Praying for had people
From the Revd Edmund Newey Sir: Theodore Dalrymple complains of the 'unctuously sermonising Church of England voice' that prompted him to turn off the wireless in disgust (Second opinion, 4 December). I am sure he is right to criticise. Public prayer is a demanding business and the middle way between sanctimony and matiness is often a hard one to follow.
Yet the parsonical voice was surely right to pray for hostages and hostage-takers alike. To pray for someone is not to condone their actions, but simply to bring them before God. The gospels repeatedly show Christ praying for those whose deeds are evil, not least those who crucify him.
Christian faith teaches that the world is created in peace and love, but is constantly cut off from God by the absurdity of human evil. Why there is evil we do not know, but we do know that it is our duty to resist it. So, we do pray for mugged and mugger alike. Not because mugging is good, or even inevitable, but because it is absurd. As St Paul says, 'We do not know how to pray aright,' but we do know when, where and for whom to pray. At all times, in all places and, like Our Lord, for all.
Edmund Newey
Newmarket, Suffolk
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