Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Pastor Brooks Potteiger and other MAGA evangelicals are using imprecatory prayers asking God to kill their enemies.
Should we be alarmed? A few examples of imprecatory prayers here and there don’t portend an outbreak in the churches. Books of worship and prayer books of the denominations don’t have such prayers. Most preachers and priests would be appalled.
Evangelicals haven’t done this much huffing and puffing since Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde aroused the sleeping dragon under MAGA mountain to label her a “demonic priestess.”
Rodney Kennedy
The problem with such praying is the preachers defining the subjects of their prayers as evil according to their own personal reading of the Bible or their political preferences. The reading habits of such preachers gravitate toward embarrassing, offensive and internally contradictory statements whose choice says more about the preacher than the character of God and faith.
Imprecatory prayers have nothing to do to do with Jesus.
“Forgive them for they know not what they do” doesn’t mix well with “because of their many transgressions, cast them out for they have rebelled against you,” found in Psalm 5:10.
Imprecatory prayers are indeed part of the Book of Psalms. They have historical backgrounds. For example, on the lips of David, we are a party to the time King Saul attempted to murder David, the attacks on Israel from surrounding tribes and nations, and the attempts of David’s own sons to overthrow his kingdom. David’s struggles with such powerful enemies make our political disputes, mostly played out in hyperbolic rhetoric, seem like playground spats.
Is it possible the historical context, the realities of David’s circumstances and the contingencies of life make the imprecatory prayers a private matter between David and God?
“The prayers shine a light on David’s deepest feelings but are not intended for quoting like ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’”
The prayers shine a light on David’s deepest feelings but are not intended for quoting like “The Lord is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1). Imprecatory prayers are not Book of Worship material; they are secret prayers offered in the closet. Imprecatory praying preachers are outliers.
Evangelical notions of God as an ill-tempered, capricious, fire-breathing destroyer have more in common with Greek and Roman paganism than Christianity.
Praying for God to kill a political opponent is a sign of failed argumentation. This is a sad reality of how Christians are arguing about politics. Praying for God to kill your political opponents is just a perverse religious way of saying, “I don’t like you.”
Imprecatory prayers suggest deep feelings of exceptionalism and privilege. Evangelical exceptionalism appeals to evangelicalism’s unique status among the tribes of Christianity. Evangelicals believe they are “God’s special people.” They are the most spiritual, optimistic, patriotic, rights-oriented and individualistic of all Christians.
The “Christianity” represented in praying imprecatory prayers is not, in fact, Christian. The Christianity these preachers are so zealous to promote is not of the gospel.
Underneath the robes of Pentecostal language lives a barely concealed disgust and anger at liberal Christians. They don’t use this language all the time. They use it when they feel threatened. When they can’t come out and say what they mean, they use apocalyptic, Pentecostal code language. This is not “God talk” or conversion rhetoric. This is partisan political language, the use of devil terms disguised as God terms.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.