PRAYING FOR ENEMIES is portrayed as virtue but is more akin to virtue-signalling
Christians pray for their enemies. Many are impressed by this act. Is such prayer really just a form of virtue-signalling or a passive aggressive way of trying to make the enemy look bad or worse than what they are? After all if you see somebody hurting somebody who says they are praying for them your rage against the culprit will be fuelled.
Prayer requires that you forgive for you would have a nerve asking God for mercy or any favour when you withhold mercy or pardon yourself so prayer then is hypocrisy. All prayers, even prayers that you will get a bicycle for your birthday, are ultimately prayers for mercy. It is a prayer that God will give you a gift that you do not deserve because of your sins. God has forgiven you all your life and will forgive you even if you commit murder so you cannot approach him without forgiving. Christians are not that forgiving so we know then their prayers are a waste of time and insult God.
Is praying for enemies just a way of trying to feel better? If so then it is not
about the enemies at all.
Is it a way of trying to heal the enemies of their evil tendencies? Are you
asking God to help them repent and fix them? But that is asking him to
manipulate their free will or remove it. And it is really trying for people
prayed for the worst tyrants in history? Again it is about you trying to feel
you are trying.
Is it a way of trying to ask God to give them health and wealth? That is asking
for them to be rewarded and maybe get resources that enable them to get even
worse.
Some psychologists think praying for enemies though nonsense is good for it is
the person channelling their negative energy into passive aggressive prayer
instead of being actively violent. No prayer when answered is completely
good, for example, if you pray for a bike the parents may have to go
without a treat to buy it for you, prayer calls on evil to hit if
needed for the prayer to work. Prayer for enemies can be seen as
passive-aggressive.
The people who would not be impressed if Muslims/Hindus etc were praying for Catholic enemies are impressed when Christians pray for enemies. Praying for enemies principally is about intending that the enemies will change and see the light according to you.
So if you are Hindu and you pray for a Muslim you are trying to get God to have them become good Hindus and ditch Islam.
To be clear, praying for enemies on the face of it (whatever about the real
meaning!) is about intending that the enemies will change and see the light and
become good religionists in the one true faith that God sets up as a hospital
for sinners. For a Catholic that is the Catholic Church. It is the only real
hospital. For the Muslim it is only Islam. That is why
Christians would not like Muslims praying for them. The Muslim has to hope that
first and foremost the Christians will desist from their faith and turn to
Islam. It has to be at the back of their minds at least when they pray for
anything for a Christian.
Prayer requires that you forgive for you would have a nerve asking God for mercy
or any favour when you withhold mercy or pardon yourself so prayer then is
hypocrisy. All prayers, even prayers that you will get a bicycle for your
birthday, are ultimately prayers for mercy. It is a prayer that God will give you
a gift that you do not deserve because of your sins. God has forgiven you all
your life and will forgive you even if you commit murder so you cannot approach
him without forgiving. Christians are not that forgiving so we know then their
prayers are a waste of time and insult God.
People have been misled by the clergy to promote the God belief in order to
promote forgiveness in society. What the belief does is actually pull it down.
It is hard to forgive but harder if you see the other persons actions as
disobedience to a God you are in love with. If people can see that they will
soon stop letting the clergy, religion and God having any influence on their
lives. The baptismal fonts will soon be consigned to the museum. When religion
is to be so unpleasant it is clear that it is only meant for a handful and only
adults should be joining up instead of babies being initiated at baptism.
The Satanic Bible is right when it maintains that praying for your enemies is
just a polite way of showing you hate their guts (page 42). This is only
applicable to believers in free will or the supporters of that poisonous
doctrine who may not necessarily believe. Praying for your enemies certainly is
patronising - "I know what blessings you should have dear enemy. I am better
than you for I know. Therefore I pray that you will have blessings as I
understand them."
Hatred that is disguised, say in the form of praying for enemies, is far more
dangerous than hatred that is openly shown. At least with open unashamed hate
you can see it and do something about it. You can only love your sinners and
hate their sins if you become mad. What else would you be if you say a person is
a sinner and then say their sin is not part of them so that to hate it is not to
hate them? But the Church says it is not love to make yourself mad or another
mad and it's not love. So you cannot win. Loving the sinner and hating the sin
infers that the individual has no rights and should forsake them just for the
sake of giving sinners love they do not care if they never get. It is hardcore
altruism, the belief that you should do good for others and do all you can to
take no pleasure in it so that you get nothing out of it and have avoided any
intention of ever getting anything.
If you must judge and hate the sin but not the sinner then how can you forgive the sinner? Forgiving a person means you have judged them. Forgiveness contradicts the doctrine of hating the sin and forgiving the sinner. Praying for enemies contradicts it. Thus it logically implies the legitimacy of hate. Real forgiving is not done to be moral or because God says so. It is pure generous. God does not own forgiving and has to do in the same risky way we do. He deserves no praise for his mercy for it is only him trying to apply a standard that is over him as it is everybody else.
