Throughout the 2016 presidential election cycle, I’ve offered prayers for the nation, for the GOP, for the conservative movement, and other causes. I’ve added some prayers for Donald Trump, and asked God that Hillary Clinton, if elected, would govern differently than her record suggests she would.

But I’ve never offered a prayer for Clinton herself, for her soul. And I don’t think I’m alone.

Why Hillary?

First, we all need prayer. Remember such vivid dictums as “there but for the Grace of God go I,” and “all have fallen short of the Glory of God.” The Bible is full of them.

Second, Vox’s Emily Crockett was right when she said in an e-mailed comment to me that “Hillary was a victim of Bill’s affairs. He cheated on her. He humiliated her.”

I’ve never been married, and I was only 13 when Bill Clinton was impeached. It’s certainly possible that older conservatives are right that the Clintons’ marriage has been more about convenience than love.

But for a moment, I’m removing my political/conservative/reporter hat. Hillary Clinton had to stand by her husband on for a decade when he was hit with various accusations of infidelity as governor and president. Even if she married Bill for power, Hillary could not have been happy to be tied to the credible accusations against her husband. I cannot imagine it wasn’t shameful, embarrassing, etc.

On the flip side, let’s assume Clinton really is the power-hungry politician so many on the right, including myself, tend to think she is. Certainly, Wikileaks has confirmed that her political and policy principles are as up for grabs as her husband’s or Donald Trump’s marital vows. And she truly did enable Bill, attacking his accusers throughout the 1990s.

But that means she needs prayers even more. What sort of person would deal with the national embarrassment of her husband’s impeachment just to gain power? Who would be so cold-hearted so as to remove the modest protections of the Hyde Amendment in order to force taxpayers to fund more abortions? And, likewise, who would so willingly engage in a corrupt pay-for-play at her family’s foundation with dictatorships (such as Saudi Arabia) that kill over differences in religious beliefs?

And those are just her latest public policy sins.

Hillary is Not The Enemy

Hillary Clinton is not the enemy. Neither is Donald Trump or President Barack Obama. Their positions in U.S. politics say more about our national depravity than anything else — they are merely the logical conclusion of decades of abandonment of fiscal, moral and cultural principles by voters and others.

The enemy is whatever has brought us to this state of affairs — Satan, if you will. Hillary is a willing participant in his corruption of the world — we all have free will — and therefore she needs our prayers.

Over the last few years, I’ve seen a lot that has caused me to believe Hillary Clinton would do severe damage to this country. It’s not enough to convince me to vote for Trump, who was good friends with Bill and Hillary until he decided to switch parties and a host of his own political principles in order to make his own run for the White House.

But I noticed last week that I’ve almost stopped seeing Hillary as a person. As many on the Left see Trump, I’ve fallen into the trap of viewing the former First Lady and Secretary of State as the embodiment of the Democratic Party’s largely successful efforts to restructure the values and principles of our nation.

Hillary Clinton is a dishonest politician whose principles appear to be related to gaining power. Plain and simple. But she’s also a person. And it’s up to me to help her as best I can, if only for her soul — never mind the nation, and the hundreds of millions of lives a Hillary White House would affect.

Whether my prayers help her is up to God. But it’s the least I can do for her, and for myself.