Should I Pray for Donald Trump?

Betendes Mädchen (Praying Woman)
by Käthe Schmidt Kollwitz (1867–1945)

A few weeks ago a close friend asked me "Do you think we should pray for Donald Trump?" I answered, "Yes, I suppose we should." But this exchange left me thinking hard about how we should pray.

Let me offer some reflections on the nature of Christian praying, quote a number of prayers for our President, and share some thoughts about fault finding, human dignity, and demonic risk.

Praying: Conditional and Normative

My thinking about Christian praying has been significantly influenced by Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834)—German pastor, biblical scholar, theologian, philosopher, and political activist. He writes that when Christians pray "in the name of Jesus" we should understand this to mean praying "in the sense and spirit of Jesus," praying about "the concerns of Jesus." Too often, he writes, we tend to pray for divine alterations of future conditions, seeking to "exert an influence on God."^1

Schleiermacher names these different modes of praying "normative" and "conditional." Normative praying seeks to align our concerns with norms established by Christ's life and teachings. In contrast, conditional prayer seeks to "deflect" God's will according to conditions we request.

Schleiermacher maintains that normative praying should always be accompanied by actions that accord with Christ's norms: "Appropriate prayer occurs only when we engage in activities that go to fulfill our Christian vocation." Conditional praying, on the other hand, tends to "lapse into magic," awaiting an outcome that is in accord with our wishes.

Schleiermacher grants that it is natural for our prayers to express our deepest, most personal hopes and concerns. At the same time, in our praying we should seek to align our concerns more fully with those of Christ.

If our prayers are answered, Schleiermacher suggests, our appropriate response is gratitude: Thanks be to God. If our prayers are not answered, our appropriate response is acceptance: Amen (So be it). Both outcomes may give us occasion to grow in understanding our faith, to learn more about making Christ's norms our own.^2

I think that the biblical touchstone here is Christ's passionate praying in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly before his arrest and crucifixion:

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done. (Luke 22:42; also Matthew 26:39, Mark 14: 36)

Model Prayers

Where else may we find model prayers?

Many spiritual traditions provide examples. I have found model prayers particularly in The Book of Common Prayer (BCP)—the Episcopal volume that contains "the regular services appointed for public worship." Or more fairly, BCP prayers have found me.

In Episcopal worship our congregations regularly pray for our President, as also for other governing authorities:

[Officiant:] That it may please thee so to rule the hearts of thy servants, the President of the United States, and all others in authority, that they may do justice, and love mercy, and walk in the ways of truth,

[Congregation:] We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. (BCP p.150)

The prayer here is that Christlike norms—in this instance justice, mercy, and truth—may rule in the heart of our President and other authorities. In specifying norms, the prayer offers congregations touchstones for assessing both Presidential actions and our own.

Numerous BCP prayers offer similar touchstones:

O Lord our Governor, whose glory is in all the world: We commend this nation to thy merciful care, that, being guided by thy Providence, we may dwell secure in thy peace. Grant to the President of the United States, the Governor of this State (or Commonwealth), and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do thy will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness and make them ever mindful of their calling to serve this people in thy fear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God world without end. Amen. (BCP p.820)

The providential norms named here are security, peace, wisdom, strength, truth, righteousness, and service.

Another prayer broadens its scope to include international leaders and authorities as well as our nation's President:

For our President, for the leaders of the nations, and for all in authority, let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have mercy. (BCP p.384)

The BCP sometimes directs that the President be called by name (see "for N." below), and some prayers name specific national and international institutions:

Let us pray for all nations and peoples of the earth, and for those in authority among them; for N., the President of the United States; for the Congress and the Supreme Court; for the Members and Representatives of the United Nations; for all who serve the common good: that by God's help they may seek justice and truth, and live in peace and concord. (BCP p.278)

The norms here: serving the common good; seeking justice and truth; living in peace and concord.

Another prayer specifies the President, members of his Cabinet, Governors, Mayors, and other national authorities:

O Lord our Governor, bless the leaders of our land, that we may be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations of the earth.

