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Eye on the World: prayer for our cities
Christian Science asserts that prayer can be a powerful response to violence of any kind. In addition to revealing law-enforcement solutions that will protect and uplift everyone, prayer also reduces crime by dissolving the dark mentality that would give purpose to violent acts in the first place.
Those interested in how prayer -- which can seem like a passive response to the visceral problem of crime -- can really make a difference in assuring safety and security will want to read “Prayer that prevents crime in our cities.” The author points out that not only can we refuse to condone violent behavior or accept it as legitimate, we can go a step further by insisting that no element of God’s creation, including us, can victimize or be victimized by another.
“Interrupt violence before it happens” continues this line of reasoning. When we pray for our cities, we’re not asking for God’s miraculous intervention -- we’re seeing that crime of any kind is no part of the expression of God and therefore has no legitimacy in anyone’s thinking, and we’re expecting to see harmony reflected in peaceful communities and constructive interactions with others.
You may also be interested in how Christian Scientists were responding to violence through prayer years ago. “Holding crime in check,” published in the Sentinel in 1952, argues that “it is our privilege and duty both as Scientists and as citizens to handle spiritually and scientifically the aggravated evidence of crime… God's man is not condemned, but evil must always face the condemnation and destruction which Truth inevitably brings to it.”
Mary Baker Eddy wrote at one point that “those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 97 ). Violence in our cities, whether apparently premeditated or random, can be minimized and eradicated as we make progress toward the recognition that God embraces, protects, and inspires His children.