Urban warfare is nothing new to Los Angeles, where I live. In the 60s, Angelenos were glued to the television as we watched the racially charged Watts riots from the comfort of our living rooms. Then in the 90s, I saw the city burn during what became known as the Rodney King riots. Again racially triggered, this second set of riots pointed to long-standing challenges within the city that were not being addressed: police brutality, poor inner-city education, unemployment, and its resulting poverty.

Gangs aren’t a new phenomenon, and they aren’t unique to Los Angeles or the United States. They’re a problem that needs to be tackled worldwide. Gangs have been associated with major cities in many countries. In Bulgaria, Canada, Brazil, and Pakistan, gang violence has been particularly brutal.

Sometimes when a challenge seems so pervasive and insurmountable, we’re inclined to ask “What can I possibly do about it?” Seeking an answer to this question has brought me to a meaningful course of action. First and foremost, I’ve seen the need to actively pray about the situation on a regular basis.

Prayer has generally been the starting point in my life. I’ve discovered that I don’t really know what to think or what actions to take (if there’s a need for action) unless I pray first. Plus, when I seek to know God better and to do His/Her will, I’m guided to take a course of action that will make a significant difference. Sometimes the answers are surprising. Sometimes very simple. Always purposeful.

As an Angeleno, I yearned to be a part of the solution to the gang problems. A number of years ago I had an opportunity to do just that. My prayer led me to teach a Bible class for teens in a maximum-security probationary camp for boys. At this camp, which was described as the toughest in Los Angeles County, I came face to face with gang kingpins serving time for murder, drug dealing, grand larceny, vandalism, rape, and the like.

These were supposed to be the tough guys that the system thought couldn’t be helped. But my experience with them was quite different from the system’s expectation. Through my study of healing truths brought to light by Christ Jesus, I’ve come to expect and to find that acknowledging the Christly nature each of us inherently possesses could transform difficult, even violent, personalities.

These boys were no exception. They responded to my conviction that they had a right to see their true selfhood as sons of God. I found them polite, kind, and eager to know more about God and their own true nature. I’m not saying that there weren’t any challenges, but my conviction that God loved them just as He loves everyone else guided and uplifted these sessions.

My prayer about issues like gang violence and other conditions that affect humanity doesn’t follow a particular order or use the same words each time. But prayer that speaks to and from the heart is essential; otherwise it tends to be academic and abstract. Here are some approaches that I’ve found inspiring in praying specifically about gang violence:

God is the only power. Hate crimes subject people to violence because of their ethnicity or some other characteristic—they do not construct a better world. Effective prayer denies hate’s claim to power because it reaches deeply into reality and recognizes that power, presence, and law belong to the one God who is Love itself. This establishes that God’s kingdom is under one divine intelligence, and recognizes that we all live within this kingdom—no matter what the news or personal experience may report to the contrary.

Mary Baker Eddy showed the result of such prayer in her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures when she wrote: “One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself;’ annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.”

Each individual is the child of Love. Prayer shows me that God’s creation is good. The men and women that God has shaped can’t lack a true sense of family or be filled with fury. Turning to Love, the supreme Ruler, allows us to specifically challenge the pernicious suggestion that hatred and revenge have a place in Love’s children.

Instead, evil is absolutely foreign to God’s offspring. Christ is the divine message from God that tells us what is true about ourselves and gives us the desire to be and do good. The power and presence of God and His Christ simply leave no place for hatred or even anarchy.

Fear can’t stand before Love. Fear also seems to be a big factor, especially in the areas where gang activity is most prevalent. As a result, I find that tackling fear—first my own, then others’—is very important in my prayer. The Bible tells us, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.”

For me, the most effective way to tackle fear is to acknowledge that none of God’s ideas has any quality or nature underived from Love—not a single thought or action. Fear melts in the presence of infinite Love, because when Love fills all space, there is nothing left to fear.

God’s authority is supreme. I find it helpful to acknowledge that my prayer is actually the recognition of God’s authority. It’s not up to me personally to change a local or world condition, because this divine authority is supreme even on the human scene. And God’s divine influence—or Christ—can lead people to change, can soften hearts, and bring solutions to light in ways that might be quite unexpected.

Divinely inspired solutions make us free. I also find it useful to realize that the animosity I’m seeing or reading about isn’t a fixed reality, but a misconception about God’s harmonious universe. Rather than focusing on the problem, I most need to know what’s spiritually true about everyone. Christ Jesus saw this so clearly when he said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I often remind myself that it’s my job to “know the truth” and God’s, Truth’s, job to make us free. I’m happy to see that as God’s children, we all have a right to a hate-free, harmonious, and purposeful life. But I’ll gladly leave the job of making us free to God!

God’s kingdom is forever. And last, I put a finishing touch on my prayer. The Lord’s Prayer ends by acknowledging that all power belongs to God, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.” This authority isn’t just for a moment, it’s forever. Sometimes I get a bit wordier by reminding myself that the truth I’m praying to understand can’t be reversed or upended.

Does it work? Well, week after week, as I went to teach my class, I put these ideas into practice by treating every guy with dignity, respect, and heartfelt love. We found lots of common territory as we talked about our desire to know God better and to have more harmonious home, family, neighborhood, and work environments.

Most of the boys overcame limitations of some kind. Some dropped their anger at the “system” and worked toward their release by being more cooperative. Their true Christly nature was increasingly revealed in how they approached everything from school work to interactions with boys from other gangs.

As I learned from this experience, you and I can play an ongoing and significant role in helping to reduce, and eventually eliminate, escalating gang warfare. Even if you don’t live in a city where gangs are a problem, your prayers to better understand God’s love for and sole sovereignty over His creation will make a difference.By turning your thought outward to seek practical solutions to the glaring needs of our world community, and making divine Love your starting point, trust me, you’ll be guided every step of the way.

Spiritually based brotherhood:

Science and Health
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King James Bible
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John 8:32
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