The two women in the subway were reading the newspaper. They exchanged but few words. One woman sighed, "This thing with the criminality is getting worse and worse." To which the other responded, "Yes, it is, and there's nothing one can do about it." Then they became deeply engrossed in their reading material again.

The hopelessness of the second statement in particular affected me, and I thought about why I could not, nor did I want to, agree with it.

Much is written on the causes of criminality. Several contributing factors may now be the open borders in Europe and the increasingly evident gap in income levels, internationally operating criminal organizations, and a flourishing illegal drug trade.

We are not helplessly at the mercy of these developments, but can effectively challenge crime. Don't apathy and resignation foster crime, thus giving rise to the impression that too little is being done to prevent deeds of injustice and that the door is wide-open to crime? One crucial aid in fighting crime is an active standpoint of prayer. Through unprejudiced prayer we help further establish qualities such as justice and honesty in human consciousness. Discernment, sharpened through prayer, enables us to differentiate, free of doubt, between right and wrong actions and uncover wrong impulses and unjust motives.

Any crime is sin. It is irrelevant whether the thief is driven by poverty or some other circumstance; whether he is a White-collar criminal driven by competitive thinking or a terrorist driven by an ideology. Not even motives that seem to be good justify a criminal act. Sin always expresses a mortal outlook that presupposes good to be something material and limited. The perpetrator, accepting the mortal concept of an incomplete man, may believe in lack, which he would attempt to compensate for by doing wrong.

In his First Epistle, the Apostle John makes it clear that we must distinguish between the sinful, mortal man on the one hand and the God-created, perfect, sinless man on the other, which is our true selfhood. He writes, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (I John 3:9).

Through our understanding of man's complete and innocent nature, we help to demonstrate this pure and upright idea of God in human experience. The image of a sinning mortal seeking to gain abundance and fulfillment for himself by ruthless means must be uncovered as the counterfeit of God's perfect man. This standpoint does not imply that we deny crime or ignore it. Yet we can separate the sin from our concept of the individual's true identity. We can see through sin as something that cannot lay claim to reality, which is expressed in the spiritual, Godlike qualities of the God-created man. In prayer, we need to affirm the spiritual idea to be the sole reality and point out the illusion of the pitiful picture of a guilty mortal. From the prayer that recognizes this true idea of man as innocent is felt an influence that transforms and uplifts the human consciousness.

This influence is the Christ, which was perfectly expressed in Christ Jesus. It is a message that can reach every individual. The healing power of the Christ is made clear in the Gospel of John when Jesus forgives the woman taken in adultery, enabling her to identify herself with her God-given, innocent, perfect nature. Certainly, transformation can't be a tactical move in order that some punishment be avoided—in this case, the death penalty. Rather, isn't genuine transformation a rebirth that actually makes possible a new life? Transformation and rebirth go hand in hand with forgiveness of sin. Mrs. Eddy explains it this way in the Christian Science textbook: "Sin is forgiven only as it is destroyed by Christ,—Truth and Life" (Science and Health, p. 5). The Christ, through its irresistible influence in the human consciousness, unmasks even hidden wrong and brings it to the light for correction.

Society's right to be protected from criminal actions stands. Consequently, crime is prosecuted and punished in accordance with human laws. In this way, the human jurisdiction will, by means of the punishment and restitution required, help to awaken the sinner and bring to light justice. The way is free for every person—before as well as after a judicial evaluation of what he or she has done—to become conscious of the transforming power of the Christ and to arrive at a new, just, innocent code of conduct.

Mrs. Eddy was always conscious that crime must be atoned for and the criminal redeemed from his sin. In 1881 she visited the assassin of the American President Garfield in his cell. In her work Miscellaneous Writings she describes the assassin's state as "moral idiocy," rendering him incapable of judging the crime, thus even making him view himself as the victim, not the perpetrator. She tells how the assassin was touched by her few words and how the prison guard thanked her because instead of bouquets she had brought the prisoner something that did him good. What was that?

Mustn't it have included the understanding that crime is the result of a diseased state of mind, which can be healed by God's unlimited power? She writes: "This state of mind is the exemplification of total depravity, and the result of sensuous mind in matter. Mind that is God is not in matter; and God's presence gives spiritual light, wherein is no darkness" (Mis., pp. 112-113).

Christian Science teaches man's innocence and shows his unalloyed, purely spiritual nature. To concede this innocence to every individual has a correcting influence on one's thinking and actions. In this way the mental atmosphere is prepared that enables anyone to give up his or her wrong conduct and to open consciousness to the spiritual light of God's presence.

The spiritual man, God's idea, is the expression of all-embracing divine completeness and perfection. He cannot suffer any lack, because as God's likeness he is one with Him, inseparable from infinite supply and true fulfillment. Man's innocence is inviolable; it exists forever in the divine Mind. We can consciously acknowledge the redeeming activity of Christ, Truth, to bring to light this innocence, with its healing and protecting effect, and in this way uplift human consciousness. And we can also, in this way, do something about criminality. Your contribution is so important.

Michael A. Seek

Associate Editor, Der Herold der Christlichen Wissenschaft

ROMANS

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Romans 13:12