Aside from the fact that prayer doesn’t do anything, t-shirts and bumper stickers asking people to pray for the President shouldn’t be all that bad, right? Of course, they don’t stop there:
May his days be few;
may another take his office!
Okay, that’s still not too bad, they’re just asking for people to pray for God to intervene in the election…or are they? That particular Psalm has a specific method in mind to remove the leader from office, so let’s look at Psalm 109:8-13 (ESV):
May his days be few;
may another take his office!
May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children!
May his posterity be cut off;
may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
It would seem that these shirts, bumper stickers, etc. are calling on people to not only kill the President, but even his children! This of course is coming from Christians* who I would hope would recognize:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:43-45, ESV).
I don’t think Jesus meant to pray for God to kill them.
Or what about the word’s of Paul:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed (Romans 1-7, ESV).
Now, personally I think both are horse shit. You should not love your enemies nor should you wish well for those who persecute you. Some governing authorities are oppressive tyrants who should be opposed. But then again, I’m not a Christian. It would seem that Christians should be following a little more of their holy book than just what fits with their politics.
Obama was democratically elected to his office. If you don’t like him, then don’t vote for him next year. To wish for the death of him and his family, well that’s just sick. Of course I guess I’m expecting too much out of adults who still have an imaginary friend.
*I know not all Christians want Obama killed, if you’re one of them, then you should be speaking out against this too.
(Thanks to LouAnne for the link)