Theocrats to Pray for McCain's Death
Frederick Clarkson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 11:48:03 AM EST
The more theocratic elements of the Religious Right have a disturbing habit, (more like a practice) of invoking "imprecatory prayer" -- a call for God to literally pour his wrath down on those they consider to be his enemies. Last year, for example, Rev. Wiley Drake, then a Second Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention made news when he called on his followers to pray for God to smite members of the staff of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. (Drake was angry that the organization had reported Drake to the IRS for endorsing Mike Huckabee on church stationary, among other apparent abuses of his church's 501(c))(3) tax-exemption.)

The most recent target of theoractic imprecations is none other than Republican presidential candidate John McCain. They hope that an act of God will make Sarah Palin president.

But before we get to McCain, let's get a little background: In the summer of 2004, Townhall columnist and radio talk show host Doug Giles declared it is time to call the wrath of God down on the enemies of Christianity, namely Islam.

Radical Islam is incorrigible, period. So face it and embrace it. We are not going to convert or appease these cats. We have nothing they want. There is nothing to negotiate. They want us exterminated. Capisce?

That said, what do we, Christians in particular, do when faced with an implacable radical enemy? Just sit around sing "Kum Ba Yah" and hope these bad guys will leave us alone? That's what a lot of five-watt light bulb, spiritually neutered believers are doing. Just sittin' around hopin' and wishin' or worse yet, ignoring the viable millennial threat of militant Islam. I, for one, will not take a passive stance against this aggressive enemy. You cannot be lame and win this game with these guys. So, as a Christian, I suggest the following:

After a short, brutal, list he launches into the main point:

Five: As people of faith, dust off and use what's afforded to the believer within the Old and New Testaments, namely the imprecatory prayers.

What is an imprecatory prayer?

It is a prayer asking God to crush a clear enemy of His, an enemy which is an aggressive adversary of freedom and peace loving people.

Well, that is quite a standard, and one that is arguably prone to abuse. That said, at least two people have written in recent days that hope that McCain/Palin are elected so that they can pray for God to crush John McCain and to elevate Sarah Palin to her rendevous with destiny.

Antiabortion militant and all-round theocratic activist Jay Rogers of Florida, whose blog is called The Forerunner, writes:  

Pray for John McCain's salvation and speedy death. (Google The Forerunner's articles on Imprecatory Prayer if you think this is harsh.)

And then there is this guy, a self-described Christian Reconstructionist whose blog handle is Ixion, and is apparently from Tennessee:

McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin, suddenly made me want to vote for him, as long as the LORD smites him while he's in office. She's consistently conservative on all the issues, and if she's good enough for The Forerunner, she's good enough for me. The Forerunner agrees with me that McCain must be smitten, as well, so I'm obviously not alone in my viewpoints.

After a long response to a well-researched Daily Kos diary by Dogemperor, discussing Palin's religious history and raises some important concerns, Ixion comes back around to his main point.

May the LORD cause McCain/Palin to win the White House in 2008, and then smite the godless McCain in favor of Palin. Amen.

He then concludes his post about Palin in a most unusual fashion:

Anyone that can earn the approval of Phyllis Schlafly and the Texas GOP (the platform of which can be found HERE) is a winner in my book. Anyone that can win the support of Focus on the Family and Concerned Women of America is a winner in my book. Anyone that can earn the wrath of Christian hating Frederick Clarkson is not only a winner in my book, but deserves to be put into a heavenly hall of fame. Finally, anyone that makes the Kostards piss their pants is a winner in my book.

Anyway, the definition of God's enemies, as we have seen here, can be highly subjective. To Wiley Drake, it is staffers at Americans United; to Doug Giles, it is all of Isalm. To Jay Rogers and Ixion, it is the "godless" John McCain. From this sampling, it is probably fair to assume that God may have a lot of incoming. But what if God is not impressed? What will these men do then?




Display:
What worries me is, what if militant Christians are not impressed with the imprecatory prayer results? If Obama/Biden are elected, I worry about the reaction of many of these wingnuts.

by trog69 on Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 12:18:35 PM EST

Stuart Shepard prayed for a drenching rain to prevent Barack Obama from giving his acceptance speech. What he got instead was a hurricane that has cut into the GOP convention. Sometimes, you don't get what you pray for, and it may rebound on you.

by khughes1963 on Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 12:48:20 PM EST

isn't Schlafly somewhat less approving of Palin since she canceled an appearance at a recent whacko religious pro-life event?

by pattyp on Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 01:59:11 PM EST
got a link?

by Frederick Clarkson on Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 02:00:48 PM EST
Parent
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/schlafly-chides.h tml

Although more accurately, Schlafly is really annoyed with the McCain campaign, not Palin so much. So maybe it doesn't really count.

by pattyp on Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 02:09:20 PM EST
Parent

I wish I knew half as much as people give me credit for;-)  

Anyway, yeah, the McCain campaign has largely kept her away from the press. I guess since they didn't adequately vet her, they have to at least see that she is well-briefed -- even if that means putting Schlafly's nose a little out of joint.

by Frederick Clarkson on Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 02:36:47 PM EST
Parent

more than I do about the political side of religion. :-)

On a related note, am I the only one who subconsciously wants to spell/say "Chafely" in place of "Schlafly"?

by pattyp on Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 04:04:48 PM EST
Parent






The most extreme elements of the religious right are not happy with McCain as their standard bearer. Many were disappointed by Huckabee's rise and fall. Now they see another chance to put one of their own in office with Palin. We can probably expect to see more of this kind of imprecatory prayer (literally calling on God to damn someone). The Secret Service should keep an eye on this and make sure they limit there actions to prayer. After all, many of these same people come from the wing of the anti-abortion movement that cheers on doctor killers.

by John McKay on Wed Sep 03, 2008 at 04:08:58 PM EST

Palin running the country-what a joke that would be. It wouldn't take long for people to realize they were stuck with a President who makes George W. Bush look like an expert. voip Perhaps a fiasco of that magnitude would push the U.S. into adopting something akin to the vote of no confidence that many parlimentarian democracies have. We could sure use it. virtual private server

by alexdenipaul on Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 01:57:30 PM EST


WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (375 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (203 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (111 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (251 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (65 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (177 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (109 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (166 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (164 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (180 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (331 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (149 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.