Can God Sort Out All Conflicting Prayers Addressed to Him?

Late the other night, on the eve of war, I lay in bed and imagined someone at that minute in Garden Grove or Irvine or San Clemente praying for a swift and successful outcome for the American forces in the Middle East. I imagined that prayer being simultaneously offered by millions of people around the country.

In the next moment, I imagined someone in Baghdad also offering a prayer at that hour. I also multiplied that prayer by millions. Theirs, however, probably would have taken a different tone. They might well have been asking God to spare Iraq from America. They might well have asked in all earnestness that death rain on the American invaders.

I wondered how the one God to whom these people pray would reconcile their conflicting requests for his beneficence. Or whether it gave the beseechers any pause in knowing that other God-fearing people were making claims antithetical to theirs.

These questions of faith and providence never matter as much, it seems, as during times of national crisis.

Richard Dalbey found the peace he was looking for Thursday. He and his two children lingered in the spacious sanctuary of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Costa Mesa. It was midafternoon, and Dalbey, in the stillness of the empty church, sought a safe port.

“I’m praying that we can get this over fast,” he says after spending about 20 minutes communing with God. “I pray for the safe return of all our troops and that God can have this swift justice against these evil people. I also pray that no [Iraqi] civilian lives are lost. It’s not their fault. It’s Saddam Hussein and his sons.”

Dalbey, 43, is a lifelong Catholic but a stronger one in the last 20 years. He recites the Rosary every day and would have come to church Thursday, war or no war. But on this day, he had an extra mission: a friend’s sister is on Army duty in the Iraqi war theater.

“I said I’d make a special prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to look down not only on the troops but to look after his sister and make sure she is safe and sound,” Dalbey says.

I ask him about people who would claim to be equally religious but who are offering diametrically opposite prayers about the war’s outcome.

Dalbey says his understanding of Islam is that it doesn’t advocate killing innocent people. “I think God would just separate it out,” he says of differing prayers. “He’d know by people’s intentions in their heart. It would be as simple as that. If someone was angry or had mean and murderous thoughts, obviously I don’t believe God would look over those people.”

Typical of fearful times with unknown outcomes, Dalbey says he has noticed new faces saying “quick prayers” at church in the last few days as the war neared and then arrived.

Yes, Dalbey says, he could have offered the same prayers in his car or in bed at night. But when I ask how he feels after being in the quiet of an empty church on a Thursday afternoon, he says, “It gives me peace of mind. I feel closer to the Lord.”

With his unshakable faith, Dalbey suggests he’s prepared for anything.

I ask how he’d explain a bad outcome for America’s effort in Iraq. “I’d still keep praying,” he says. “God forbid, anything can happen. Some asteroid can hit Earth and cause massive chaos. I firmly believe God will take care of his people. I believe that Saddam Hussein is a madman, another Hitler, and I don’t understand how people can’t see this. I don’t see God letting him prevail.”

In this uncertain moment in history, I ask if he’s anxious or at peace. “I don’t like to see anyone suffer, so I’m anxious to get it over with,” Dalbey says. “But as for peace with myself, I’m just going to continue to pray. That’s all I can do to keep peace in my heart.”

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Orange County edition columnist Dana Parsons can be reached at (714) 966-7821, at dana.parsons@latimes.com or at 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.