The War Prayer

This text has been adapted from Mark Twain's The War Prayer, which he wrote in 1904-5 to protest America’s involvement in the Spanish-American War. His family convinced him to keep if from publication, fearing it was too controversial. Published after his death, Twain makes the case that if God causes all things to happen and blesses select people, then He must also, willingly, deny others his blessing. It is the other side of prayer, the unspoken side, which Twain so brilliantly characterized in The War Prayer.