Wartime Prayers
Is Saddam Hussein one of the most evil dictators in the world today? Absolutely. Amnesty International catalogs a sickening litany of abuse by his regime.
Is this administration desperate to find targets in the impossible war on terrorism? Yes. Does George Bush seem compulsively driven by motives that are not clear to us? Yes.
Is terrorism bad? Yes. Does terrorism spring from ignorance, want, and desperation? Yes. Are we partly to blame for that situation? Yes.
Is Saddam Hussein harboring weapons he agreed to destroy, and would he use them? I think so.
Should our nation pay more respectful attention to the counsel of the world community? Always.
I’m sorry to be so muddled, but I believe there is no righteousness in the situation in which we find ourselves.
They say time is the 4th dimension. If that is true, we are at a 4-dimensional crossroad. This is the intersection of greed, evil, and abuse over many generations.
We cannot perceive 4 dimensions. Why would we think there are clean answers?
One thing I know for sure is the common Iraqi people are innocent. It is they who have no power. It is they who have been forced to endure one war after another. It is their families who will lose homes and children. They are the innocents being led to the slaughter.
They will experience unthinkable suffering in the days to come. I am not comforted by considering just how used to suffering they must be.
In time of war, many people ramp up their prayers along with their patriotism.
I experience the opposite impulse with prayer. I’m embarrassed to talk to God. It is shameful to speak of God’s will when we have exercised nothing but our own for so long.
And I believe that God plans to let us run to the end of the line with this. We will experience the fullness of this complex evil. What is war if not the final result of our will?
I don’t want to pray, but I made a commitment to do so. This is the time when I must exercise my faith in the midst of crushing doubt.
So I will pray. I will. But I don’t know what to say.
Perhaps this is the time to listen.
The Preacher
10:04:15 AM 
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