By HERMAN CAIN - Only love can prevail.
The Governor of Connecticut summed up the tragedy that hit the small town of Newtown, Connecticut in four words. Evil visited this town. The tragedy was not just violence. It was evil because a young man shot his mother in the face and killed her. He killed 20 innocent young children, and six innocent adults. And then he killed himself. Some of us saw what evil looks like for the first time. Yet others have seen evil before.Immediately, some media personalities and political activists started calling for more gun laws, more money to be spent on mental health treatment, better security systems and procedures at schools, and more censorship of violent entertainment in our culture.
As my CainTV colleague Dan Calabrese so eloquently and convincingly pointed out on Saturday, there is nothing we can do to prevent evil. We can minimize violence, but evil can only be minimized with the recognition and love of God in one's heart. This is not a sermon. It's just a fact that 90 percent of us believe, in one religious form or another.
I'm reminded of a recent incident reported in Florida where an atheist filed a lawsuit against a church for its religious displays. The man got seriously ill and the church reached out to him to help save his life. He survived because of their help. Afterwards, the atheist started attending that church and learned of their Christian faith, and saw that the love of God eminating from them and others was sincere. He had been a recipient of their love. He later joined their church congregation.
That's the power of love over evil.
Freedom of religion is a tenant of the founding of our nation. It does not promote a specific form of worship or religion. But that freedom does allow for the belief and love of a POWER greater than man. That same POWER has a love for us greater than man could ever imagine. HIS love is the only weapon against evil.
We can only pray for the families of the victims of this evil tragedy in Newtown, that God will somehow comfort them in their sorrow, their grieving and their healing. Although the rest of the nation was indirectly affected by this evil incident, it was still a direct blow to the compassion in our hearts, as we try to comprehend why it happened and only imagine the pain of those who lost loved ones and children.
Healing will take a long time especially for the families. We must keep them in our prayers, but we must never abandon our belief in the eternal power of love over evil.
We can fight violence, but we never know when evil will visit us again. The more love we can spread to the hearts and minds of the savable, the longer it will be.
