Who Deserves No Mercy?
When violence sounds like prayer
During a March worship service at the Pentagon, Sec. of Defense Pete Hegseth asked God to violently send his enemies to hell:
“Give [US soldiers] wisdom… and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy… let justice be executed swiftly and without remorse… deliver them to eternal damnation… in the name of Jesus Christ.”
Jesus Christ:
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Love our enemy in the name of Christ, or kill them in the name of Christ? We can’t have it both ways.
We’ve seen this before…
On the U.S. expansion and violent removal of indigenous people…
“Our manifest destiny is to overspread the continent allotted by Providence…”
- John L. O’Sullivan, 1845, justifying US expansion and removal of indigenous people
Abraham Lincoln in 1865 on the Civil War:
“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.”
Rev. Billy Graham supported U.S. involvement in Vietnam, though later in life he admitted he had been too closely aligned with political power.
His son, Rev. Franklin Graham, at Pentagon worship service last December:
“We know that God loves, but did you know that God also hates? Do you know that God also is a God of war?”1
Same story: Using God to justify violence.
We decide who deserves mercy and who doesn’t.
We call one side human, the other side evil.
And once we’re sure of that…
Violence becomes justice.
Cruelty becomes necessary.
God becomes only for us.
Yet, in this very moment, a soldier is praying for protection.
Somewhere else, a family is praying the bombs don’t fall tonight.
Does one of those prayers matter more than the other?
And this is the story Easter tells.
A government. Religious leaders. A man labeled a threat. A religious crowd convinced they were right.
Jesus wasn’t killed by people who hated God.
He was killed by people who thought they were on God’s side.
That’s the part we don’t like to sit with.
It’s easier to believe the problem is out there, apart from our group, our church, our party. The problem is…
with them, the enemy,
with the people who deserve “no mercy”.
But the moment I decide someone deserves no mercy,
I become the problem.
Not them.
So when our leaders, “left” or “right,” use religion to justify war and violence,
we should pause.
Why do we need an enemy to hate?
Every major religious and spiritual tradition has wrestled with that question.
Religion can be a path toward deeper love, connection, and healing,
or a tool we use to justify our fears, our insecurities, and our hate.