During World War I, Harry Emerson Fosdick published a prayer for the Germans: "O God, bless Germany! At war with her people we hate them not at all. . . .We acknowledge before Thee our part in the world's iniquity. . . .We dare not stand in thy sight and accuse Germany as though she alone were guilty of our international disgrace. We all are guilty."
Charles Biddle, an American pilot, responded to Fosdick's prayer by pledging to kill as many "Huns" as he could, saying that "if Christianity requires us to forgive them I am afraid I am no Christian" This Fosdick prayer for the enemy was in the March issue of Church History.
In my "fan mail" now and then I hear from readers that remind me of pilot Charles Biddle. They not only simply disagree when I write on problems like torture, but stress their hatred and believe torture is good and fruitful. One such reader disagreed when I wrote torture was immoral and illegal. His blunt word for me reveal the condition of too many Americans today. At the end of his harangue, he closed with: "If you are a Christian, then I do not want to be one!"
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