Prayer and War

A journalist once asked the great spiritual Jewish leader, Abraham Heschel, why he came to a demonstration against the Vietnam War. “I am here because I cannot pray,” Heschel answered. Confused, the journalist asked, “What do you mean, you can’t pray so you come to a demonstration against the war?” Heschel: “Whenever I open the prayerbook, I see before me images of children burning from napalm.” Heshcel meant that we forfeit our right to pray if we are silent about the cruelties surrounding us. “Prayer,” he said, must never be a citadel for selfish concerns but rather a place for deepening concern over other people’s plight.” (See Essential Writings below, 17).

Excerpted from Walter B. Shurden’s preaching Journal, October 2011 Vol. 4 No. 40