Praying during a time of war

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has repeatedly made headlines with his public prayers. On March 25, he read a prayer that asked God to deliver our enemies “to the eternal damnation prepared for them.” On April 15, Hegseth gave another prayer, this one taken largely from the movie Pulp Fiction, which inserted the Combat Search and Rescue team Sandy One in the place where the Scriptures use the name of the Lord. The common theme in both prayers was that the work of the U.S. military is the eschatological vengeance of God. As striking as Sec. Hegseth’s bold faith is in the public square, these prayers ultimately missed their mark.

The secular media response was predictably anxious and outraged. How dare Hegseth mingle the divine with America’s war? It also seems quite likely Pope Leo XIV had Hegseth in mind when he stated, “God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”

But what should American evangelicals think of Hegseth’s prayer?

Rather than immediately reject the notion of asking God’s blessing in war, it’s important to acknowledge that the Bible itself teaches that God has ordained the institution of civil government to be “the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Romans 13:4). It also follows that God’s providence, which guides and directs whatsoever comes to pass, also extends to the details of war. Even the claim that some people “deserve no mercy” could be true, especially if limited to matters of earthly justice and clemency. Individuals or governments might commit acts so heinous as to make a crushingly violent response the only just one.

And yet, true as all that may be, Hegseth’s prayers still didn't sound Christian in one key aspect—the lack of humility. There was no introspection or mention of the need for divine mercy, there was no commending the enemies to the Lord or praying for their repentance, and there was a constant identification, perhaps even conflation, of the U.S. military and God Himself.

Now perhaps I am just too weak of stomach here. Maybe I’m just a wimpy Christian, stuck in the post-war consensus. Let’s consult a few guides from Christian history. John Calvin, no evangelical squish, explained King David’s reign in Psalm 18 as “an image and type of the kingdom of Christ, to teach and assure the faithful that Christ, in spite of the whole world, and of all the resistance which it can make, will, by the stupendous and incomprehensible power of the Father, be always victorious.” Speaking directly to one of the verses Hegseth used in his prayers, Calvin says this about David:

As he represented the person of Christ, he inflicted the punishment of death only on those who were so inflexible that they could not be reduced to order by the exercise of a mild and humane authority; and this of itself shows, that there was nothing in which he more delighted than to pardon those who repented and reformed themselves. He thus resembled Christ, who gently allures all men to repentance, but breaks in pieces, with his iron rod, those who obstinately resist him to the last.

The war of Psalm 18, for Christians, is primarily the spiritual war between Christ on the one hand and the world, the flesh, and the devil on the other.

We can also learn from some older ways that Christians prayed for their military. The Book of Common Prayer has several examples. We see there references, yes, to God's unstoppable power. We even see statements about the wicked deserving punishment. But we also see a sober acknowledgment of our own sins and the request for mercy. Here is one such prayer, used by the British Navy before battle:

... we make our address to thy Divine Majesty in this our necessity, that thou wouldest take the cause into thine own hand, and judge between us and our enemies. Stir up thy strength, O Lord, and come and help us, for thou givest not alway the battle to the strong, but canst save by many or by few. O let not our sins now cry against us for vengeance, but hear us thy poor servants begging mercy and imploring thy help, and that thou wouldest be a defence unto us against the face of the enemy. Make it appear that thou art our saviour and mighty deliverer, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Notice the difference. There’s a certain healthy introspection present. It’s not all boldness and confident expectation. There’s a measure of humility and fear. Ultimate judgment is handed to the Lord. Our own sins are confessed, and we ask that we not be given what we deserve. This prayer sounds much more like the “whole counsel of God.”

A prayer manual from the U.S. Civil War contains several prayers for war but we do not see simple confidence that the one army is the embodiment of God. Rather, we find a crying out to God to “judge between us.” It asks for help, even if the army in question is not strong, and it pleads forgiveness for sin—the sins of the one praying.

Still another example comes from World War II. Here we even see a bit of uncertainty in the actions necessary and a request that God would accept even an imperfect offering:

O God, who seest that in this warfare we are seeking to serve thee, and yet in the waging of it must needs do many things that are an offence against thy love; Accept we pray thee, our imperfect offering. Arm us with thy Spirit that our warfare may further the victory of thy justice and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

These are better ways to pray in war.

Having courageous and outspoken Christians for our national officials can be a great blessing. Confident and decisive action, and even a certain amount of “terrible” political rhetoric, has its place. But so too does gravity, piety, and a holy fear of the living God. Lord, teach us to pray.