Dear Anonymous,

You put forth a good response,

"I would hope that Mr. Giles would consider asking God first of all, why He often allows
enemies to attack...and then find out if repentance is in order...and then, if the slate is
clean, consider his "imprecatory prayer".    Anonymous

but, Mr. Doug Giles defines imprecatory prayer as ".. a prayer asking God to crush a clear enemy of His". So, the first question we must answer is: Did (and how has) the enemy reveled itself to be an enemy of God? Since our US Constitution is based on the 'laws of nature and nature's God' as defined by our Judeo-Christian cultural heritage, this is also the reasoning involved in the definition of a 'justifiable war' to be fought with the assumed approval of our Sovereign God.

Since it is obvious that all of our enemies are not necessarily God's enemies, I agree with you that it is appropriate to review our own actions to determine our contribution, if any,  to an attack against us, but only after we have sufficiently answered the question as to the nature of our enemy. If our enemy is not an enemy of God, imprecatory prayer would not be justified whereas a negotiated resolution may be.

Therefore, I think your response to Mr. Giles carries too broad an implication which may be misinterpreted as:

Bad things happen to bad people and they should respond to their enemies only after they have ask for and received forgiveness for their badness.

For Christians, I propose that an enemy who does not recognize the sovereignty of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who threatens the existence of those that do, and who goes on a rampage indiscriminately murdering civilians in the name of a 'foreign' god, this is an enemy of  God and therefore, our enemy as well. We, then, have no need to question God's motives or our shortcomings before we call on an imprecatory prayer against His enemy.

Blessings

Marie Komar