Psalm 109 Imprecatory Prayer Case to Go Forward in Texas
Chris Rodda printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Wed Mar 23, 2011 at 10:54:02 AM EST
For the past year and a half or so, droves of right wing Christian websites have been selling a variety of "Pray for Obama" items -- t-shirts, bumper stickers, hats, and even teddy bears -- all sporting the slogan "Pray for Obama" followed by the Bible verse reference "Psalm 109:8."

Psalm 109 is what's known as an imprecatory prayer -- a prayer to invoke evil, misfortune, or physical harm upon someone. The words of Psalm 109:8 are: "Let his days be few; and let another take his office." The next line is "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."

As Frank Shaeffer, appearing on Rachel Maddow back in November 2009 when this "Pray for Obama" merchandise was first becoming popular, explained: "[T]here is a crazy fringe to whom all these little messages that have been pouring out of Fox News, now on a bumper sticker, talking about doing away with Obama, asking God to kill him. Really, this is trolling for assassins."


In an effort to determine "if the design was simply intended to be criticism of the President or something much worse," CafePress posted an online poll, and found that: "General consensus has proven that the design does point to a broader interpretation of the Psalm and thus has been deemed inappropriate for sale at CafePress." Zazzle.com also banned the slogan, issuing a statement saying they had "determined that these products, in the context of the full text of Psalm 109, may be interpreted in such a way as to suggest physical harm to the President of the United States." But the banning of the slogan by mainstream websites like CafePress and Zazzle hasn't slowed the sale of 'Obama Prayer' merchandise on right wing Christian websites or the slogan's popularity.

In January, a Florida sheriff's deputy was suspended for placing a note with "The Obama Prayer" in a coworker's Bible last September. According to ABC News:

"When Sergeant Martha Nash reported for duty at the Manatee County, Fla., Sheriff's Office on Sept. 29, she said she found her copy of the New Testament lying on the desk with a peculiar note sticking out from inside.

"'The Obama Prayer,' it read, in an unrecognizable, handwritten scrawl.

"But when Nash looked to the relevant passage, circled with a pink highlighter, she said she was shocked by what it said. The text seemed to suggest that whoever left it wanted President Obama dead."

........

"Sgt. Matthew Neu, who was known to oppose Obama politically, told investigators he received an e-mail referencing a bumper sticker with Psalm 109 and the "Obama prayer," then left the Bible and note on Nash's desk.


Almost six months before it surfaced that the right wing Christians were promoting Psalm 109 as a prayer for Obama, this same imprecatory prayer was publicly issued by disgraced former Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenshmitt against Mikey Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), and Barry Lynn, the head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU). Both MRFF and AU had been contacted by numerous people about Klingenschmitt's use of the Navy uniform and title of Chaplain on his political website, prayinjesusname.org. To address the issue, MRFF and AU wrote a joint letter to the Chief of Naval Operations requesting an investigation of Klingenschmit'ts use of his image in uniform to solicit funds for political causes.

In response, Klingenschmitt emailed the following prayer to his surprisingly large mailing list, and also posted it on his website and on YouTube:

Saturday 25 Apr 09 One-Minute Prayer:

IMPRECATORY PRAYERS AGAINST ANTI-JESUS BARRY LYNN AND MIKEY WEINSTEIN

"Let us pray. Almighty God, today we pray imprecatory prayers from Psalm 109 against the enemies of religious liberty, including Barry Lynn and Mikey Weinstein, who issued press releases this week attacking me personally. God, do not remain silent, for wicked men surround us and tell lies about us. We bless them, but they curse us. Therefore find them guilty, not me. Let their days be few, and replace them with Godly people. Plunder their fields, and seize their assets. Cut off their descendants, and remember their sins, in Jesus' name. Amen."


Klingenschmitt also posted a very strange disclaimer on his website, in which he defended his right to call himself "Chaplain," stating that he had a current endorsement as a "Chaplain and Evangelist to America" from the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC). It was this statement that led MRFF to take a closer look at the CFGC, a chaplain endorsing agency founded by retired Army colonel and chaplain Jim Ammerman, and authorized by the Department of Defense to provide the ecclesiastical endorsement required by the military for all military chaplains, with several hundred of its chaplains currently serving in all branches of the milita