Weeks: Freeman, The Story of Unity, 44–45.
75. Myrtle’s symptoms flared and her doctors recommended she leave Kansas City for preferable climes: Ibid., 40.
76. “I am a child of God and therefore I do not inherit sickness”: Ibid., 45.
77. attending every metaphysical lecture that came through Kansas City: Satter, Each Mind a Kingdom, 105.
78. The following year, she and her husband, Charles, began publishing their own New Thought journal, Modern Thought: Ibid., 106.
79. in 1891, Hopkins ordained them at the Christian Science Theological Seminary: Ibid., 107.
80. It was the heyday of New Thought, and churches were springing up in diffuse locations across the country: Harley, Emma Curtis Hopkins, 64.
81. Myrtle supplied the original impetus for founding what was then called the Unity School of Practical Christianity: Ibid., 108.
82. since childhood he had immersed himself in Shakespeare, Tennyson, Lowell, and Emerson: Freeman, The Story of Unity, 27.
83. works of Spiritualism, the occult, and Eastern religion: Satter, Each Mind a Kingdom, 107.
84. Charles had rarely attended church as a child: Freeman, The Story of Unity, 23.
85. Fillmores taught that God is all, God is good, and God is Mind: deChant, “Myrtle Fillmore and Her Daughters,” 106.
86. Affirmation and denial are cornerstones of the faith, as is the application of such statements in healing: Satter, Each Mind a Kingdom, 109.
87. some early pamphlets and articles published by Unity feature titles such as “Curing Colds,” “An Airplane Blessing,” “An Automobile Blessing,” and “A Salesman’s Prayer”: Braden, Spirits in Rebellion, 245–246.
88. we are all Divine. We can all do what Jesus did: Ibid., 261.
89. At the insistence of Mary Baker Eddy, the Fillmores abandoned the name Christian Science: Ibid., 254.
90. adopted that of the Unity School of Christianity: Ibid., 252.
91. it was the Fillmores’ intention to establish not a church: Ibid., 239.
92. Charles finally sought to make clear to himself and others what he really thought and believed: Ibid., 252.
93. he did so in a set of twelve informal lessons based on his own personal experiences, which he taught in an informal, discussion-based format over two weeks: Ibid.
94. Unity finally came to be formalized as a church: Ib
id., 253.
95. Now people were being taught the principles of Unity from a definite point of view, and going on to establish churches of their own bearing the Unity name: Ibid.
96. a Unity field department was established and Unity ministers naturally organized themselves into a ministers association: Ibid., 254.
97. any group that wished to be recognized had to adhere to the Unity teachings and textbooks—and: get rid of any texts and teachings that didn’t conform to the Christ Standard: Ibid., 255.
98. It was expected that the standards would be raised with the passage of time: Ibid., 257.
99. “in prayerful openness to the Spirit of Truth and with the guidance of God”: deChant, Unity and History, 48.
100. Concern had arisen among them that the Unity religion was becoming diluted by Unity churches whose practices were not in line with its foundational teachings: E. Gerard, interview, April 11, 2016.
101. Lowell was a religious moderate and had a vision of growing Unity’s reach in America: deChant, Unity and History, 40.
102. allowing Unity churches to become autonomous: Ibid., 42.
103. promoting practices like crystal healing and channeling, or conversing with spirits: Ibid., 46.
104. practices Charles Fillmore had specifically spoken against: E. Gerard, interview, April 11, 2016.
105. Then Charles Rickert passed and his daughter Connie Fillmore Bazzy assumed his place in 1987: deChant, Unity and History, 41.
106. Unity School had been a center for prayer, publication, and ministerial training: Ibid., 42.
107. the AUC had come about in response to a perceived crisis in doctrine and a failure of leadership: Ibid., 33.
108. Unity School, which had come to have little to do with the operation of Unity churches: Ibid., 43.
109. Now the AUC served as the organizing body of as many as five hundred Unity ministers: Ibid.
110. Lowell’s revisionist leadership had caused a de-emphasis in the movement on such central concepts: deChant, Unity and History, 40.
111. Whereas there was intellectual commerce between the AUC and Unity School, they were functionally and philosophically independent: deChant, “Myrtle Fillmore and Her Daughters,” 104.
112. This gulf between the two leading Unity institutions resulted in a contradiction, and resultant vagueness, of self-definition: deChant, Unity and History, 46.
113. Its prayer center, Silent Unity, was receiving over a million requests for prayer annually: Freeman, The Story of Unity, 220.
114. “What is Unity?”: deChant, Unity and History, 46.
115. Graduates from the Unity Ministerial School and the Unity School of Religious Studies weren’t well versed in Unity’s teachings or its history: Ibid., 47.
116. Unity didn’t even have an accredited theological seminary at the time: Ibid.
117. students in Unity schools were being taught by teachers who lacked terminal academic degrees: Ibid.
118. the U-P.C. had attempted to reach out to Unity headquarters in Unity Village, Missouri, with their concerns, they were rebuffed: E. Gerard, interview, March 20, 2016.
