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Many "peace at any cost" advocates quote Mark Twain's marvelous "The War Prayer" but that cannot go unanswered.
Mark Twain’s "The War Prayer" & a Response
(Mark Twain’s "The War Prayer" was written approximately 1904-05 but wasn’t published until 1923)
The War Prayer
By Mark Twain
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.
Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation;
God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!
Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory –
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"
The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:
"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.
"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.
"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory -- must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
(After a pause.) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"
[It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.]
A Response to "The War Prayer"
By J M Kearney
Indeed, maybe the old man was crazy Mr. Twain. Does God not distinguish between righteous and unrighteous anger, positive and negative violence?
Didn’t Jesus himself forcibly oust the Pharisees from the Temple?
Yes, all violence is ugly, but self-defense is not merely approved but sacred. Only a coward refuses to fight for his family’s survival. Our Holy Books are filled with all manner of gore and blood-letting, supposedly at God’s command, so religion is a thin veil in which to try and render violence "offensive to God."
In short, do we not consider right and wrong?
Do we not distinguish between aggression and defense?
Peace at any cost results in slavery on the cheap. Appeasing tyranny only results in slaughter and why not? The price for cowardice should be high, for there is no more profound sin than to lack the will to fight for the things one professes faith in.
Is all violence terrible? Is all war horrific? Of that there is no question, but some violence is necessary and some wars are righteous, for if one’s unwilling to fight for one’s home, one deserves to lose it and if one won’t fight for his loved ones he’s unworthy of them and their love.
Those who hold nothing dear and have no real faith are fond of condemning all violence in the name of "decency" and "humanity" – "There is nothing worth killing for," they love to proclaim.
Really?
Is your home and hearth not worthy of defense? How about your family and friends?...Your beloved spouse?...Your defenseless children?
Only a fool says, "Nothing’s worth killing...or dying for."
Now what about killing for one’s country?
Now that depends upon the circumstances. Under threat of invasion, you’re fighting for your home, your family, your survival, but what about fighting for "national interest?"
That must be considered from the viewpoint of whether your nation’s interests take precedence over your morals, your faith? Does any nation, even our own, have the right to rape another? To control and manipulate another nation’s destiny for its own gain? In my view, no more than you nor I do.
So, I accept the righteous fight of America’s Civil War, terrible as it was. The South felt invaded and the North saw the end of the Union as a short road to ruin. Neither side had any choice but to fight. It’s only a shame that America’s original Constitution was subsequently shredded in the name of "The Union," in a move from localized, "State’s Rights" governance, to centralized or federal control.
On the other hand, I commend your protest against the Spanish-American war and World War I. America had no business taking on Spain in a naked bid to gather up some colonies as the close of the age of colonization drew near and it had nothing at stake in Europe in 1916. In fact, with the way the British had dealt with America over the previous century, we should’ve been joyous to see the Kaiser put an end to the expansionist British and French regimes.
In retrospect, neutrality then, would’ve avoided Versailles, the subsequent, resulting tariff wars, which triggered the Great Depression and would have effectively stifled the political career of Adolph Hitler. So yes, sometimes NOT FIGHTING is the better choice.
There is no absolute when it comes to violence and war. We simply cannot condemn all of it. It takes more thought than that. Most things usually do.
Defense is universally justified, so long as justice is considered worth defending, just as aggression is generally indefensible.
[I sympathize with your hoary character, Mr. Twain, as I’ve often been considered a bit of a "lunatic" myself.]
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