Post by Randall Lord on Jul 7, 2009 8:08:10 GMT -5
www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_12690952
Does God answer prayers to do someone ill?
By Tiffany Stanley
Religion News Service
Updated: 06/26/2009 02:03:09 PM MDT
Ever since Pastor Wiley Drake declared not once, but three times, on national
radio that he was praying for the death of President Barack Obama, he has been
trying to clarify.
Yes, he really does want God to smite Obama. No, it's not a partisan prayer.
Yes, it's in the Bible, he says, and no, he wasn't kidding. He's deadly
serious.
The former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention said he's
merely practicing the age-old art of "imprecatory prayer" -- a theological
term for praying that bad things happen to bad people.
Imprecatory prayer can turn a verse into curse through reciting Scripture
aimed at one's foes. Rather than asking for, say, healing or a win in the big
game, these prayers request that God smite one's enemies with -- among other
things -- plagues, death and eternal d**nation.
"That doesn't mean I spend every waking hour praying for the death of the
president," said Drake, who leads Buena Park Southern Baptist Church, near
Anaheim, Calif. "Of our prayers, 98 percent should be good prayers and 2
percent should be imprecatory."
Though Scripture says Jesus told his followers to love their enemies and pray
for them, the Bible also depicts King David pleading with God to vanquish his
adversaries. While famed Christian apologist C.S. Lewis found such imprecatory
psalms distasteful and "devilish," even he could not deny their existence.
Derided by some as a bad Judeo-Christian imitation of voodoo,
the literal practice of imprecatory prayer has some newfound fans.
Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former U.S. Navy chaplain, posted an online prayer on
April 25 that targeted his old foes, the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director
of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State; and Mikey
Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
Klingenschmitt asked God "in Jesus' name" to "cut off their descendents" and
"replace them with Godly people."
The reason? Lynn and Weinstein had chided Klingenschmitt for not identifying
himself as a former, not current, naval chaplain on his Web site.
Klingenschmitt was discharged in 2007 for disobeying a superior and wearing
his uniform at political demonstrations.
Weinstein, who is Jewish, sees imprecatory prayers as hate speech. He has a
few words of his own for his fellow Air Force Academy alumnus, Klingenschmitt.
"I would like to beat the s--- out of him in a boxing ring or in an alley
behind a Safeway," said Weinstein, who has tangled with Klingenschmitt several
times before over what he calls improper proselytizing in the military.
And while Lynn has been targeted before with prayers to do him ill, he
nonetheless worries that religious figures who employ prayer as a weapon might
inadvertently be condoning, or perhaps inciting, worse behavior.
"With the climate in this country, these prayers are an invitation to
violence," said Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.
"They provide moral legitimacy to extreme hatred."
Yet God sometimes works in unusual ways, Drake and others say. His confession
to praying against Obama came after Kansas abortionist George Tiller was
gunned down in church. That killing, Drake said, was an answer to his prayers.
For his part, Drake is an equal-opportunity prayer warrior. His intercessory
hit list has included Lynn, California megachurch pastor and best-selling
author Rick Warren, and former Presidents Bill Clinton and even George W.
Bush, whom Drake once maligned for not pardoning two border guards.
Many, including some leaders of Drake's own Southern Baptist Convention, argue
Drake and Klingenschmitt are on the fringe of Christianity. Yet imprecatory
prayers touch on human needs older than the Scripture itself: anger, injustice
and a desire for vengeance.
"I never wish evil upon my enemies," Klingenschmitt said, "but the justice of
God is not evil."
Where do these prayers come from? Mostly, the Psalms, which include not only
Sunday school favorites like Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my Shepherd"), but also
lines about washing one's feet in the blood of the wicked and making the
children of enemies wander about and beg.
Long overlooked as the black sheep of the Bible, many of the imprecatory
Psalms have been put out to pasture by churches, edited out of liturgy and
Scripture readings.
Walter Brueggemann, one of the world's foremost Hebrew Bible scholars, wants
to recover these problematic texts in Christian practice. He likens
imprecatory prayers to venting sessions with a divine psychotherapist: honest
words that function as a safety valve against harmful action.
"We live in a society of suppressed violence that breaks out all because of a
thirst for vengeance that is unacknowledged and unprocessed," said
Brueggemann, whose latest book is Praying the Psalms . "These psalms are
vehicles by which that thirst can be processed in responsible and healthy
ways."
