A Prayer For the Most Hated Man

Tonight I pray for the most hated man in America. 
Not that he be comforted. 
Not that he find peace. 
But that he might know a thing we call 
Transformation. 

Because if there might ever be a moment of 
“Dear God, what have I done,” 
If there might be a shock of horror
At glancing in the mirror,
A slight shudder of 
“Whose blood is this on my hands?” 
Then maybe there can be this thing that we sometimes call
Redemption. Atonement. 

Tonight I pray for the most hated man, 
But also 
For the ones who handed him a gun. 
For a nation that raised him to fear brown people, 
Grew him up to worship the idol of his own whiteness, 
And then handed him a gun again, saying
“Here, go protect us
From that one over there, 
With his hands pinned behind him.
Go shield us from that man, 
Calling out for his mother.”

Let there be a collective sigh tonight of
Lord hear our prayer
And what is it that we have done?
And may we someday fully account for
the number of souls,
Beloveds,
​Whose blood runs in rivers down city streets
In all this shining, sinful land. 
 
Tonight I will pray for the most hated man,
For all the terror that the bars won’t keep out, 
For all the rage that the walls hold in. 
I pray 
Not for his comfort.
Not for his peace.  
But that he might know a thing that we call 
Transformation-- even if we little know
What it means. 
​
And I pray that he might, 
For the rest of his captive days, 
Speak with reverence the name of the one
Whose breath he stopped 
On bended knee. 

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