Dear God,

“It seems to me that mutual comprehension between Christians and Moslems (sic) is something of very vital importance today, and unfortunately it is rare and uncertain, or else subjected to the vagaries of politics.” Merton

I don’t plan on writing these prayers every Saturday, which isn’t to say I won’t pray in one form or another. I’m like Brother Lawrence in that way, constantly in a state of communication with the divine. Haha. Yeah right.

But seriously, these words struck me today, and I thought, what the hell? I’ll pray. It seems pertinent on a day when ignorant and racist hillbillies and rednecks (which isn’t to say all hillbillies and rednecks are ignorant and racist; some, many I’m sure, are fine and lovely and good, but you know that) are going out to protest Mosques in our country, possibly with concealed firearms. It’s just another way for white supremacy, fear, ignorance, and stupidity to manifest itself — a deadly cocktail, all to often available in the American social and political sphere.

God, we live in such a backward and idiotic culture sometimes. I pray that you will bring peace between Muslim and Christian. I also pray for justice, for a return to order, or at least a semblance of it, in Syria, Libya, Palestine, and the Ukraine, not to mention the rest of the world. For whatever reason we humans seem to love diving headfirst into the abyss. I pray that Gog and Magog, the US and Russian (and now China; I need another demonic name that ends with og), will stop their saber rattling. I pray that US citizens will wake up and realize that true life has never come through scapegoating, xenophobia, and fear mongering, but through love and patient work towards justice and peace. I pray we will stop retroactively justifying, which is to say living out, Huntington’s thesis of the clash between Muslim East and Christian West.

Fuck.