Is your community held hostage by crime? Are you? Many people are afraid to go out at night. In some areas, people are reluctant to go out even in broad daylight. Crime used to be a concern primarily in large metropolitan areas. Today, violent crime is not unknown in what were once considered peaceful, "sleepy" little towns. And there seems to be no relief in sight.

What are we doing about it? Politicians try to sound tough on crime. They tend to propose increased police protection, more prosecutions, and tougher prison sentences. But is that getting the job done? Of course, crime has to be punished, but are we paying enough attention to crime prevention?

To weed out criminal activity we have to get at the root of it. New York City Police Commissioner Lee Brown, who holds a Ph. D. in criminology, feels that if we are to develop a national crime-prevention strategy, we must confront the conditions that breed crime, such as alienation, frustration, and poverty in American inner cities.

Is there something you and I can do to help bring this about? There is. We can do our part in eliminating bigotry and racism and in increasing work opportunities for all segments of society. We can help strengthen the family, the indispensable building block of society. We can participate in neighborhood watches and cooperate more effectively with the police. And most important and effective of all, we can pray. Not in some vague, hopeless way to an unknown God, but in a proven, scientific manner that brings results.

A woman found herself in a situation in which she practiced this kind of crime prevention through prayer. She was living in a downtown apartment in a large city. One Saturday afternoon she attended a play with her parents. She was going to spend the weekend with them and was briefly returning to her apartment to pick up an overnight bag. While her parents waited for her in the car, she went upstairs to her apartment. She was in the process of unlocking several security locks on her door when a young man held a knife at her throat and forced her to open the door.

Hoping he would go away, she offered him money. He took what she had, but that really wasn't what he was after. Wielding his knife, he forced her into the bedroom.

She was panic-stricken. She wasn't really praying at this point but just trying to figure out different ways to keep this rape from happening. She talked to him. But that just irritated him, and he punched her in the jaw. He was a very angry man.

She had recently begun the study of Christian Science and had begun to learn to rely on prayer for healing. In this danger, she instinctively knew that prayer was her answer. But how to pray about this? There wasn't any time for lots of words. In desperation she reached out to God: "Father, help me see this man as spiritually whole and perfect." She thought if somehow she could see more clearly man's spiritual nature, that would stop this terrible thing. At that point it was as if a voice said to her, "Tell him." But she thought to herself, "What good will that do? I've already tried to talk to him." But then the thought came again, more forcefully than before, "Tell him!" So she said to him: "You are God's child, truly made in His image and likeness." And as soon as she said those words, he left. She was unharmed and, of course, immensely grateful for this proof of God's protection.

What brought about the dramatic change? Was there some magic in those few words spoken by the woman? No, but there was power in her prayer, because it was backed by spiritual understanding. She told the man he was made in God's image and likeness. That's what the very first chapter of the Bible says about man. The Bible also tells us that God is Love. So man as God created him—as the image of Love—must be loving, lovable, fulfilled at peace with himself and others. God's likeness couldn't be dishonest or aggressive. If God is Love, then man must be the immediate object of the Love that is God, and as such, he could not possibly be the victim of crime.

Love, to be truly loving, has to be expressed. Man, the image of Love, reflects, expresses, that Love. But think about it. How can the expression of Love possibly be the perpetrator of crime? Man, as God knows him, is neither the victim nor the perpetrator of crime. Man, the object of divine Love, is safe, invulnerable. Man, the image of divine Love, is pure, innocent. These were the spiritual truths behind her prayer of deep conviction. She was not just mouthing naive words.

As a student of Christian Science she had learned to start every day with such prayer. In fact, most Christian Scientists start their day with study of a Bible Lesson that includes passages from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, a marvelous companion to the Bible, written by the Founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist, Mary Baker Eddy. For years people have found that this lesson gives them the spiritual food they need for the day.

The young woman had started this day with this kind of study and prayer. She had started her day with God, and this morning prayer had given her the assurance that she would be in the presence of God all day. And at that crucial moment, her prayer built on and affirmed her prayers and the study she had done earlier that morning.

What also empowered this woman's prayers was that she was striving to live her God-given purity and innocence. In other words, she lived in accordance with her prayers. Her spiritual innocence lived was a powerful deterrent to the rapist. (This does not mean that if one is attacked sexually he or she has been thinking impure thoughts or is not innocent!) But for our prayers to be effective, our lives increasingly have to bear out the sincerity of our prayers. That means a constant, honest effort to watch our thinking and to live consistent Christian lives. It can sometimes mean major changes in lifestyle and new priorities. If we want to feel the power of God's protecting law, materialism, sensuality, selfishness, resentment, impatience, have to go. They are no part of God or of His man.

There must be a consistent, daily effort to see ourselves and others the way God does. And if God sees man as His image, as spiritual and perfect, shouldn't we make the effort to see ourselves and everyone we come into contact with the same way, as the image of Love, of Spirit? Everyone! Without exception! That includes the so-called criminal.

This doesn't mean ignoring evil or being naive about the motives and actions of others. It's more a matter of looking beyond surface appearances. It's a matter of looking for rather than looking at. Rather than look at a criminal or even just a person who annoys us, we look for the man God knows. It may take a bit of looking, but that man is there, and even if there seems to be little human evidence of this man, our spiritual sense can bear witness to him.

Christ Jesus was known as a friend of publicans and sinners. He even admonished us to love our enemy. We know of this command, but how well are we following it? Is it really possible to love one's enemy? No, it isn't, unless we can see others as God sees them, and there is no way to do that except through prayer. Through prayer we can begin to see that the real man, the spiritual man of God's creating, made in His likeness, has no criminal tendencies. He is not a rapist, an adulterer, murderer, sadist, or thief. He is God's loving likeness. Seeing man as the image of Love doesn't mean we become the doormat for violence and crime or that we passively accept crime. Quite the contrary! In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, writes of those who understand Christian Science that they "... will hold crime in check" and "they will maintain law and order."

We do this by knowing that because God is good, He cannot be the author of evil or crime. Crime is no part of God or His creation. It has no legitimacy in God's reality. His law excludes it. Not only is there no crime in God's reality, but evil of any sort can never find an agent with which to threaten God or His expression, man. As we hold to these facts about God's true creation, our prayers have a transforming effect on our experience. We find we can live lives that are not tormented by fear, and help our neighbors to do the same.

Each one of us can make a difference. We need to support the work of law-enforcement agencies, but we can also have an impact on mankind's thinking. What you and I think and do in our own circles of activity contributes to the collective atmosphere of the world. We can counteract materialism, with its crime, sensuality, hatred, and greed, by expressing thoughts that uplift, heal, cleanse, purify.

Each one of us is an officer of the law of God, and we're always on duty.