[The participants are Parker Thomas and Rob McKinnon.]

McKinnon: Most of us would like to help prevent crime and hold it in check. We do what we can to help support the fight against poverty and injustice, the roots of crime in general. But many of us feel that there's just not much else we can do.

Thomas: Well, in a very real way there is. As important as is the help we provide in overall efforts to eliminate injustice and other conditions breeding crime, as important as is our support of law enforcement agencies, as willing as we may be to reach out to stop an act of violence, there is more that we can do.

McKinnon: Fortunately very few of us encounter situations that could lead to a killing, for example.

Thomas: In a way, though, perhaps we do. We may not have thought of it in this way, but most of us have at times been guilty of looks that stab and words that cut and kill. So one way we can individually help prevent crime is to take a fresh look at how consistently we have been living up to the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" (Ex. 20:13).

All crime starts with the individual, so really obeying the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" and controlling so-called criminal thinking is quite a contribution. Christ Jesus brought out that criminal thoughts and acts are very closely linked, when he said (Matt. 15:19), "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies."

Who knows, for instance, at what point in his day an individual's own abruptness, open display of prejudice, or killing look or words might prove to be the last straw and lead someone to commit a violent act? On the other hand, might not an act of Christian mercy or compassion or understanding save the day for someone?

McKinnon: You're saying, then, that preventing crime involves everyone on an individual basis, not just people working in institutions or on police forces.

Thomas: That's right. What we individually cherish and long for in our hearts has an effect—for or against crime—not only on ourselves but also on others. We all can help keep crime in check as we overcome greed, fear, hatred, and other ungodlike thinking.

McKinnon: Many people believe that greed and hate, brutality and hostility, are natural to men, that civilization has a very thin veneer.

Thomas: But it doesn't have to be that way. Man in his true nature has no criminal tendencies. It is a false concept of man that would link him to savagery, brutality, and violence.

In law there is a plea a defendant may use in defense of a charge of a crime, the plea of mistaken identity. He would make this plea if he were not guilty of the crime he had been charged with because somebody thought he was someone else. We might apply this concept to the mistaken identity of what we conceive to be ourselves or our identity. Sometimes we may think of it as linked with criminal tendencies and other ungodlike thinking. But actually our true identity is linked with God, good, and with expressing the qualities of God, which are harmful to no one but bless all.

So we must take care not to identify ourselves or others with the mistaken concept that any of us are capable of expressing hatred, brutality, or violence. Even a glimpse of what God made man to be provides a sound basis for overcoming the greed and the hate underlying crime.

When we recognize that God is divine Love, boundless, limitless Love, the source of all good, as the Bible brings out, we see God's goodness embracing each of His children, always providing for them and leaving nobody out. We see that because God is the one Spirit or Mind, there can be no limited mind capable of inflaming, degrading, or misdirecting man.

McKinnon: How can this view of man you've been describing make a difference for those of us concerned about doing something to prevent crime?

Thomas: Recognizing man's true identity, we no longer accept hatred or brutality as any part of our own or others' true nature, even though they include so-called criminal types. We learn to separate the individual from these ungodlike qualities. We acknowledge that everybody has a God-derived right to express integrity, happiness, and noble life-motives. This gives us courage to act to help free ourselves, our children, and others from accepting a criminal mode of thought and behavior.

Let me tell you how one layman is helping in a modest way to prevent crime. He's a busy contractor, but devotes a great deal of time to helping those young people in prison who so often seem locked into a life of crime. His institutional work includes conducting church services and ministering to the spiritual needs of inmates who express an interest in Christian Science.

When he started working with the inmates, he realized he first had to examine his own thinking to make sure that he understood that man in his God-given nature has no criminal tendencies, that it is only a false concept of man that will link anyone to violence, thievery, or brutality. He prayed to separate greed, lack, and hate from his concept of man, the man God created in His likeness— spiritual, loving, sinless, and complete. And he had to make sure his actions in his own life reflected more honesty and fairness. Well, since then he has talked to and prayed for many young men and helped them free themselves from a life of crime.

McKinnon: What kind of approach has he taken to do this?

Thomas: At one time he came across a very belligerent young man whom nobody liked and no one could discipline. The contractor prayed to see that individual in his true God-given nature, although this individual did everything he could to disrupt church services, for example. Eventually he asked to talk to the contractor. He explained that he really wanted to be better, but he didn't know how to go about it. In addition, he was completely estranged from his whole family.

The contractor asked him to study the chapter on Prayer in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy and said he would pray for him. The contractor prayed to see that God's goodness embraces each of His children, that no one is left out. Together they talked about this.

Within a short time the young man's family started contacting him again. He became more cooperative to work with, and he stopped carrying a chip on his shoulder. Although this didn't happen overnight, he has had a complete regeneration of character. When he was released, he went back to his family, got a job, and now leads a normal and respectable life.

It's a demand on all of us to be consistent in helping to prevent crime. This obligation is indicated in Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 61): "The good in human affections must have ascendency over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happiness will never be won. The attainment of this celestial condition would improve our progeny, diminish crime, and give higher aims to ambition."