Presidential elections, these days, tend to be uncharitable affairs. How else can one describe the behavior of political adversaries—mostly decent people who share the same ultimate goals, but differ greatly in the means of reaching them—who accuse each other of wildly exaggerated forms of wrong doing?
With so much uncharity on the air waves, it is a small wonder that Christians, being frail human beings, get caught up in the extreme partisanship. There is, however a difference between being partisan and being hate–filled.
Praying for our political enemies’ annihilation certainly satisfies our ugly human craving to strike back. Christians, however, don’t have the option of wreaking vengeance on those who offend them. Quite the opposite, in fact.
We are told to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us and pray for those who are spiteful to us and persecute us (Matthew 5:44). And this applies just as much to political foes as to enemies, such as the Islamic terrorists, who are trying to do us physical harm.
In short, we don’t have the option to stop praying for politicians with whom we disagree. It doesn’t matter whether one is a Democrat or a Republican, offering prayers for those who guide the affairs of our nation, whether they share one’s view or not, is a solemn Christian obligation.
Indeed, praying for the civil authorities is one of the oldest customs of the Church. Intercessions on behalf of the government, for example, are at the very top of St. Paul’s priorities in his instructions to St. Timothy on how he is to conduct services at the Church in Ephesus.
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty,” he writes (I Timothy 2:1 & 2).
Moreover, it doesn’t matter in the least whether or not the civil authorities in question are Christian, pagan, or even atheist. We’re obliged to pray for them no matter what their beliefs. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,” writes Paul of the Emperor Claudius (Romans 13: 1–7), “For there is no power but of God … For he is the minister of God to thee for good ….”
Our Prayer Book’s “Prayer for the President,” thus, has a long and honorable history. It was adapted in 1789 from the “Prayer for the King” in the English Book of Common Prayer. The original was first published in 1547, predating by two years the Book of 1549—the first official Prayer Book to be published in the English Language.
There was a heated debate among the newly independent American Anglicans as to whether or not it was appropriate for the Church to pray for a U.S. President. The argument seems to have been settled by Bishop William White.
In a letter to Bishop Thomas C. Brownell of Connecticut, in 1822, he observed: “It may be questioned, whether in a government which gives no power commensurate with life, it be congruous to pray for the long life and prosperity of the first Magistrate; but it is contemptible to cavil at the title of “God’s servant,” as applied to an unbelieving President, when everyone, who understands Greek, knows he is called so in Romans xiii.4.” GPH✠
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