Does God answer prayers to do someone ill?
By Tiffany Stanley
Religion News Service
Updated: 06/26/2009 02:03:09 PM MDT
Ever since Pastor Wiley Drake declared not once, but three times, on national
radio that he was praying for the death of President Barack Obama, he has been
trying to clarify.
Yes, he really does want God to smite Obama. No, it's not a partisan prayer.
Yes, it's in the Bible, he says, and no, he wasn't kidding. He's deadly
serious.
The former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention said he's
merely practicing the age-old art of "imprecatory prayer" -- a theological
term for praying that bad things happen to bad people.
Imprecatory prayer can turn a verse into curse through reciting Scripture
aimed at one's foes. Rather than asking for, say, healing or a win in the big
game, these prayers request that God smite one's enemies with -- among other
things -- plagues, death and eternal d**nation.
"That doesn't mean I spend every waking hour praying for the death of the
president," said Drake, who leads Buena Park Southern Baptist Church, near
Anaheim, Calif. "Of our prayers, 98 percent should be good prayers and 2
percent should be imprecatory."
Though Scripture says Jesus told his followers to love their enemies and pray
for them, the Bible also depicts King David pleading with God to vanquish his
adversaries. While famed Christian apologist C.S. Lewis found such imprecatory
psalms distasteful and "devilish," even he could not deny their existence.
Derided by some as a bad Judeo-Christian imitation of voodoo,
the literal practice of imprecatory prayer has some newfound fans.
Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former U.S. Navy chaplain, posted an online prayer on
April 25 that targeted his old foes, the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director
of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State; and Mikey
Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
Klingenschmitt asked God "in Jesus' name" to "cut off their descendents" and
"replace them with Godly people."
The reason? Lynn and Weinstein had chided Klingenschmitt for not identifying
himself as a former, not current, naval chaplain on his Web site.
Klingenschmitt was discharged in 2007 for disobeying a superior and wearing
his uniform at political demonstrations.
Weinstein, who is Jewish, sees imprecatory prayers as hate speech. He has a
few words of his own for his fellow Air Force Academy alumnus, Klingenschmitt.
"I would like to beat the s--- out of him in a boxing ring or in an alley
behind a Safeway," said Weinstein, who has tangled with Klingenschmitt several
times before over what he calls improper proselytizing in the military.
And while Lynn has been targeted before with prayers to do him ill, he
nonetheless worries that religious figures who employ prayer as a weapon might
inadvertently be condoning, or perhaps inciting, worse behavior.
"With the climate in this country, these prayers are an invitation to
violence," said Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.
"They provide moral legitimacy to extreme hatred."
Yet God sometimes works in unusual ways, Drake and others say. His confession
to praying against Obama came after Kansas abortionist George Tiller was
gunned down in church. That killing, Drake said, was an answer to his prayers.
For his part, Drake is an equal-opportunity prayer warrior. His intercessory
hit list has included Lynn, California megachurch pastor and best-selling
author Rick Warren, and former Presidents Bill Clinton and even George W.
Bush, whom Drake once maligned for not pardoning two border guards.
Many, including some leaders of Drake's own Southern Baptist Convention, argue
Drake and Klingenschmitt are on the fringe of Christianity. Yet imprecatory
prayers touch on human needs older than the Scripture itself: anger, injustice
and a desire for vengeance.
"I never wish evil upon my enemies," Klingenschmitt said, "but the justice of
God is not evil."
Where do these prayers come from? Mostly, the Psalms, which include not only
Sunday school favorites like Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my Shepherd"), but also
lines about washing one's feet in the blood of the wicked and making the
children of enemies wander about and beg.
Long overlooked as the black sheep of the Bible, many of the imprecatory
Psalms have been put out to pasture by churches, edited out of liturgy and
Scripture readings.
Walter Brueggemann, one of the world's foremost Hebrew Bible scholars, wants
to recover these problematic texts in Christian practice. He likens
imprecatory prayers to venting sessions with a divine psychotherapist: honest
words that function as a safety valve against harmful action.
"We live in a society of suppressed violence that breaks out all because of a
thirst for vengeance that is unacknowledged and unprocessed," said
Brueggemann, whose latest book is Praying the Psalms . "These psalms are
vehicles by which that thirst can be processed in responsible and healthy
ways."