Lord, keep this nation under your care. 

To the President and members of the Cabinet, to Governors of States, Mayors of Cities, and to all in administrative authority, grant wisdom and grace in the exercise of their duties.

Give grace to your servants, O Lord.  (BCP, p.821)

Here the norms are domestic peace, being a blessing to other nations, and wisdom and grace in the exercise of duties.

Finding Fault

Does praying for our President and others in authority rule out criticizing them?

I would say by no means. Affronts to norms that we express in our praying are sound bases for finding fault—whether the affronts are the President's or our own.

Surely we may find fault with President Trump when we compare his conduct with norms expressed in the BCP prayers we have considered: justice, mercy, truth, wisdom, righteousness, service, the common good, domestic peace, blessing to other nations, grace in the exercise of duties.

What is more, Christian norms expressed in the BCP prayers are neither all-inclusive nor exclusive. I believe that when finding fault we should be guided not only by religious norms but also by constitutional law, and by civic norms for basic decency such as these:

• To contend without being contentious
• To disagree without being disagreeable
• To object without being objectionable
• To make judgments without being judgmental
• To act zealously without becoming a zealot
• To seek certainty without claiming certitude
• To seek wisdom without claiming to be wise
• To feel righteous indignation without becoming self-righteous

Christian, constitutional, and civic norms are tight ropes to walk, but I believe that with resolve our nation can do better than we're currently doing. 

Human Dignity

Eighteen months into Donald Trump's presidency, conservative columnist George Will described Trump as "this sad, embarrassing wreck of a man" and as "the most insecure human being I've ever seen."^3 I'm not proud to recall that upon hearing Will's words my reaction was a triumphal whoop. Another twenty-two months later, my glee has been chastened and subdued.

I have realized that George Will did not demonize President Trump, as I have sometimes tended to do. Will spoke of President Trump in human terms: "a man," a "human being," "sad" and "insecure." I find the tone of Will's characterization close to lamentation.

Again I find guidance in the Book of Common Prayer. In the Episcopal baptismal service the entire congregation joins parents and godparents in affirming "The Baptismal Covenant." The concluding sentences of the covenant are these:

Celebrant: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

People: I will, with God's help. (BCP p.305)

Scores of times, over many years, I have recited that pledge to respect the dignity of every human being. Now I need to abide by it.

In my view, all too many of President Trump's decisions and actions and attitudes deserve criticism. I believe that he is gravely damaging "justice and peace among all people." I shall oppose and try to counteract him in whatever ways I am able. But I shall try my best to remember that I am criticizing a person, and that Trump supporters are persons also.

Another friend has asked, "Should we pray, at least in private, that Donald Trump will be defeated in this fall's bid for re-election?"

To me this seems uncomfortably close to conditional praying (indeed, to magic). Yet President Trump's evident thoughtlessness in relation to moral norms gives urgency to our prayers. That our President might "do justice, and love mercy, and walk in the ways of truth" is certainly a prayer—whether normative or conditional— to which I can respond: "We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord."

Beseeching prayer, however, obliges me to take action in ways that I believe will protect and advance moral norms: communicating with members of Congress; working to unseat the President together with selected members of Congress; supporting principled political and charitable organizations; voting conscientiously.

I have compared following moral norms to walking a tight rope. I would say that deliberating about actions and performing them feels more like juggling.

Throughout, I shall try my best to respect President Trump as a person, a fellow human being, in accordance with this prayer—printed in The Book of Common Prayer with an underlined blank space that invites specific, up-to-date naming:

For those in positions of public trust, especially Donald, that they may serve justice and promote the dignity and freedom of every person, we pray to you, O Lord. (BCP p.550)

Again this seems a conditional prayer asking God for magic, but I'm unable to suppress a sincere Amen.

Demonic Risk

Once more from a friend, a final, trenchant question: Might respect for our President as a person blind us to the emergence of the demonic?

My answer is yes, this can certainly be the case. 

History gives all too many instances of once-respected leaders who have proved to be demonic. Once a culture becomes possessed, as with Soviet Communism and Nazism, the demonic becomes a black hole. Moral norms, constitutional law, civility, respect for personhood—all are sucked into the vortex and annihilated. It is too late.

