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“I know you want to talk to me about Christian Science, but I’ve always been hesitant to talk about it. I’m not ashamed of my membership—my study—of Christian Science, but so many people misunderstand or mistrust the religion, so I have become very secretive. I mean, Helen Hayes doesn’t get into arguments over being a Catholic, but I’ve had some unpleasant conversations. But I’ll talk to you about it, because it is true that Tennessee [Williams] did reach out to me, as he did to Edith Evans, to learn more about it. I think he hoped some of the teachings of Christian Science would help him with his drinking, with his doubts. The doubts lead to the drinking, to the drugs, and he wanted to know how to get to the root of the problem, to get to the doubts. I sent him some books, and I do not know if he read them. I do not know if they helped. However, he would call me and ask questions, and he sent me that wonderful gift I showed you, and then you showed up with another gift from him that he bought in New Orleans. I was astounded, moved. A perfect circle. I hope I was of some help to him.

“I was introduced to Christian Science by a friend who was worried about the horrible headaches I was suffering. We would now call them migraine headaches. Horrible pain. I would be incapacitated for a couple of days. Blind, almost, from the pain. I had never heard of Christian Science, but I tried it, and I have not had a headache since. But there’s more to it than headaches. My study of Christian Science freed me from fear, and I had a great deal of it. My study of Christian Science taught me always to focus on love—love of others; love of what others are doing; love of the world, which leads me to pay attention to it. I just felt liberated—yes, that’s the word. Liberated. I could know on which foundation I stood, which was that God had prepared the plan, and I only had to follow it.

“I know there are people who embody the spirit of Christian Science, without the study of it. Truth is truth. Truth is current. If you ready to commit to love and goodness, you become, I guess, a Christian Scientist, a Buddhist, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, a Jew—anything, really, that devotes minds and hearts to doing and being good.

“Look at Marian Seldes. I am so happy that you know her. And Ruth Gordon. Those are two women who really are lessons in how to live and how to treat people. I think they have dipped their toes—as Ruth put it to me—in Christian Science, but they would never call themselves such a thing. They are just good people. You ask me if I want to be a good Christian Scientist, and I really want to be a good person.

“I worked with Shirley MacLaine on her first film. She was so young, bursting with joy and energy. She has now written books and talked about her beliefs and studies, and it is labeled New Age, but I think it’s just truth. It’s love. I never talked about faith or religion with Shirley, but she was a lesson. There was no exhaustion on that set, because she was so curious and loving, while also being so intelligent. That is a rare combination. There is some of that in Jane Fonda as well. A very sharp curiosity combined with a deep affection for everyone and everything. I wake up every day and bless the world and all in it. That is my true religion. That is my true belief. Christian Science is the means by which I came to that belief and that practice.

“Divine Love. That’s what it is.”

© 2024 James Grissom

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