A Safer Town and a Safer Nation

I was glad to read in today’s Patch that is down in Clearwater. I was also grateful to read recently that crime is way down nationally as well.

While the economic downturn dominates headlines, it’s great to know that some national trends are heading in the right direction. Here’s a blockbuster stat from Time Magazine’s recent article, “Violent Crime in U.S. Down 12% in 2010″:

“From 1993 through 2010, the rate of violent crime has declined by a whopping 70 percent.”

The article goes on to say, “Experts aren’t sure why. The expectation had been that crime would increase in a weak economy with high unemployment like that seen in 2010.”

Theories put forward include: an aging population, better policing, better protective technology and a high rate of imprisonment. But since those are all theories, unaccompanied as yet by documentation and proof, let me put forward here another theory, or perhaps a question.

What if that amazing decrease in crime corresponded with the amazing increase in people praying about their health during roughly the same time period? A recent NY Times article, “Patterns: More People Praying About Health, Analysis Finds”, tells us that only 14% of people prayed about their health in 1999, compared to 49% in 2007.

After all, health and safety are hard to separate from each other. When people pray about their health, they’re really praying for safety from illness. They’re tired of feeling afraid, of being helpless victims. If over one-third of all Americans (109.2 million to be exact) are praying more about health than they were in earlier decades, then is it possible that the unprecedented decrease in crime is related to that whopping increase in prayer?

Many of us believe that as prayer to a higher authority continues to take its proper place in the general scheme of things, as well as in the scientific community that studies crucial cause and effect relationships, the correlation between prayer and health/safety will become increasingly clear.

And in the not too distant future prayer will be recognized as profoundly effective for individuals and nations seeking safety and health.