Recent reports have profiled prayer meetings occurring at the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Hegseth utilizes these occasions to pray for unrestrained military “violence for those who deserve no mercy.”  The US started war with Iran, and one wonders if this includes the estimated 175 students killed by an American missile attack on an Iranian school?  Hegseth has declined to speak on the matter. He does not care. His vulgar glorification of violence encased within the framework of Christian nationalism is simply despicable. And doing so in the name of US citizens is unamerican and contemptable.

Hegseth’s intentional cruelty brings to mind the masterful literary mockery of such efforts by Mark Twain. The War Prayer, written in 1905, stands as a scathing indictment of coopting religious fervor as just cause for brutal warfare.

As Twain so effectively details in his writing – a prayer for devastating victory, is reframed as a prayer for the explicit suffering and destruction of others – mostly innocents. So, while Hegseth invocates for God’s honor and glory at any cost, he simultaneously prays God’s blessing for the agonizing blood shed of others.

Twain’s War Prayer should be required reading at the start of every war cabinet meeting.

James Talarico is a Presbyterian seminarian campaigning for a Texas senate seat. He stands as a bright light in the current disgraceful and shameful landscape of political discourse. In recent statements he reminds us that love is more powerful than hate, intentional cruelty is unforgivable, and there is absolutely nothing ‘Christian’ about Christian nationalism. Amen to that brother!

Neal Guyer lives in Thomaston