Love Trumps Violence

What the world needs now. . .

The song, “What the World Needs Now is Love,” with lyrics by Hal David and music composed by Burt Bacharach came out April 15, 1965. The Vietnam war had become a national issue and students everywhere were protesting and opposing the draft. The military conscripted young men, trained them, and sent them off to kill or be killed in a jungle far from home.

That war ended years ago. Did the violence solve any problems?

Now we have two wars going, one in Ukraine and another in the Middle East. Will that violence solve any problems or just create more?

Violence only begets more violence. Hatred more hatred.

Nations and people have a right to defend themselves, but within limits.

Here in the USA we continue to experience mass shootings, 656 last year.

Just the other day a dispute in Kansas City during the Superbowl victory celebration erupted into gunfire killing one and wounding 22. Here in Minnesota two policemen and an EMT were killed responding to a “domestic dispute.”

Rage boils over and a gunman (almost always a male) opens fire in a market or at a school or on a city street.

We may ask why all the violence? But the better question and one we all wrestle with is what can be done to stop it?

While many say the issue is complex, the solution is simple, not easy to achieve but simple.

The solution was laid out over 2,000 years ago and millions of people have spent their lives trying to achieve it. What’s that solution? That 1960’s song tells us that what the world needs is love.

Love, sweet love, that’s the answer, that’s the solution.

Jesus said we must love not only our neighbors but also our enemies.

Going back to early Biblical time, Leviticus 19:18 (NRSVUE) told followers “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Why? Because God tells us to. And who are our neighbors? Anyone and everyone whom we come into contact with or can help.

How do we love our neighbors and even enemies?

We celebrated Valentine’s Day a couple of weeks ago. It provides us with a day when love predominates our thinking. We buy flowers and candy and take loved ones out for dinner.

But take note, we DO something to show another person that we love them. As a friend says: love is a verb, an action. We not only tell people we love them, we SHOW them by our actions.

We hold the people we love close. We know them, we trust them, we care for them. We want the best for them. We go out of our way to show them how much we care. When necessary, we deny ourselves to help them.

Learning to love and be kind starts at home. Kids need two loving parents to care for them and teach them to love and respect others. Too often parents squabble and divorce. Kids suffer. We can usually trace troubled kids back to troubled homes, often with a missing father.

In tough neighborhoods, gangs roam the streets. Young people feel the only way to survive is to join them. Boys and Girls clubs have provided alternatives. Some churches provide after-school opportunities. Schools do too. But what many young people need, especially boys, is a stable adult role model to mentor them and help them deal with life’s problems. Many programs try to provide that.

TreeHouse gives troubled kids from difficult situations a place to retreat to after school. In some cases, it literally saves lives. It provides a Christian environment where kids learn to trust and interact with each other and adults. It provides them with role models. It puts them in touch with the God of the Universe.

Alcohol and drugs pop up everywhere and destroy those who become addicted. Often, they lead to violent crimes. Programs like Teen and Adult Challenge and Alateen seek to reach addicted young people and those impacted by parents with addictions and help them learn to live health, sober lives.

We don’t so much need more programs as we need more support for the programs that exist.

Yes, what the world needs now is love, sweet love. Such a world seems an impossible dream. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others have dared to dream that impossible dream. But they’ve done more than just dreamed it. They’ve walked in protest. Arm-in-arm they’ve stood against violence, bigotry, and hatred.

The world won’t be changed overnight, but if each person tries to live with more love in their hearts; if we can see the face of God in the people we meet each day, even those, or maybe especially those, who are behaving badly, perhaps then our world will begin to change for the better.

What if rather than flipping someone off for cutting in front of us, we said, “Bless you, my friend?” What if we approached disputes with a desire to understand the other person’s viewpoint rather than insisting on our own?

I know we are not a nation of “Good Samaritans,” but I also know we can each do better. I know I can. I also know that if it’s going to be it must start with me. I must do my part.

To summarize, my argument is that love trumps violence. If we want to live in a peaceful world, we must learn to love others, which means wanting the best for them and helping them to achieve their goals, providing those goals do not harm themselves or others. It may mean some sacrificial giving of our own selves: our time, our talents, our money. As the Golden Rule says, treat others as you’d like them to treat you.

And, perhaps the best way to do all this is to band together. Most churches, synagogues, and mosques do this well. If we can see the “face of God” in the people we meet each day and respond accordingly, that will go a long way toward achieving peace and avoiding violence, but we each must do our part.