Praying for Targets of Political Violence
This prayer was offered by Rick Barry as part of our July 17 prayer call confronting political violence. You can sign up for future calls at the bottom of this page.
God, the day is coming when, with a word from his mouth that cuts us to the quick as though it were a sword, your Son will end our conflicts and bring government together upon his own shoulders.
Until then, though, we live in a country where we handle government collaboratively, and, lately, we have not done that well.
We have allowed hate and bitterness and fear to curdle in our hearts, instead of deliberately cultivating the fruit of the spirit. And we have grown complacent or resigned in the face of violence—even violence against the very people we hire into elected office!—instead of learning to properly lament it.
We pray today for some of the most well-known and visible public servants who have been targeted by political violence:
We pray for former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
We pray for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
We pray for Rep. Steve Scalise.
We pray for congressional aide Zach Barth.
We pray for Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul.
We pray for former President Donald Trump.
We pray for former Vice President Mike Pence and all of the Congressional representatives, senators and staffers who faced violent mobs on January 6.
We pray for election worker Ruby Freeman.
And we pray for the so, so many other members of school boards and elections commissions who have been targeted with threats and acts of violence in recent years.
This kind of violence is not how you intended for our world to function, and falling short of your hope for us is tragic. Maybe in the past we have ignored some of these people as they faced tragedy. Maybe in the past we have celebrated the tragedies as they happened. But today, we pray for these image-bearers. We pray for their healing physically, mentally and spiritually.
Some of them will bear physical scars, wounds and even neurological damage for the rest of their natural lives. Most of them have struggled with anxiety, stress and trauma beyond anything humans were designed to endure. And all of them have had to come face to face with what it means to be mortal beings in a broken, sin-scarred world.
Help them. Heal their bodies. Calm their minds. And lead them to emerge from this season of violence as more compassionate people. Don’t let these experiences malform them. You are the God who turns stone hearts into flesh, who takes the things man intends for evil and redeems them, works them into things that are cosmic goods. Do that here, leading them to be more like your son—rich in mercy, generous in compassion, courageous in humility and selflessness.
And, in your mercy, spare their colleagues what they have had to endure. Do for us what we can not do for ourselves—and at this moment when what we cannot do for ourselves really does seem impossible. After centuries of intermittent political violence, make our country known as a place where governing can bring out the best in us, not the worst.
We pray these things, we cast this vision, by the light your Son has shed on our eyes.
Amen.
Rick Barry is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Christian Civics.