Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer” has been deployed as a scathing indictment of the piety people seem to embrace in a time of war; in Twain’s case during the Spanish-American War. This indictment asks what we pray for when a nation goes to war. The video clip above is a short film version of the prayer with Edward Hermann playing the “lunatic” messenger from God. Reportedly, Twain chose not to publish the piece during his lifetime out of trepidation expressed by friends, family, and his publisher. Recently, Barack Obama announced the official end to America’s war in Iraq. On December Read more