If anyone deserves the title of America’s enemy #1, it’s Osama bin Laden. But here’s a thought for Christians: Should we pray for him?

            Actually, if you’ve been a reader of the New Testament for any length of time, you already know the answer to that. Jesus put it succinctly in the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven ....”

            Jesus’ words leave little wiggle room. To be children of our Father in heaven, we need to love our enemies and pray for them. That plainly answers the question.

            End of sermon.

Further questions

            But don’t grab your hymnal for the final hymn quite yet, for there are questions behind that question that make it not quite so easy to declare the matter answered. Here are a couple of those questions:

            First, how do we deal with the fact that we don’t want to pray for enemies? While Osama bin Laden is certainly our enemy, we may have people closer at hand whom we’d identify as enemies as well. One man put it this way: “How can I talk about praying for bin Laden when I cannot pray for the scumbags that live in my own community? How can I pray for them when I cannot forgive the guy who cheated me with my blacktop?” There are Christian people who have trouble praying for a two-timing spouse, a drug-using child, a shoplifting employee, a selfish, egotistical neighbor, or the coach of their son’s Little League team who never lets the kid play. Or what about the trusted person who abused a child? Should that child’s parent pray for that person? So the first question behind the question is “How do we deal with the feelings enemi

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