Article December 4, 1995 Issue

Prayer and watching world events

Lacy Bell Richter

How concerned should we be about crime in our international community? Are local happenings symptoms of global trouble? It may seem odd that these questions bothered me while I was reading about a local police officer who, though off duty, was killed when he helped another officer arrest a criminal. yet the fact is that the city where I live is becoming increasingly international in outlook. This helps to inform my view of the city and the events that take place in it.

So I asked myself: Is anyone exempt from responding to disasters anywhere? Is anyone excused from the moral and spiritual obligation to address crime or other trouble through prayer no matter where the trouble occurs?

Honesty compelled me to acknowledge that blindness to humanity's well-being does need healing. As many people do, I turned to the Bible and found these words very helpful: "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness" (I Thess. 5:5). For me, a Christian Scientist, this reveals two basic points: Only God, infinite good, defines and determines reality because God is Truth and light. Therefore reality is "not of the night, nor of darkness," and evil (darkness) has to be a mistaken belief about reality.

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