I blogged about the Rev. Pat Robertson’s Operation Supreme Court Freedom a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, the NY Times had an editorial titled, Offensive Prayer Offensive.
So today I sent this piece to the Times’ OpEd department.
Yes, the Rev. Pat Robertson’s Operation Supreme Court Freedom is “pulpit tomfoolery” as stated in a recent NY Times editorial. But a closer look at the recent wartime prayers of many mainstream religious leaders — and the prayers that we followers often engage in — shows them to be virtually the same.
Prior to the start of the war with Iraq, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s conference of bishops suggested this prayer: “Let us pray for Saddam Hussein and the leaders of Iraq, that they will choose peace, comply with the international mandate to destroy weapons of mass destruction, and end the oppression under which their people are forced to live.”
Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles wrote at end of a letter in which he argued against the preemptive use of force in Iraq, “I would invite all people of the Archdiocese to join with me in prayer for the leaders of all nations that they may exercise their duties with great wisdom and in the pursuit of peace.”
Asking God to change the minds of certain world leaders about war is no different than Robertson’s asking God to change the minds of certain Supreme Court justices about retirement.
The parents of Samuel Patrick Cox, the sailor who was killed along with three others in a Navy helicopter crash in Italy on July 16, posted excerpts from their journals on the web when his deployment in the Middle East began. They wrote, “Please, God, keep him safe. Keep all of them safe.” And to their readers, “In the meantime, won’t you join us — the families, loved ones and friends of U.S. service people — in praying for their safe return?”
It’s a gut-wrenching story, because nearly every parent prays for the safety of their children, whether they’re walking home from school alone, driving a car on a prom date, or heading off to war.
But what exactly is it we’re asking God to do? In Iraq, the implication is that we want God to somehow direct Iraqi bombs and bullets away from our loved ones (but have ours hit theirs?), to make all our aircraft and ships and ground vehicles work flawlessly so that none of our troops die from an accident (but have theirs turn to junk?)
Asking God to intercede in the minutiae of wartime or the external events of our daily lives is no different than asking God to intercede in the minutiae of judicial retirement.
My wife chides me, “If our sons were in the service in Iraq, I’d sure be praying for their safety. It’s a natural urge, a comforting thing to do. You’re being so judgmental.”
I know it’s comforting, but it’s mistaken — and ultimately undermines the power of true prayer. The more we see God as a master controller over external events, a wizard behind the curtain who flips switches at times in response to our pleas, the more we’re likely to miss the benefits of a truer prayer, as exemplified by the Serenity Prayer, or the “Make me an instrument of peace” prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. Those prayers focus on our internal state of mind and our own behavior. They work no matter whether you see God as a being, a higher power, or a universal force of intelligence that pervades the universe. They’re the kind of prayers Jesus could only have meant when he said, “Ask and ye shall receive.”