While it is being gradually conceded that violence should be considered a public health problem and not just a public safety or criminal justice concern, there has been little discussion of the spiritual dimensions of violence and the role of the faith community. Yet, violence is a spiritual, moral, and social economic issue.
Violence represents a cultural and spiritual crisis.
For many, violence has become a way of life, a rite of passage, a source of spiritual empowerment, a means of moral judgment, and a way of dealing with morbidity and mortality. It is the spirituality of the modern world. It has been accorded the status of a religion, demanding from its devotees an absolute obedience to death. Its followers are not aware, however, that the devotion they pay to violence is a form of religious piety. Violence is so successful as a myth precisely because it does not seem to be mythic in the least.