Counter violence with compassion

“Join the Compassion Revolution” was the headline on a recent cover of Maclean’s. The Canadian newsmagazine went on to say: “There’s an urgent call for more compassion as the last-gasp remedy for systems at the brink—politics, health care, the planet itself. But do we have it in us?” (July 2019).

I’ve been considering that we do indeed “have it in us” to bring healing compassion to a world wrestling with problems—most notably the violent attacks that have been committed by those who’ve felt misunderstood, marginalized, and isolated. 

Often the individuals who have perpetrated these terrible acts have views that are abhorrent to most people. In some cases they’ve been recruited and indoctrinated by hate groups that have appealed to their yearning to belong. But however they’ve acquired their skewed beliefs, it is possible to help such individuals have sounder perceptions of themselves and others, and to heal feelings of marginalization before they are expressed violently. 

To urge that we show compassion toward those who may be planning violence asks a lot of society. But honestly, is there any way to prevent such attacks other than doing the hard work of helping others feel valued and included? Such compassion can motivate and support the efforts of professionals and others to uncover and prevent attacks.

There are many ways of helping people want to belong to society and including them. The United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy links sustainable development and the rule of law to preventing attacks. Eliminating violations of human rights, improving judicial systems and electoral processes, and wiping out corruption are all ways of building a fairer society that promotes the prosperity of all of its members. 

My study of the Bible has led me to see that inclusiveness is one of its central themes. In the book of Genesis, God promises to bless all nations. He tells Abraham, “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore;… and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (22:17, 18).

Is there any way to prevent violence other than doing the hard work of helping others feel valued and included?

Interpreting that Old Testament promise in his letter to the Galatians, Paul presents an enlarged, inclusive, spiritual sense of what it means to be a child of Abraham (see Galatians 3:7–29). It doesn’t have to do with ethnicity or with practicing certain rituals. Rather, the children of Abraham are those who—whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, free or slave—love God and their neighbors as themselves. Paul saw that God calls everyone to be a descendant of Abraham because everyone is embraced in the family of God.

The Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, had a profound sense of everyone being included in one universal family—not just as an ideal to strive for but as the actual spiritual reality. In her writings she refers to one infinite Father-Mother God who is divine Love. This Love has created each individual as unique, and to enjoy complete integrity of thought, though God allows no one to be solitary or marginalized. All are united with this one divine Parent, and with each other as coexpressions of the one divine source.

Christ Jesus tells a parable of a shepherd who has a hundred sheep. When one goes missing, he leaves the ninety-nine and searches for the lost sheep, bringing it home on his shoulders, rejoicing (see Luke 15:3–7). The parable indicates that including everyone is paramount. Seeing the spiritual truth that in reality all are included in God’s family gives us a strong basis from which to seek any “lost sheep.” 

Christian Science highlights the Master’s distinction between abhorrent thoughts and actions and the perfect, spiritual individual of God’s creating, sinless and pure. This didn’t cause him to accept wrong actions, but rather to rebuke evil by seeing that it isn’t from God and has no legitimacy or authority. In this way, Jesus viewed the true, flawless identity of God’s creating, and this brought positive change. For example, he healed a man who was aggressively violent and living in isolation in a cemetery. Casting out the demons plaguing the man, Jesus made him well mentally and brought him back to society (see Mark 5:1–20).

In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy teaches how to deal with evil effectively and compassionately by making the distinction between what the Bible calls the carnal mind, which is hatred against God, and the individual who is the spiritual reflection of God. Over and over the Bible emphasizes that there is nothing apart from God, so this carnal mind and its claim to intelligence, power, and even existence is illusory. 

The carnal mind is a false sense of mind that opposes good and is the source of fear, discord, and hatred. But truly understanding the infinitude of God and living on the basis of the omnipotence of good disarms evil and its supposed power. By watching our thinking and not accepting as valid any claim of evil, we help eliminate evil in the world. In reality, the individual of God’s creating is sinless and free from evil, but this unchanging truth must be proven in human experience. 

In truth, we are all cherished and safe, each of us valued as a member of the universal family of one Father-Mother God.

Through understanding the spiritual fact of man’s (everyone’s) innate goodness, Mrs. Eddy was able to thwart violent attacks. In one instance, she cured an insane man who was frightening people and was about to attack her. She met him with great love and without fear. Years later, entirely cured, he traced his healing to those few moments with her (see Clifford P. Smith, Historical Sketches, pp. 81–82). 

She also thwarted a gun attack. As she later recounted to a friend, she was at home when she had an intuition that someone was going to shoot her. Suddenly a man walked into her room and pointed a revolver at her. “You cannot shoot,” she told him. His arm instantly became motionless, and he dropped the revolver and left (see Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck, Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, Amplified Edition, p. 301). 

In her Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, Mrs. Eddy explains, “Holding the right idea of man in my mind, I can improve my own, and other people’s individuality, health, and morals;...” (p. 62).

To help bring those who feel isolated, whatever the state of their thought, into the fold of society requires commitment. I was touched to learn that Helsinki, Finland, has virtually eliminated homelessness by first and foremost providing those who are on the street a home, rather than first trying to free them of addictions or mental health issues. 

In several instances I’ve found an opportunity to embrace others who were living on the margins of society. Last year I was coming out of a grocery store in an area where people with mental problems and drug addictions tend to gather. I was about to put my bike pannier on my bike when a disheveled man walked up to me. Though it can be tempting to avoid someone who looks the way he did, I felt compassion and love for the man, so I stood my ground. We chatted for a while about a friend of his who had a bicycle—and then, with good will, we went our separate ways. 

Such a small experience may seem insignificant, but every action we can take as individuals and as societies to embrace those who seem marginalized helps prevent the sense of rejection and isolation that can breed the anger and hate that lead to violent attacks. 

In reality, no child of God is left alone, outside the radiancy of God’s love. Through opening our hearts, we can move from seeing lost sheep, to finding complete and perfect expressions of the Divine. In truth, we are all cherished and safe, each of us valued as a member of the universal family of one Father-Mother God. Our knowing these spiritual truths, and taking action based on them, can bring light to those who seem to be alone and in darkness, and it can prevent attacks.