Politics and religion actually do mix, sort of.
The prophet Jeremiah, knowing full well that our people were going to be more scattered than Waffle House hash browns (he didn’t exactly phrase it that way, but whatever…) urged our exiles to pray for the peace of the communities in which they found themselves. “Seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Lord in its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.” Jeremiah 29:7.
There was great wisdom in this, both theological and practical. From the theological point of view, praying for the welfare of the (presumably non-Jewish) community humanizes the “enemy.” It induces us to focus on rebuilding our alienated relationship with G-d, rather than reinforcing our negative emotions (fear, hatred resentment, insecurity, despair, etc.) about our alien status.
From a practical point of view, it serves to integrate, or protect, the Jewish community in an alien world. As Fiddler made famous, “May the Lord bless and keep the Czar…” is deliciously ambiguous. If the Czar is good (fat chance, but still…), then you can pray wholeheartedly that he will continue his good leadership. If the Czar is not so good (bank on it), you can still win popular approval by praying for the Czar while not saying the quiet part out loud: “…far away from us. Amen!”
Ambivalence about the prayer continues to our day. When everything is going swimmingly, of course, saying the prayer is nearly automatic. But “when the going gets tough, the tough get weird” (Hunter Thomson). There are those who refuse to say the blessing when they don’t like the current administration. In response, I would say that it’s exactly when the current administration seems misguided that the country most needs our prayers.
Similarly, there are those who suggest we should change the blessing based on current circumstances. Again, I would assert that this is misguided. One of the great strengths of this blessing is continuity. Leaders change (much faster than you might think—there are 74 freshmen in the current Congress, about 17%). Our country—or at least, the “ideals and free institutions that are the pride and glory of our country,” do not. If we change the prayer for the current administration, then someone will want to change the prayer for the next administration. A prayer that unites us will then be transformed into a prayer that divides us—precisely the opposite of its intent, which is to “forge a common bond in true harmony.”
Think we could use some of that?
Well, pray hard.