Article December 10, 2001 Issue

your INSIGHTS

with contributions from William D. Ansley, Zina Bauman, Renée Bogrand Alton, Sandra Justad

When I started to pray about the threat of terrorism, I felt almost paralyzed because I was thinking more from the standpoint of "What can I, just one person, do in the face of a whole system devoted to hate and destruction? What can I, just one person, do in the face of mass murder and mass mayhem and mass hysteria?"

As I prayed, I started to think of creation, of existence, of the universe as ordered by the supreme creator, governed by the one divine power, and controlled by the one good, all-powerful, all-loving God.

When I realized that God is responsible for His creation. His children, His universe, I no longer felt that it was my personal responsibility to face off with evil, with terrorists, with suicide bombers. Rather, I had to stop being impressed by the evil that I saw all around me and to align my thought with good; to look for the good that had to ultimately dominate; to side with good in my mental arguments; and to challenge impersonal evil with a deeper and more expansive understanding of the universe that was created and controlled and protected by the one supreme power, the one primitive creator, the one absolute force—the one all-loving God.

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