119. The U-P.C. proceeded on the basis of three affirmations: deChant, Unity and History, 48.
120. Those wishing to be members of the U-P.C. are asked to sign their names at the bottom: Unity-Progressive Council, Inc., A Progressive Reaffirmation of Unity Faith.
121. “I was able to thank the person I had been focused on last night for the things she had given me: self-awareness, a clearer sense of my role in my job”: P. Gerard, prayer journal.
122. “amazed to realize how angry I have been and how dramatically different that feels right now”: Ibid.
123. “We’re all really practicing the same religion”: Ibid.
124. “I emotionally felt the Presence, and just let it happen. Joy!”: Ibid.
125. “I always end up stronger and clearer-minded when the dust settles, but it’s most disturbing while it’s going on”: Ibid.
126. the Florida Legislature ordered all twenty state attorneys’ offices to establish domestic violence units: Neal, “Agencies Rated Poorly on Response to Abuse Cases.”
127. the Florida Supreme Court ordered district courts to institute family law divisions: Hallifax, “Justices Rap Domestic Violence Law.”
128. Dell invited my mom to serve on the provisional board of directors: deChant, letter to Emma Curtis Hopkins College provisional board, March 1.
129. The plan was to develop a new division of the Unity-Progressive Theological Seminary into an entirely independent educational institution: Ibid.
130. The first meeting convened on June 30 at Leddy’s home: deChant, letter to Emma Curtis Hopkins College board, May 15, 1992.
131. Dell had already begun the process of laying out degree requirements and a course catalog: Emma Curtis Hopkins College, checklist for temporary licensure.
132. It was decided that my mom would be president of the board and chair the steering committee: deChant, letter to Patricia Gerard, July 13, 1992.
133. Emma Curtis Hopkins College board met late in the evening at the home of one of its members to discuss alternatives for proceeding with the opening of the school: Emma Curtis Hopkins College, board meeting minutes, April 16, 1993.
134. In July, they reconvened at my home: P. Gerard, letter to Emma Curtis Hopkins College board, July 2, 1993.
135. Of the $30,000 they’d determined to raise in April, just $12,000 had been pledged and $3,000 collected: Emma Curtis Hopkins College, board meeting minutes, July 15, 1993.
136. “a hostile and negative series of announcements”: Unknown author, letter of response to Alan Rowbotham, June 1994.
137. “This is not a personal matter to us”: Ibid.
138. decided to move forward with incorporating the school and preparing its application materials for the Florida Department of Education: deChant, letter to the U-P.C. higher education subcommittee, June 5, 1994.
139. any gifts, financial or otherwise, that the U-P.C. higher education subcommittee desired to share, especially books: deChant, letter to the U-P.C. higher education subcommittee, June 6, 1994.
140. By that time, the board had collected just $8,000: deChant, letter to the U-P.C. higher education subcommittee, June 5, 1994.
141. Bob and Campbell Whitaker, president and dean of the school, came to the board with grave news: Whitaker and Whitaker, letter to Emma Curtis Hopkins College steering committee, June 29, 1994.
142. In the church directory from that year, I appear in one photo: United Church Directories, Unity-Clearwater Church, 1994.
143. The opening ceremony of the Emma Curtis Hopkins College was held at a sunny six in the evening in August 1995: Hammock, letter of invitation, July 6, 1995.
144. By this time, the congregation of Unity-Clearwater had grown to almost 1,500 members: Unity-Clearwater Church, Golden Anniversary.
145. “Dear friends, we bless and praise the grand opening of the Emma Curtis Hopkins College here this beautiful Indian summer”: Hammock, welcoming invocation.
146. work on the library was diligent and accelerating: Spicer, letter to Emma Curtis Hopkins College board, May 21, 1996.
147. “I am whole, strong, and full of vitality”: Unity, “Daily Word,” July 5, 2015.
148. “How do we get to be a family?”: Hammock, “Rejuvenate,” July 5, 2015.
149. “There are no accidents”: Ibid.
150. “We survived in spite of the fire”: Hammock, interview, July 5, 2015.
151. “God said let there be light, and there was light”: Hammock, interview, August 12, 2015.
152. Cady was a homeopathic physician in New York when Myrtle Fillmore discovered her pamphlet: Braden, Spirits in Rebellion, 244.
153. Myrtle and Charles later collected Cady’s writings as Lessons in Truth: Ibid., 244–245.
154. Maya Angelou once called it a revelation on The Oprah Winfrey Show: Chapman, “Maya Angelou: ‘God Loves Me’—‘That�
��s Why I Am Who I Am.’”
155. “Seek light from the Spirit of Truth within you. Go alone. Think alone”: Cady, Lessons in Truth, 32.
156. “The sun does not radiate light and warmth today and darkness and chill tomorrow”: Ibid., 39.
157. “We do not have to beseech God any more than we have to beseech the sun to shine”: Ibid., 38.
158. “If you repeatedly deny a false or unhappy condition, it loses its power to make you unhappy”: Ibid., 50.