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Will
Man Ever Love
His
Fellowman?
by
Michael A. Snyder
Few questions are of greater consequence. Read here the truth
about love, law and grace!
Y
ou
HEAR
t his age cha r–
acterized as everything
but what it really is.
Newscasters trumpet our era
as the space age, or the age
of technology, or the comput–
er age.
Yet at this time of incredible
tecbnological achievement, up–
wards of half of the population
of the United States are admit–
tedly afraid to go out at night.
Why?
Why should a brisk even ing
stroll today include the possibility
of rape, inju ry or theft?
Can you explain why?
" l 'm as baffied as ever as to the
causes and cures for crime," admit–
ted one retired police officer who
holds a master's degree in criminal
studies and who taught at the Center
for International Studies
in
London.
Why Lawlessness?
Our long-dead ancestors would be
shocked if they viewed today's con–
tempt for virtue and law.
Do you realize that if the United
States could convert its cost of
crime into tax revenue that it would
vi r tually wipe out the staggering
U.S. budget deficit?
Aprll 1985
Amid all this human confusion
and suffering, the words of the
ancient prophet ring out: "The way
of peace they have not known, and
there is no j ustice in tbei r ways;
they have made themselves crooked
paths; whoever takes that way shall
not know peace" ( Isa. 59:8, Revised
Au thorized Version throughout
unless otherwise
not~d).
But what is this "crooked path"
that humanity has chosen? And
what does it have to do with law–
lessness? Let us first look at what
human knowledge reveals.
What and Why Violence?
Professionals of the social sciences
struggle to explain what tbey term
"socially deviant behavior"-the
criminal mind. I n a private conver–
sation, one professor of a major
Amer ican university admitted to
this author that sociology had not
yet unlocked why one human will
turn to a life of crime and another
won't.
" But," he continued, "we have
uncovered what we understand to
be major factors related to the for–
mation of a criminal mind."
Would you be able to guess
which of these factors is the most
important?
The lack of LOVE!
Erich Fromm says: "Love is the
only sound and satisfactory answer
to the problem of human exis–
tence"
(The Art of Loving,
pp.
111-112). But what kind of !ove?
And how is it acq u ired- and
expressed?
Looking for Answers
Genuine !ove and compassion are
clearly among the rarest commodi–
ties today. Why?
Why shouldn't this world be
filled with !ove, joy, hope and
peace?
" Letal/ you do be done in
/ove,"
wrote the apostle Paul to the young
Corinthian church (I Cor.
16: 14,
Moffatt).
Then why, for more than 1,900
years, has this advice of the apostle
Pa ul been so ma l igned and
neglected?
There is a
cause
for every effect.
Political, social and family prob–
lems just don 't "happen"-they are
the result of going up agai nst
dynamic forces.
The problem líes in the near uni–
versal nonrecognition that true !ove
is a
spiritual
element! Philoso–
phers, psychologists, psychoana–
lysts and a host of researchers have
developed hypotheses about love by
the dozens! No one, it seems, is
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