'To Bless All Mankind' May 29, 2017 Issue

Be an Ananias

Rosalie E. Dunbar

Adapted from an article published in The Christian Science Monitor, March 6, 2017.

Crime has recently dropped in New York City, and some say it’s because of a shift in thinking about policing. The Monitor’s editorial board writes: “If police view gang leaders … as capable of a life without crime, then the gang leaders might not see themselves as criminals. Police, in other words, separate the crime from ‘the criminal’ ” (see editorial on facing page).

Seeing an individual as able to be free of criminal behavior speaks to me of our inherent goodness. It harks back to the Bible telling us that we are each created “very good” by God, and that we can never truly lose that goodness because we are God’s spiritual likeness (see Genesis 1:26, 31). Starting in this way gives us a basis for reformation and an opportunity to express that pure identity.

Take the biblical example of Saul. He was so misled regarding the true nature of Christian teaching that he brought about the death of Christ Jesus’ followers. While he was on the road to Damascus, however, he had a vision of Christ Jesus that was so bright to his darkened thought that he became blind and had to be led by others into the city.

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