Religion: Unity

As thoughtful U. S. churchmen know many a U. S. cult has prospered by: 1) promising, and to some extent producing visible results here & now; 2) spreading doctrines which seem more plausible more understandable, than those of the established churches. A cult which has done well on this broad basis is one known simply as Unity. One of its high priestesses, a well-dressed, pleasant-faced woman named Mrs. Georgiana Tree West announced last week in Manhattan’s swank Waldorf-Astoria Hotel that she had incorporated a new Unity Center in that city, was hunting a permanent location for it. Said Mrs. West: “There is a new religious era, and it is being led by women. Women have the new vision of the new interpretations of the teachings of Jesus Christ.”

Unity was founded 50 years ago in Kansas City by a wife and husband, down on their luck, named Myrtle and Charles Fillmore. Suffering from tuberculosis Mrs. Fillmore suddenly came to believe that there was a supreme power which could conquer all “negative or destructive agencies.” She cured herself of her ailment and Mr. Fillmore got over a diseased hip. Accounting themselves new interpreters of the “scientific teachings” of Jesus Christ, the Fillmores set out to devote their lives to spreading the gospel of Unity, declaring that man could maintain direct communication with God (in morning and evening “silences”), and that Unity could, and eventually would, triumph over death. For their work the Fillmores resolved to charge no fees, merely accepted “love offerings.” Of love offerings there were plenty.

Not yet ready to conquer death, Myrtle Fillmore died in 1931. Today, Charles Fillmore, 83, is president of the Unity School of Christianity, founded in Kansas City to train Unity teachers. A 1,320-acre farm 16 miles away is designed eventually to be “Unity City,” a Jerusalem of Unity’s anticipated Kingdom of God on earth. Unity has a predominantly feminine leadership; attracts few men to meetings; keeps no complete membership lists. It claims—although it negates many Christian teachings—that it works in the framework of the churches. It has also the framework of a publishing business—seven Unity magazines* have 2,000,000 paying subscribers. The department of absent treatment, called Society of Silent Unity, has a staff of over 60 constantly praying people, to whom believers may write, wire or telephone at any time and have prayers said in their behalf. A love offering is expected from those who benefit.

From Kansas City every month, believers in Unity receivce a “Prosperity Thought” and a “Healing Thought” which they are expected torepeat silently and cogitate for 15 minutes a day. Similarly, the faithful are urged to send for “Prosperity Banks” which to the accompaniment of prayers and recitations, they are expected to fill with $3 during seven weeks, the money being used to send Unity publications to new prospects. They may, likewise, buy Unity phonograph records, one such, the Consecration of the House, being catalogued: “Can you imagine any thing more desirable, were you moving to a new home, than to have Charles Fillmore dedicate it?”

On Unity Farm last fortnight, with Mrs. West as president, was held Unity’s Annual Conference. Already under way on the handsome, well-kept farm was a summer Unity Training School, whose folder reminded students that “Tuition is paid on the love-offering basis,” and bore a picture of Jesus Christ with the caption “Headmaster.”

* Unity Daily Word, Progress, Good Business, Weekly Unity, Unity, Unity Sunday School Leaflet, Wee Wisdom (for children).