So the key word in my friend's question is "emergence." We must not be blind to demonic emergence.

Historically, the first stage in demonic emergence is erasure of the difference between true and false, dismissal of any distinction between fact and fiction.^4 As President Trump is insensible to moral norms, so he is to truth.^5

My motivation for saying this is not disrespect for President Trump but alarm for our nation—alarm that so many Senators, Representatives, Cabinet members, White House staff, media commentators and fellow citizens share our President's obliviousness and continue to support him.

We must name emerging signs and symptoms of the demonic for what they are, devising measures to isolate the contagion, strengthening public resistance, seeking societal cures, administering national healing, bolstering each other against despair and cynicism—doing what we already know to do, but with intensified watchfulness and commitment.

We must nourish our nation's concern for moral norms and truth— clarifying them in our praying, enacting them in our living, always balancing and juggling. Surely it is fitting to pray "May it never come to pass," but only if we take action to resist demonic emergence.

And we must ever pray for our own personhood:

O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them. Amen. (BCP, p.229)

_______________

^1 All Schleiermacher quotations are from his The Christian Faith (Der Christliche Glaube), Sections 146 and 147.

^2 The most concentrated presentations of Christ's norms are found in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) and Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20–49).

^3  Interview on MSNBC, July 18, 2018 < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsgccOuZ0qg&t=588s > at 2.13–17 and 4.7–10.

^4 I recommend the brilliant and disturbing book by Michiko Kakutani, The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump (Tim Duggan Books, 2018). My thanks to Dr. Keller Freeman for acquainting me with Kakutani's book.

^5  See Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo, and Meg Kelley, Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth (Scribner, 2020).

Heartfelt thanks to my readers, Drs. Anne and John Shelley, for their friendship, encouragement, and substantive suggestions.

***** 

Shakespeare on Heads of State

Macduff

Malcolm

During these months when citizens of the US, and of numerous other nations, are examining qualifications for heads of state, Shakespeare, who knew a thing or two about politics, expresses thoughts that might resonate with us.

In Macbeth (4, 3, 1–139), Macduff and Malcolm have a complicated argument about "king-becoming graces."

In the midst of what Malcolm calls their "warranted quarrel," he articulates a list of ideal virtues for a head of state:

           ...justice, verity, temp'rance, stableness,

Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,

Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude....

Earlier in the argument, however, Malcolm has lamented:

           I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;
           It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
           Is added to her wounds....

And Macduff has earlier confessed despair:

            I have lost my hopes.

In a list that contrasts radically with his enumeration of "king-becoming graces", Malcolm characterizes "the particulars of vice" in high places:

Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,

Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin

That has a name....

Macduff equates a sovereign's lack of self-restraint with "tyranny"*, which leads to downfall:

                      ...Boundless intemperance

            In nature is a tyranny. It hath been

            Th'untimely emptying of the happy throne

            And fall of many kings.

As their "warranted quarrel" subsides, Macduff complains that he is left conflicted:

Such welcome and unwelcome things at once
'Tis hard to reconcile.

He exclaims:

O nation miserable!...
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again...?

Malcolm concludes the Scene with a dispirited couplet: 

                    Receive what cheer you may:

          The night is long that never finds the day.

__________

*See Stephen Greenblatt, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics (New York and London, W. W. Norton, 2018). I am grateful to Professor Stanley Crowe for calling my attention to this laudable book.

*****

Christian Virtues

The Pleiades or Seven Sisters

This posting is a transcript of the concluding ten minutes of a sixty-minute lecture I gave as part of Furman University's series "What Really Matters." The series was established in 1982 to honor the life and work of L. D. Johnson, who served as chaplain at Furman 1967–1981.

In earlier portions of the lecture I endorsed a Christian ethics of virtue and responded to six common objections to that tradition. In conclusion I offered a selected listing of biblical virtues. Several friends have urged me to publish the final portion of the lecture, as my oral presentation had gone by too quickly. That final portion, lightly revised, I have posted here. The entire lecture is available in audio at What Really Matters .

