Can good people pray for bad things?

A pastor's request raises an issue as old as the Psalms

By Jennifer Garza, The Sacramento Bee, September 1, 2007

One morning last week, at about 5:30, callers to the Rev. Wiley Drake's telephone prayer ministry heard this request to the Almighty:

"Lord, I pray that you would intervene in this situation."

Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, may have been referring to the situation he has found himself in since he invoked another prayer, one that has been criticized by church leaders and debated by religion scholars -- and leads to the question, "Is it OK to pray for something bad to happen to others?" That's essentially what Drake did. Two weeks ago, the pastor called for the use of imprecatory prayers -- prayers that ask for misfortune to fall on someone else.

Drake asked supporters to "go into action" with these prayers against the "enemies of God," specifically the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

That a pastor would publicly ask others to pray for the hardship and misery of others -- Drake named two employees of the watchdog group -- took many in the religion community by surprise. Most denounced his tactics.

Religion scholars say imprecatory prayers have their place -- in a private conversation with God -- and that they are not intended to be used publicly. They add that the prayers are scripturally based and that, yes, sometimes it's all right to pray for bad things to happen.

"In some ways, you can see these prayers as a healthy expression of feeling, kind of like therapy. It's good to get those feelings out," said Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. "You should not hold back when you pray. You should surrender it to God.

"Look at it as two little children fighting, and one asks their mother or father to punish the other one. The child is free to say that, but it doesn't mean the parent is going to do it."

Expressing those feelings in prayer to God is one thing, Brueggemann said. Asking the public to pray them against a specific person or organization is "destructive and a contradiction to everything the Christian faith stands for," he said.

Reached by phone, Drake said he would "love to talk" but is not giving interviews at this time on the advice of his attorneys.

In a news release calling for the prayers, Drake referred to the book of Psalms, where many of these imprecatory prayers can be found. Psalm 109, believed to have been written by David, is most often cited as an imprecatory prayer. Part of it reads:

"Let his days be few;
Let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless,
and his wife a widow."

Harsh words. In these prayers, raw emotion is released to God, according to Merilyn Copland, professor of Bible, theology and archaeology at William Jessup University in Rocklin.

Often, these imprecatory -- which Copland calls "a fancy word for cursing" -- prayers are cries for vindication and justice. She says they are part of a larger group of Psalms called laments or lamentations.

"These are heat-of-the- moment prayers. David is releasing these feelings to God for him to deal with. They're more like a confession than an expectation that God would do those things," Copland said.

So is it acceptable to pray for others to suffer?

Copland and others say expressing such feelings is understandable and probably pretty common.

"The Bible is suggesting that there is a healthy way of dealing with anger from injustice. ... Leave it with him," Copeland said.

"Prayer and honest confession of hostile feelings certainly is better in maintaining relationships than to gossip, slander ... or take revenge," Copland wrote in a follow-up e-mail.

She says that since David released his feelings to God, he had no animosity toward Saul, who had tried to kill David several times.

"He asked God to deal with it and then let it go," Copland said.

Others pray for their enemy differently.

"You pray for your enemy to be guided," said Mohammad Azeez of the Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims, who says there are no structured prayers wishing hardship on an enemy in Islam.

"You don't treat your enemy as evil, more as someone with a different point of view," Azeez said.

That is not to say some don't wish misfortune on their enemies.

"Oh, I'm sure it happens," he said.

Rabbi Mona Alfi of Congregation B'nai Israel in Sacramento said Jews should not pray for bad things to happen to other people. She said some may pray for their enemies' ventures to be unsuccessful or that they stop their ways.

"But mostly we pray for the sad things to end," she said.

She referred to a story in the Talmud that says instead of praying for sinners to be punished, one should pray for the sinful acts to stop.

The controversy about imprecatory prayers began in mid-August when the Americans United for Separation of Church and State asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax- exempt status of Drake's church. Drake had endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on church letterhead.

Shortly after the group asked that the government to look into the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, the pastor called for imprecatory prayers to be used. Americans United for Separation for Church and State has denounced Drake's actions. So have many religion scholars.

Many say this is the wrong use of imprecatory prayers -- calling them personal, heartfelt prayers to God -- and that the Bible shows another way Christians should deal with their enemies.

"Jesus never prayed imprecatory prayers aimed at those who had slandered, tortured and crucified him," Copland wrote. "He urged loving your enemies."

Fair Use Statement: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.