Is love useless in the face of brutishness?

Insight: Ideas-driven journalism focused on "why," not "what."
Expertise: Editors' daily commentary on why we wrote these stories.
Convenience: Our Daily edition on your computer or mobile device and delivered to your inbox, with an audio summary of the day’s top news.
Value: Unlimited website access, ad-free stories, graphics and videos, and exclusive bonus content.

A Christian Science perspective: There is no power greater than Love.

Rich Evans

May 23, 2017 —Is love useless in the face of brutishness? The recent attack in Manchester again raises the question. When the MOAB (Mother of All Bombs) was dropped in Afghanistan, it was a show of power. Such demonstrations may quell aggression for a moment, but they may also exacerbate the undercurrent of fear and even escalate into other shows of force.

Love, on the other hand, is a power beyond the brute. Christian and Muslim mothers of Liberia, courageously uniting in public protest, put down the civil war in 2003 because they could not tolerate the nation’s sons being destroyed. Their love-motivated actions brought about a new reality for that nation.

Love like theirs has everything to do with the caring divinity that contradicts the man-generated vision of God as judgmental and punishing. It illustrates the all-compassionate God and the practical yet universal love exemplified by Christ Jesus.

It is the Motherhood of God, not bombs, for which the world yearns and has proven a greater power when lived. Divine Love is the only true power and ultimate reality. Nothing naïve. Ask a Liberian.