Article February 23, 2015 Issue

How to stop a war

Emily Byquist

It was the 1960s, and the Vietnam War was raging. Like many members of my generation, I was opposed to the war and very much wanted to help bring it to an end. I felt impelled to pray about the conflict, but it was hard to believe that the prayers of one individual could have any real impact on such a formidable problem.

Then the subject came up in my Christian Science Sunday School class. The other students and I asked our teacher whether one person’s prayer could really have an effect on pressing global issues, particularly those, like war, that have plagued humanity throughout history. Our teacher assured us that it could, and she gave each of us an assignment for that week: Go and stop a war.

I was sure I had never heard anything so outrageous. How could an inconsequential person like me—a college student—stop a war? While I was by no means a radical, I had been supporting the peace movement for some time, and my association with it had left me certain of one thing: Ending a war is a long and complicated process.

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