In addition to his explanation of the imprecatory nature of the Third Petition, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Large Catechism, Part III. 69-70), Dr. Martin Luther made the following comments about imprecatory prayers, which would apply today to such enemies as Ingersoll, Freed, the ACLU, and the State of Washington:

“We should pray that our enemies be converted and become our friends, and if not, that their doing and designing be bound to fail and have no success and that their persons perish rather than the Gospel and the kingdom of Christ. Thus the saintly martyr Anastasia, a wealthy, noble Roman matron, prayed against her husband, an idolatrous and terrible ravager of Christians, who had flung her into a horrible prison, in which she had to stay and die. There she lay and wrote to the saintly Chrysogonus diligently to pray for her husband that, if possible, he be converted and believe; but if not, that he be unable to carry out his plans and that he soon make an end of his ravaging. Thus she prayed him to death, for he went to war and did not return home. So we, too, pray for our angry enemies, not that God protect and strengthen them in their ways, as we pray for Christians, or that He help them, but that they be converted, if they can be; or, if they refuse, that God oppose them, stop them and end the game to their harm and misfortune.” (E. Plass, What Luther Says, St. Louis: Concordia, 1959, #3517, p. 1100)