Guest Editorial December 29, 2014 Issue

De-escalating violence

James Spencer

One morning recently, I felt a motherly impulsion to wrap my arms around the world in prayer. I felt the urgency of suffering humanity calling out for tender care and protection. Every day the media was filled with new reports of violent crimes, depraved behavior, terrorism, and tribal wars. No one seemed immune: no child, no adult, no race, no religion. Headlines everywhere blazed: “Escalating Violence.”

Right then, the motherly instinct I had long recognized as an expression of divine Love, of Mother-Father Love, or God, was calling me to take a more active part in de-escalating violence. I felt there needed to be not only an answer for comfort after a possible tragedy, but more important, a way to answer the unspoken yearning for the understanding that prevents such an event from happening in the first place—the call not only to bind up wounds but to supply impenetrable protective armor so there would be no occasion for wounds. The need for this is so apparent when we see photos of mothers grieving over their suffering children caught in the web of violence.

The world generally responds with great care as it races to contain and repair the terrible effects of evil acts that are brought about by hate and aggression. But to forestall these acts of malice, to uncover and stop them before the perpetrators can carry out their twisted purposes, is an even higher goal. Our brave first responders play a vital role. But even better to have alert “early preventers” to demonstrate the dynamic law of divine Principle, Love, that exposes, neutralizes, and destroys the attempt to cause harm and destruction. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes, “Science both neutralizes error and destroys it” (p. 157).

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