New Testament listings of virtues can be found at Matthew 5.1–11; Luke 6.20–38; Acts 24.24–25; Romans 5.3–5; Romans 12.9–21; 1 Corinthians 13.1–13; 2 Corinthians 6.6–7; Galatians 5.22–23; Ephesians 4.32; Colossians 3.12–17; 1 Timothy 6.11; James 3.17–18; 2 Peter 1.5–7.

New Testament listings of vices can be found at Matthew 15.18–20; Mark 7.20–23; Romans 1.28–31; 1 Corinthians 6.9–10; 2 Corinthians 12.20–21; Galatians 5.19–21; 2 Timothy 3.2–6.

*****

...[In conclusion,] I continue to embrace my Christian tradition in part because I find salvation by grace through trust—which I understand as trusting Christ's way of repentance, forgiveness, and amendment of life—a healing doctrine.

The virtues enter this healing process at two points: at the beginning, when honestly comparing our lives to these transcendent ideals leads us to repentance; and at the end, when these ideals guide us in our attempting to amend our lives. These roles of the virtues explain why Paul, the great preacher of salvation by grace, gives us list after list of virtues that should guide the faithful—and also some graphic lists of vices to avoid.

Paul originates a basic triad of Christian virtues: faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13.13). But these are only three of the many virtues that Paul lists. In the Middle Ages the church was to formulate listings of seven cardinal virtues, but again Paul's listings far exceed seven.

A few summers ago, to celebrate our wedding anniversary, Marian and I took off on a lark to satisfy our shared interest in amateur star-gazing. Knowing that we would have to escape the humid haze of our eastern summers, we took down the Almanac and looked up the driest place in the country for the first week in August. It was Death Valley. (No, no: not the Clemson football stadium. That original Death Valley, way out west.) So we picked the second driest place in the country, Boise, Idaho.

Sure enough, we had one good and two wonderful nights to view the stars, though the smoke of range and forest fires kept us on the move. Marian worked at the constellations on the macro level, and I wrestled with our son Christopher's sixteen-power telescope to search the firmament at the micro level.

In one of those moments that give me goosebumps even in recollection, we focused our scope on the constellation of the Seven Sisters or the Pleiades—in Greek mythology, seven sisters, daughters of Atlas, turned into a group of stars. In biblical scripture the Pleiades are singled out by the book of Job (9.9; 38.31) and  by the prophet Amos (5.8) as a particular splendor of God's creation. Among and around the seven points of light visible to the naked eye, our little scope disclosed a dazzling cluster of sister stars, all born of the same molecular cloud and mutually bound by gravity.

So it is with the virtues. Through the lens of New Testament writings we find a host of sister virtues to guide the faithful—repentant, thankful for their forgiveness, and resolved to amend their lives. Are these exclusively Christian virtues? Heavens no—no more than the stars are Christian stars. They are a host of transcendent virtues, resplendent above us all, brought nearer by the lens of Judeo-Christian scripture, as also by lenses of other traditions.

I would like to conclude with a partial survey of this cluster of sister virtues—qualities of character that make us good, qualities that really matter. In alphabetical order:

Compassion really matters, virtually defined for Christian tradition by the Samaritan's care for a stripped traveler, beaten and left for dead on the road to Jericho. (Luke 10.25–37)

Fidelity really matters, such as the Apostle Peter taught by failing at it so miserably in the high priest's courtyard (Matthew 26.69–75; Mark 14.66–72; Luke 22.54–62) and the three Marys exemplified so courageously by being last at the cross and first at the tomb. (Matthew 27.55–61; 28.1–10; Mark 15.40–41, 47; Luke 23.48–49; 24.1–12)

Forbearance really matters, such as Christ repeatedly showed toward his non-comprehending disciples who, despite their "little faith" (Matthew 6.30; 8.26; 14.31; 16.8; Luke 12.28), had in truth left their homes and followed him. (Matthew 19.24–29; Mark 10.23–30; Luke 18.25–30)

