This past weekend, as I write these words at the beginning of June, a large collection of influential evangelical pastors and leaders sponsored a full-page ad in various national newspapers. Led by Franklin Graham of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the signatories called for a “Special Day of Prayer for the President,” in which their followers might pray “that God would protect, strengthen, embolden and direct” President Trump. They stated: “Our nation is at a crossroads, at a dangerous precipice. The only one who can fix our nation’s problems is God Himself, and we pray that God will bless our President and our nation for His glory.”
I have two problems with this “Special Day of Prayer.” First, on the day after a presumed outpouring of prayer for our president, during his plane’s descent into London for a state visit with Her Majesty the Queen, President Trump began his visit to the U.K. by tweeting that London’s mayor Sadiq Khan “is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me.” Maybe the president needs more than a day of prayer.
With due reverence, that’s exactly what I wish to propose — not just for this president, but for any president. In our ecclesial tradition, praying for the president is a regular liturgical expectation that has been modeled in various editions of our Book of Common Worship. In our most recent BCW, prayers of intercession include this prayer:
“Mighty God, sovereign over the nations, direct those who make, administer, and judge our laws; the president of the United States and others in authority among us … that, guided by your wisdom, they may lead us in the way of righteousness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Throughout my parish ministry, I led my congregations in a similar prayer every Sunday: “for our president and for all others in authority, that they may govern in wisdom and justice.” An equal-opportunity intercessor, I prayed both for those for whom I had voted and for those for whom I had not. Each of them, in his own way, needed as much help with “the ways of righteousness, wisdom and justice” as he could muster, and so I prayed for those faithful correctives on a regular basis.
But – and this is my second problem – the day of prayer that Graham and others called for was motivated by their desire to weaponize narrow political positions in the name of God.
Columnist Michael Gerson of The Washington Post (a Republican and a Christian) wrote that “Graham and other Trump evangelicals have used a sacred spiritual practice for profane purposes. They have subordinated religion to politics. They have elevated Trump as a symbol of divine purposes. And they are using Christian theology as a cover for their partisanship. … This,” he said, “is blasphemy, in service to ideology, leading to idolatry, justified by heresy. All in a Sunday’s work.” Later in his column, Gerson goes on to ask, “Why does this matter?” And then he answers: “Because genuine Christian influence is actually needed in American politics.”
Indeed. Genuine Christian influence lifts up “the ways of righteousness, wisdom and justice.” That’s not just politics; that’s the gospel. Reinhold Niebuhr once offered this prayer: “Give all little men and judges and presidents and commissars, who are great beyond their strength, by reason of the strength which they have drawn from and owe to the community, a sense of that judgment which stands against the judges of the earth, and which renders their counsels vain when directed against the counsels of God.”
Yes, we should pray for the president — and not just on one strategic Sunday, but daily. Our president needs as much prayer as he can get. But we should remember to pray for God’s sense of righteousness, wisdom and justice — not just the president’s.
Theodore J. Wardlaw is president of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
