Why I worry about praying only for 'our' troops . . .

I had some serious spiritual dissonance this week.  On the one had I was reading the introduction to Peter Storey's powerful book about his leadership of the church in South Africa, With God in the Crucible: Preaching Costly Discipleship, in which he writes:

If we are honest, it was a minority witness, even within the denominations that officially opposed apartheid. Most clergy, black and white, some fearing authorities, others fearing their congregations, were silent. Every Sunday, there sermons said everything, and nothing; they could have been preaching anywhere in the world, or nowhere in the world...Why? How could this be? Where did we lose the passionate belief that the Gospel is given so that God's justice and peace might reign on earth as in heaven? How did we manage to so domesticate Jesus--and Moses and Isaiah, Esther and Ruth, Jeremiah and Amos, Elizabeth and Mary, Paul, Peter, John, and James--that their radical demands for counter-living could melt so meekly into our cultural scene and accommodate with such servility to the demands of our Caesars?

On the other hand, I sat through a service in which prayers were prayed for the safety and blessing of our military.  I am NOT opposed to praying for those in the armed services, and especially find it powerful to do so when we know particular people for whom we can pray.  However, to pray in this (unfortunately) generic manner for God to bless our troops too easily conforms to a kind of pagan prayer for the god of American power.  It is our nationalistic fantasy that the God of heaven and earth cares especially for us, and blesses us, rather than holds us accountable for our mixed intentions and actions.  This is especially true when considering that we are a nation of great wealth and power, despite our current economic hard times. If we know God's leaning, it is to side with the poor and suffering, as Scripture says again and again.

In order NOT to be serving the demands of our Caesars with our prayers and piety, as Pr. Storey argues, we must take care to pray for both friends and enemies.  To paraphrase Matt. 5, if all we do is pray for our troops, do we expect that we're getting a special hearing from God who creates and redeems and sustains all creation in Christ? Not likely!  So why don't we pray for our enemies, regularly and without planning in a special way to do it?  And if we don't, in what sense are our prayers the prayers of followers of Jesus and not simply the fond hopes of Americans set before a jingoist god who we fantasize stands ready to bless and protect us.  On a day when our bombs killed scores of people in Afghanistan, this question is not at all hypothetical.

Anon, and peace,
Chris

Comments

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If you'd like some facts about the situation in Afghanistan as well, this is a perfect place to look: http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/showlink.aspx?bookmarkid=9KHHRV2NT5N6&preview=article&linkid=c69cbcf5-2d1c-4d94-807c-12f742b8bf85&pdaffid=ZVFwBG5jk4Kvl9OaBJc5%2bg%3d%3d

Sincerely,
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