Should Christians Pray for Trump’s Recovery?
Speaking blessings or curses are both Biblical
I am an Episcopal priest who is also a Hebrew Bible scholar. I am also a womanist. I read the scriptures in conversation with Black folk centering the wisdom and experience of Black women. It is from this place that I have listened to well wishes for the current president of the United States in light of his Covid-19 diagnosis, the calls for prayer for him and his family and those around him who are also positive, and the rejection of those calls for prayer by some. In the Episcopal Church and throughout the Anglican Communion, most churches pray for the leader of whatever country they inhabit every Sunday. But what is being discussed and debated in public and private, particularly in Christian spaces, is whether or not the president merits our prayers, whether praying for him to recover and return to his duties would make us complicit in the exercise of his duties, enacting policies which many regard as not only harmful but also sinful.
With the power of the presidency at his disposal, Donald Trump is the enemy of the public good and many people’s well-being. That includes women wanting to maintain autonomy over their bodies; LGBTQIA folk fighting to preserve their marriages, families, right to adopt, and the accompanying tax credits and benefits; people who are…
