Crime expressed in violence in the streets is presenting a problem that demands swift solution. People have often been tempted to redress injustice both privately and publicly by taking the law into their own hands. One crime seems to them to be justified if it offsets another. This may give a temporary sense of justification, but it can never establish law and order on a sound basis. Each offense tends to provoke retaliation, and crimes become progressively more violent and more unreasoning.
All crime represents lawless action arising from lawless thinking. And violent, lawless thinking is the product of the carnal mind; it can never accomplish permanent good, however great the human provocation. Mortal mind is the criminal, the strong man that needs to be held in control.
What is the solution to this challenge? Is it to sit back passively and allow injustice to continue unchecked and crime to undermine and corrupt society and victimize innocent citizens? Or is there some effective, lawful way in which we can contribute to the enforcement of justice and to the control of crime? Christian Science assures us that there is. It is to pray. This is a basic need.
