Many of the problems that we as individuals and we as nations may be experiencing can be traced directly to the mistaken belief that solutions can be gained by violence. The great message of Jesus is that violence is never a permanent solution; that violence is never the means to lasting good; that violence is never the means of permanently overcoming evil.

Jesus renounced violence; but at the same time he had great power--power to overcome every difficult experience. For instance, one of the great messages of his cross experience is the fact that he deliberately renounced violence as a means of overcoming evil. He recognized that violence cannot bring permanent good.

Violence may bring a temporary solution which we in our ignorance may call good; but all that is of eternal value comes when Love is thought and lived--to such an extent that violence is unnecessary as a means of bringing about the solution. Not violence, but Love--thought and lived--is the solution for all of mankind's ills.

Let us be the ones whose thoughts and lives are so filled with love that we need no violent means of solving individual or national problems.

W. Norman Cooper Seize the Day, page 173