As a pacifist Christian who believes that broken windows and burnt down police stations do not necessarily count as violence, I have spent a *helluva* lot of time contemplating what Jesus means when he says "pray for your enemies." 1/

Let us start with the very most basic and obvious:

Praying for your *enemies* means that you *most definitely* do have enemies.

This is not a naive, liberal vagary about everyone ultimately being good and of good intention. 2/

Also importantly, praying *for* your enemies both is and is not about praying for their downfall.

I keep twin bits of opposing wisdom in my head about this ("consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"): 3/

Gustavo Guitiérrez: praying for your enemies means praying for God to take away their power so they can't sin anymore. (A Theology of Liberation ... 1st Edition before it was made more palatable for a wide US audience 20 years later.) 4/

Jane Pritchard, Christian Peacemaker Teams: in some of the most intractable situations of injustice, we have learned to pick one person on the opposing side and pray *for* them. Not pray against them. But for their well-being and connection with God. For their family, etc. 5/

I gotta be honest, during the debate on Tuesday, I had another one of those moments of brief prayer that almost isn't a prayer because *I knew* that it would be ignored or the answer would be "hell no":

Isn't it possible that neither of these men will be President? 6/

So now I do pray for a speedy recovery for Trump and Melania, but I also pray that God will take away his power so that he might not continue his grievous sin against the whole world. I also not-so-secretly know and take comfort that many of my prayers bounce off the ceiling. 7/

Another thing, I have made no secret of the fact that I take Biden to be as great of an enemy of mine as Trump ... -more to come, gotta drive a kid to school- 8/

I know this bit about Biden being as great of an enemy as Trump is widely rejected. I make no bones about it and will not defend it much here. He's a rapist. A racist. Will do nothing to stop Climate Change or the War Machine. And is the choice of most US Intel. Anathema. 9/

So now, perhaps, as Biden awaits his test, there is some slim hope that my prayer that somehow neither of these men might be President come January 20th ... will be answered in the affirmative.

I also, however, pray that Joe Biden does not have CoVID-19. 10/

And I pray that prayer followed quickly by Jesus' Prayer in the Garden ... nevertheless, not my will ... 11/

We cannot have such a discussion, however, w/o noting this:

"pray for your enemies" is in the same god damned Bible as the imprecatory Psalms

"Shatter their teeth in their mouths, O LORD"

"Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." 12/

These are serious words.

Perhaps the most serious words in the Bible.

I do not pray them.

Not because I do not believe them or do not believe they are Scripture or because I find some way to get around them like "interpreting them in light of Jesus." 13/

I do not pray them because I have never been victimized to the serious degree that I take the Psalmist to have been victimized.

These are prayers that are appropriate for people like Tara Reade, Anita Hill, Juanita Broaddrick, and Jean Carroll.

14/

These Psalms of highest anger and lament would be appropriate for a Muslim, holding the corpse of one of their children droned dead at a wedding.

"Break their teeth in their mouth, Allah. Dash their babies against a rock." 15/

This summer, I sat in a circle with a woman who prayed such a prayer.

Four women harmed by Reverend Wilmer Martin's sexual harassment, assaults, and financial corruption were in a room together with me.

One of them said she wished on Mr. Martin a slow and painful death. 16/

When God hear's such prayers, She does not secretly or publicly police the tone. It is not a moment for "pray for your enemies." Such are moments for deep, heart rending empathy. 17/

The victims of Donald Trump, like the victims of Obama and Biden, are allowed to pray for the worst outcome.

Do not lecture or scold them. Do not ignore or route around them when they pray such prayers. 18/

Look your friends and family members in the eye who pray such prayers, and even if you cannot make their prayer yours, feel their anger and pain in your inmost being and make their "fuck Donald Trump I hope he dies" anger and pain and grief your own anger-pain-grief-prayer. 19/

I have a family member who has a serious, decades long medical condition. Obamacare made life worse not better for her. It just is true. She told me that leaving things alone or Canada style care would have been better. That side of the family (mostly) hates Democrats. 20/

I do not for a moment think that family member prays or prayed imprecatory prayers against Obama, but it would have been understandable and not a species of racism if she did so. 21/

And so I end again with a prayer for Donald Trump's speedy recovery, but not if it means his asshole followers will use such a recovery to ruin the health and lives of thousands if not millions of others. 22/

And I also pray that Joe Biden and his family do not get coronavirus. 23/

But my own deepest prayer, a prayer I *know* will go unanswered, is that neither Trump no Biden, and neither of their running mates either, will be President on January 21, 2021.

Nevertheless, not my will ...

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