Law enforcement officers are, at this very moment, tracking down terrorists in many parts of the world. The purpose? To apprehend and punish the perpetrators of unthinkable crimes against humanity—bombings, gas attacks, hijackings, slaughters. Cities in the Middle East, Japan, and heartland America are on the alert with counterterrorist activities: checkpoints, complex security systems, weapons-detection devices. At New York City's World Trade Center alone (scene of a 1993 bombing), these anti-terrorist measures run up a yearly cost of about $25 million (see Richard Lacayo, "How Safe is Safe?" Time, May 1, 1995).

Well-intentioned and necessary as all these efforts may be, though, they're not enough to make people in airports and office buildings and embassies and subways and schoolyards feel safe. This is especially true in areas where terrorists have once struck.

A few days after the recent Oklahoma City bombing that killed at least 167 children, men, and women, I talked to a young law student living there. "It's scary," he said. "I don't want to go downtown. Maybe in a few months, but not now." When I asked him if people there were praying, he said, "Sure, I think everybody is."

How do you pray about terrorism? President Clinton hinted at some ways when he spoke to eleven thousand mourners at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds the Sunday after the attack. "Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. In the face of death, let us honor life" (Associated Press, in The Boston Globe, April 24, 1995).

These words go to the heart of terrorism's objective: to use violence and fear tactics to manipulate public thought. Terrorism usually aims to shape political policy by scaring citizens so much that they're ready to do anything—even sacrifice their principles —to stop the violence and killing. Yet as the President said, it's important to resist this bully strategy. It's important to stand up to fear, and not abdicate to this kind of coercion.

But how do you keep from feeling vulnerable to terrorism when you travel or go to work or just walk down the street in your own hometown? How do you keep from being afraid—as many people say they are—that every curbside rental car contains a bomb or that every unusual-looking passenger on your plane is a hijacker?

Well, maybe the best way to keep from being terrorized is to realize the all-power of God. You can stop to consider that there just isn't any power besides unending good, the loving and caring Father and Mother of the universe. There's no outside to His allness. There are no sinister forces of evil and destruction that can find a place within His infinite kindness. Simply knowing this is a dynamic form of prayer that, in the President's words, "stands up" to hatred and violence and death itself. It's an affirmation that corresponds to the last line of Christ Jesus' prayer: "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever" (Matt. 6:13). Mary Baker Eddy explains Jesus' words this way: "For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 17).

The great comfort of prayer like this is in what it says about every one of us. After all, if God's kingdom reigns, it reigns in us too. If God is "forever," then we, His children, are "forever" too. Because God is indestructible and eternal, you and I are too. In fact, nothing God made—nothing in His entirely spiritual creation —can be destroyed, because God can't be destroyed. Good can't be destroyed, Love can't be destroyed, Truth can't be destroyed. And they can't be terrorized either.

Maybe this is why Jesus felt so confident telling his opponents that, even if they killed him, he would—in just three days—rise from the dead. He knew that no amount of hatred or brutality could possibly wipe out his indestructible being. Speaking of his body as a "temple," he said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19–21). And Jesus' resurrection proved the truth of his words.

Now, you might be thinking, "Well, that was Jesus. But what about me? I live in a world that's fraught with angry people who are ready to kill just about anybody to get what they want!" But the facts of eternal Life and Truth and Love that sustained Jesus are just as valid now as they ever were. So you can trust God to lead you through a crisis situation—even a terrorist situation.

That's what happened to a friend of mine a few years ago. He'd just finished cashing a check in his neighborhood bank when someone grabbed him by the arm and aimed a shotgun at his chest. The rest of what happened seemed like a dream. Three men dressed in fatigues herded the customers and bank personnel into the back part of the bank and made them crawl under the desks. Then, the robbers proceeded to empty the vault.

Through all this, my friend held on to these thoughts: that God is Spirit, and that His children are spiritual. When one of the men dug a pistol into his side, he thought, "I'm spiritual. I'm indestructible. And so is everyone else here." That kept him calm. And almost everyone else stayed calm. Before long, the intruders left. No one was hurt. Everyone was thankful.

Although my friend never learned for sure whether the robbers were apprehended, his prayer gave him a conviction that God alone is governing—controlling every criminal intent.

As he looks back on it now, my friend is still a little amazed at the cool courage he felt that day at the bank. Only God, he thinks, could have given him such confidence that everything would turn out all right. Macho bravery wouldn't have had the healing effect that came from his quiet faith in God. As Mrs. Eddy wrote in Science and Health, "Nothing but the power of Truth can prevent the fear of error, and prove man's dominion over error" (p. 380).

Prayer is feeling God's power and care in a very immediate way, like my friend did. This kind of simple, from-the-heart prayer does more than counteract terror. It destroys terror. And without terror, there can be no terrorism.

Mary Metzner Trammell

PSALMS

Who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God? It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.

Psalms 18:31, 32