“Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29)
During our September 14th worship, I offered the following as part of my morning pastoral prayer (and this was also included as part of my weekly Pastor’s eNote to my congregation the Thursday following)…
“Gracious and loving God, our hearts are heavy with the pain and division we see in our world. We come to you, broken by the recent examples of both political violence in Utah, and violence once more in our schools in Colorado. We grieve for all who have been harmed, and are sorrowful for the hatred that infects our communities. We pray for all those affected: the victims, their families, and the first responders. Grant them your comfort and presence. Forgive us for our own complacency and for the times we have allowed anger and division to harden our hearts. Inspire us to live out our baptismal vows, to renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, and to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves. Give us the courage to be agents of healing, peacemakers, and bridge-builders in a hurting world. Show us how to act with wisdom and courage, to turn away from violence and toward reconciliation. Mold our grief into a resolve to create a society where all people are treated with dignity and love. We ask for your spirit of peace to move in our communities, softening the hearts of those motivated by hate and empowering us to work for a safer, more compassionate world. In the name of Jesus, our Savior and Prince of Peace, we pray. Amen.”
Since then, I’ve received questions from a few congregants about why this prayer did not explicitly include the name of Charlie Kirk. There are essentially two reasons for this:
(#1) First, corporate prayers like a morning worship prayer are designed to unify and bring people together around things that we can share in common. Mr. Kirk’s death was a senseless tragedy, and — as mentioned in my prayer, violence in the name of politics is never okay or appropriate because in America we all have the right to share our beliefs and opinions in an open society, regardless of our politics. At the same time, it is a stretch to claim that Charlie Kirk was a unifying figure. For every good, Christian thing he stood for, there were other things he espoused or advocated that were neither Christian nor biblical. While you don’t have to agree with this, one of the best reflections I’ve read so far on this complexity is found in the September 22nd Facebook post of Pastor Brian Drinkwine of Clarity Church HERE . So, while I condemn his brutal killing, since a pastoral prayer is designed to bring people together around things we can all agree on — things like the inappropriateness of using violence for political ends — and since the goal of my prayer was more than a focus on any one person, I did not feel it was appropriate to use Mr. Kirk’s name in the prayer.
(#2) But in addition to condemning political violence in any form, a second reason I did not mention Mr. Kirk’s name also has to do with the senseless gun shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado the same week, which I also condemned in my prayer. While the shooter’s motivations are still not fully understood, I felt it was important for my prayer to mention both events of violence from that week, and to highlight the inappropriateness of violence as a means of expressing ourselves, whether in the name of politics or just because we don’t like someone. Yet, I purposefully did not mention either the name of Charlie Kirk or the names of those shot in Colorado, for to do so would be to elevate one tragedy as worse or more important than the other.
And in light of the continued gun violence in a shooting today in a church in Grand Blanc Township, MI that’s killed at least one and injured nine others, I would argue that my original prayer is even more appropriate.
I understand that some of you may not agree with my rationale here. That’s okay. You don’t have to agree with me about all things to allow me to be your Pastor. But I hope you can understand and respect that I was following what I felt led to do by God’s Holy Spirit, just as I promise to respect your need to occasionally disagree with me, if needed. But I hope that if we disagree, we can do so without the need to be disagreeable. In the words of the founder of Methodism John Wesley in one of his sermons on Christian unity, “though we may not all think alike, may we not all love alike?” (From Wesley’s sermon “Catholic Spirit”). My prayer — and my hope — for you, and for us all, is that we, indeed, can do this.
Always remember that God loves you and I do, too (regardless of our politics)!
