Christian Science’s Upbeat Financial Data Questioned

Officials of the Christian Science Church have issued a report saying the organization’s dismal finances have taken a turn for the better.

The report was immediately assailed by critics of the church administration for its tone and its lack of detailed information.

According to the report, which offered the first good news since the collapse of a television venture in the spring, the church’s books are balanced for the first half of the year and a buyer has been found for its Boston television station, WQTV.

Officials said individual contributions have increased despite controversies over church finances and the church’s decision to publish a highly sensitive book about church founder Mary Baker Eddy.

The book, “Destiny of the Mother Church” by the late Bliss Knapp, was declared heretical when it was first issued in 1947 because it compares Eddy to Christ, something critics say Eddy repudiated during her lifetime. If the book is published under Christian Science auspices, the church will be eligible for $98 million from the Knapp estate.

Payment of the bequest is under challenge in California courts. At issue is whether the church’s publication plans meet terms of the Knapp will.

The organization, formally known as The First Church of Christ, Scientist, spent $3 million less than budgeted under an austerity budget for May through October, according to the report.

Last year the church’s accumulated deficits from publishing, broadcasting and administration--to be covered by member contributions and the church’s reserve funds--totaled $150.5 million.

The budget for the year beginning May 1 called for keeping total losses in subsidiary operations to $70 million, with the entire sum to be met by current income.

Use of reserves by officials last year angered many members and prompted a redirection of financial practices.

So far, according to the report, this year’s losses are in keeping with the budget. They totaled $31.5 million in the first six months, down by $32 million from the same period last year.

A critic of the report, Stephen Gottschalk of Wellesley, Mass., said it seems to be asking members of the Boston-based church “to celebrate the results as if this were some kind of triumph.

“The real question that needs to be asked is how the church ever got itself in such a desperate financial crunch that it has to operate within so stringent a budget,” he said.

A dearth of figures in the report makes it impossible to judge whether income has exceeded expenditures during the May-October period or whether expenses have been postponed, according to a member knowledgeable about the church’s businesses.

The report said the church signed a letter of intent to sell WQTV to a buyer it declined to name.

The report does not detail whether the church made cuts in activities besides broadcasting, such as its daily newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, to keep within this year’s $70-million budget.