Article July 27, 1992 Issue

Locked into riotous thinking?

The Christian Science Monitor

All day we had been hearing about the intense rioting going on in Los Angeles and other cities. Now in our own city, rioting, looting, overturning of cars, had come within a block of the place where we live. As we joined in prayer with some friends who live nearby, we firmly faced a mob's anger with an understanding of God's presence, the presence of divine Love. The riots stopped in a very short time without reaching our homes. But, we can't stop there. Frustration and ignorance continue to try to disrupt harmony. We have to continue to pray and persist in gaining a deeper understanding of the power of God.

This recent encounter with the community's overflowing anguish reminded me of how I'd had to come to grips with the Watts riots some years ago. At that time my husband and I were doing a great deal of traveling, and I wasn't really affected by the riots at first. Then we returned to a place where we stayed frequently. I had come to know and love the woman who cared for our room. She was dignified, conscientious, loving, always joyful. My love for her impelled me to do something about the rioting that was having such a devastating effect on her community.

I began to pray. I identified prejudice, frustration, ignorance, fear, as some of the forces that incited the rioting. I had to admit to myself that I am sometimes frustrated, ignorant, fearful, even prejudiced. As I continued to reason prayerfully, I realized that every time I expressed these—or similar—negative thoughts I was letting my thinking run riot. I began to see that correcting my own disturbed state of thought would help to eliminate at least my contribution to community prejudice, anger, and fear. This, in turn, would help make an actual difference in calming what was occurring. And it would foster constructive action.

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