If forgiving is just generous this implies you should be appreciated as much for hating as forgiving.
The Church of Satan deals with hate by directing it into a curse in a ritual so
that the Satanist gets his revenge psychically and magically and is not
frustrated by a gripping and crippling desire that could drive him out of
control. Why should we believe in the Christian way and not this if we allow
hate? Christianity unlovingly wants to dictate to people how they should sort
their emotions out. Some people can cope with hate by distracting themselves and
the Christians still fume and point their fingers in condemnation. Good results
do nott matter and must be sacrificed for this precious forgiveness. Forgiveness
in Christianity, has more to do with making evil people feel better about they
do to the innocent so that they will like the faith than any real concern for
right and wrong. This is concealed badness. Had it not been for tyrants finding
Christianity so useful for controlling their long-suffering subjects the
religion would not have the power it has today. It is easier to do evil when you
believe your victims are obligated to pardon you and when they do not you will
fume and feel persecuted and you will get ever the more craftier and malicious.
Christians cause as much discord and war as any other religion or non-religion
does. Their praying for enemies does nothing to help. It is indeed hypocrisy.
BOOKS CONSULTED
A CATECHISM OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, CTS, London, 1985
A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, VOL 6, PART II, KANT, Frederick Copleston SJ,
Doubleday/Image, New York 1964
AQUINAS, FC Copleston, Penguin Books, London, 1991
BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, Friedrich Nietzsche, Penguin, London, 1990
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, Association for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge,
Dublin, 1960
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, Veritas, London, 1995
CHARITY, MEDITATIONS FOR A MONTH, Richard F Clarke SJ, Catholic Truth Society,
London, 1973
CHRISTIANITY FOR THE TOUGH-MINDED, Edited by John Warwick Montgomery, Bethany
Fellowship, Minnesota, 1973
CRISIS OF MORAL AUTHORITY, Don Cupitt, SCM Press, London, 1995
EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT, VOL 1, Josh McDowell, Alpha, Scripture Press
Foundation, Bucks, 1995
ECUMENICAL JIHAD, Peter Kreeft, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1996
THE GREAT MEANS OF SALVATION AND OF PERFECTION, St Alphonsus De Ligouri,
Redemptorist Fathers, Brooklyn, 1988
HANDBOOK OF CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Monarch,
East Sussex, 1995
HONEST TO GOD, John AT Robinson, SCM, London, 1963
HOW DOES GOD LOVE ME? Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1986
IN DEFENCE OF THE FAITH, Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1996
MADAME GUYON, MARTYR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, Phyllis Thompson, Hodder & Stoughton,
London, 1986
MORAL PHILOSOPHY, Joseph Rickaby SJ, Stonyhurst Philosophy Series, Longmans
Green and Co, London, 1912
OXFORD DICTIONARY OF PHILOSOPHY, Simon Blackburn, Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 1996
PRACTICAL ETHICS, Peter Singer, Cambridge University Press, England, 1994
PSYCHOLOGY, George A Miller, Penguin, London, 1991
RADIO REPLIES, 1, Frs Rumble & Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota,
1938
RADIO REPLIES, 2, Frs Rumble & Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota,
1940
RADIO REPLIES, 3, Frs Rumble & Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota,
1942
REASON AND BELIEF, Brand Blanschard, George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1974
REASONS FOR HOPE, Ed Jeffrey A Mirus, Christendom College Press, Virginia, 1982
THE ATONEMENT: MYSTERY OF RECONCILIATION, Kevin McNamara, Archbishop of Dublin,
Veritas, Dublin, 1987
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD, Jonathan Edwards, Sword of the Lord,
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, undated
THE BIBLE TELLS US SO, R B Kuiper, The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 1978
THE BRIEF OF ST ANTHONY OF PADUA (Vol 44, No 4)
THE CASE FOR FAITH, Lee Strobel, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2000
THE GREAT MEANS OF SALVATION AND OF PERFECTION, St Alphonsus De Ligouri,
Redemptorist Fathers, Brooklyn, 1988
THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, Thomas A Kempis, Translated by Ronald Knox and Michael
Oakley, Universe, Burns & Oates, London, 1963
THE LIFE OF ALL LIVING, Fulton J Sheen, Image Books, New York, 1979
THE NEW WALK, Captain Reginald Wallis, The Christian Press, Pembridge Villas,
England, undated
THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD, Brother Lawrence, Hodder & Stoughton,
London, 1981
THE PROBLEM OF PAIN, CS Lewis, Fontana, London, 1972
THE PUZZLE OF GOD, Peter Vardy, Collins, London, 1990
THE SATANIC BIBLE, Anton Szandor LaVey, Avon Books, New York, 1969
THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE, Michael Molinos, Christian Books, Gardiner Maine, 1982
THE STUDENT'S CATHOLIC DOCTRINE, Rev Charles Hart BA, Burns & Oates, London,
1961
UNBLIND FAITH, Michael J Langford, SCM, London, 1982