Forgiveness really matters, as we learn when Peter asks "How often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" and Jesus responds with hyperbole: "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven times." (Mt 18.21–22; Luke 17.3–4)

Fortitude really matters, like that of the intrepid Abigail as she rode her donkey into the profanity of King David's anger to soften his implacable will and domesticate his savage heart. (1 Samuel 25.18–35)

Gentleness really matters, like the gentleness mitigating the imagery of post-exilic prophets when they compare chastened Israel to an untrained calf or a wayward son or daughter (Jeremiah 31.16–20), whereas before the sufferings of the Exile the prophets had upbraided the Israelites for being greedy "cows" and "lusty stallions" neighing after neighbors' wives. (Jeremiah 5.7–8; Amos 4.1)

Graciousness really matters, like the graciousness transforming the tense meeting between Peter the Jew and Cornelius the Gentile, thus accounting for my standing before you this evening as a Gentile grafted into the salvation-history of Judaism. (Acts 10.17–38)

Harmony really matters, echoing the spiritual harmony among the disciples at Pentecost so strong as to overcome the discord of nationalities that has disrupted human solidarity since the tower of Babel. (Acts 2.1–21)

Honorableness really matters, like that of Joseph of Arimathea, who withheld his consent from dishonorable proceedings of the legal body of which he was a member, and asked Pilate for the body of Christ to give it an honorable burial. (Luke 23.50–56)

Kindness really matters, such as the naive islanders of Malta showed in kindling a fire for the shipwrecked Paul and his shivering companions and welcoming them with hospitality. (Acts 28.1–7)

Liberality really matters, like that of Job, who supported widows and orphans and street people, not withholding "anything that the poor desired." (Job 31.16–23; cf. Deuteronomy 15.10–11)

Meekness really matters, as when royal David's descendant insists on welcoming little children, "even infants," to his arms and his blessing. (Matthew 19.13–15; Mark 10.13–16; Luke 18.15–17)

Mercy really matters, as when, in the only capital case to come before him, Christ voids the sentence of a woman caught in adultery. (John 8.1–11)

Patience really matters, like that of the sower of kingdom seeds who awaits their sprouting and growing—"he knows not how"—into the blade and then the ear and then the full grain in the ear. (Mark 4.26–29)

Peacemaking really matters, as Christ directly declares: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." (Matthew 5.9)

Purity really matters, like the Canaanite woman's purity of heart that willed one thing despite two abrasive dismissals by Christ, finally to win his wonder for her great faith. (Matthew 15.21–28)

Reverence really matters, such as Christ taught his disciples—"Our  Father in heaven, hallowed be your name" (Matthew 6.9; Luke 11.2)—and prayed amidst his own anguish, "not my will but yours be done." (Matthew 26.39; Mark 14.38; Luke 22.42)

Self-examination really matters, lest we presume to remove a speck from our neighbor's eye when we have a log in our own. (Matthew 7.1–5; Luke 6.41–42)

Sympathy really matters, like that dazzling shaft of sympathy that flashes across the narrative of Deborah's gloating victory-song to illumine the camp of the enemy, where we see the mother of Sisera awaiting, in desperate self-deception, the return of her murdered warrior son. (Judges 5.26–30)

Tenderheartedness really matters, such as Mary and Martha witnessed in Christ as he wept on his way to view the body of Lazarus, their brother and his friend. (John 11.32–35)

Thankfulness really matters, like that of the one leper of ten, and he a Samaritan, who alone returned to thank Christ for his healing. (Luke 17.11–16.)

Truthfulness really matters, as Ananias and Sapphira learned too late to save them from the falsehood that poisoned their hearts. (Acts 4.32–5.11)

Wisdom really matters—she who heartens us with a promise that we hardly dare to trust: "I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me." (Proverbs 8.17)

Having reached the end of the alphabet, let us give the concluding words to the Apostle Paul:

And now, my friends, all that is true, all that is honorable, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, all that is gracious—if there is any virtue, if there is anything worthy of praise, fill your thoughts with these things. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4.8–9)

*****