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They belong to God, not to a gang
We each have a part in healing gang violence. It's time to get started.
Hearing a loud scream, I turned to my left to see a fellow teenager running toward me with a long knife. Noticing that his eyes were looking past me, I turned and saw another teenager, who was aiming his shotgun at him. I yelled to him not to shoot. But the shotgun fired, and the teenager with the knife fell backward, fatally wounded.
Minutes prior to this incident, the sharp end of one of those long knives had been pressed against my neck. I had twice escaped death that afternoon almost twenty years ago. I did not grow up in a ghetto, and I did not belong to a gang, but the public school I went to had its share of gang violence.
Gang activity still touches my life today through the weekly news reports of teenage boys killing one another, as well as innocent bystanders. In spite of what I sometimes feel when reading about the latest victims, I know that prayer has the power to heal crime and social dysfunctions. I find encouragement in a passage from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. Referring to conflicting forces and the ultimate destruction of evil, she writes: "During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but 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."
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1994 - PAMPHLET
Peace in the neighborhood
JSH-Online has hundreds of pamphlets, anthologies, and special editions for you to discover.
September 7, 1992 issue
View Issue-
INSIDE: LOOKING INTO THIS ISSUE
The Editors
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Dating and relationships (part one)
Mark Swinney with contributions from Julia Schechtman Pabst, Michael Pabst
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Prayer that heals
Jeanne Kirkpatrick
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Doing our part to defuse violence
Sharon Slaton Howell
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They belong to God, not to a gang
Julio C. Rivas T.
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Do you need more courage?
Moira Hudson
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Second Thought
"Politics and the Darkness of Lying" by James M. Wall
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Exposing evil as a lie
Richard C. Bergenheim
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A letter to someone who'd like to be dating, and isn't...
Mary Metzner Trammell
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For me, the most important thing I do as I pray is to place...
Carla Zamora Pera
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Since learning of Christian Science and its healing and regenerative...
Walt Herrick, Jr.
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In the past year alone, I have experienced many wonderful...
Milika Nevarez
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It was the night of my piano recital and I was getting ready
Christine DeSalvo with contributions from Kathy DeSalvo