Thank goodness for Michael Cox's theological musings presented in his Oct. 18 article “Imprecatory Prayer: Is Invoking a Curse a Valid Part of Prayer?” Cox suggests the Bible, as the “word of God,” encourages Christians “to invoke a curse or evil” on “certain ungodly people.” He finds in the Psalms not only words that soothe and comfort, but also prescriptive and practical teachings on the proper use of prayer to call down “God's judgment” on the “unrepentant.” He further finds in Paul the justification to invoke “a curse upon those not loving the Lord Jesus.” Cox concludes by reassuring Christians that imprecatory prayers remain as “biblically valid today” as they were for King David or Paul.
How good it is to have so much of Christ's teachings immediately clarified with a few computer keystrokes. The words of Jesus need interpretation and Cox shows himself to be up to the hermeneutical task. The doctrine of imprecatory prayer makes clear what so much of Christ's words do not. Jesus can certainly confound the faithful when he commands his followers to love neighbors (Matt. 22:24-29), turn the other cheek (Matt. 5:38-42), love and pray for enemies (Matt. 5:43-48), love and befriend sinners (Matt. 9:9-13), and offer never-ending forgiveness to those who offend (Matt. 18:15-35). Instead of urging Christians to wrestle with these Christ-taught ideas, Cox sweeps away such impracticalities and offers a simple didactic message — give the words of the Psalms precedence and pray that God will do evil to the unrepentant. Why be bothered with the ungodly?
Cox is even more helpful in making sense of Paul's difficult thoughts. No longer do Christians need to struggle to match Paul's high standard of patient and kind love that keeps no record of wrongs, is not easily angered, and never delights in evil (I Cor. 13:4-7). Followers of Christ can forget the Pauline gospel of doing good to all people (Gal. 6:9-10) and emulating God's Spirit through a life of joy, peace, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-26). Simply invoke God to act with vengeance on those who are deemed to be unholy and faithless. The world will be a better place without them.
Thank goodness for Michael Cox and his earnest efforts to rightly divine the Word of Truth. With imprecatory prayer in the spiritual toolbox of Christians, the godless will be no match for the holy huddlers. “Repent or else we'll pray” will be the new Christian motto. What need is there to embody the God who is love? Why yield to the commands on Christ's followers to love others with the same forgiving love that epitomizes God? Such biblical teachings offer little comfort or practical assistance to the praying faithful who struggle with the great unrepentant masses of this world. So offer an imprecatory prayer and encourage God to do evil today!
Michael W. Gillen, Richmond