When I saw this headline in the RSS list I was about to mark as Read, my heart pounded and my blood pressure shot up. I’m that angry. Phoenix Pastor Draws Protests After Telling Church He Prays for Obama’s Death.
Title that sermon “How not to disciple people or spread the gospel.” I don’t know what this guy was thinking. Enjoy your fifteen minutes, asshole, because the media will certainly use this to smear all Christian conservatives.
I will pray for him, probably daily. I will not pray for his success – not when I disagree so heartily with his stated intentions! But I will pray for his health, his safety, for wisdom, discernment, patience, good judgment, for his family, and above all for his spiritual condition and growth.
I am hardly the model of a good Christian; readers of this blog know well that my life falls short of the mark in many, many ways. I’m pursuing holiness; I make no claim to have achieved it. But I do believe my prayer for President Obama is a good deal more in line with what the bible calls for than Pastor Anderson’s.
Also – his parishioners have apparently brought assault rifles to Obama events. I thought he looked familiar – remember that YouTube film which made the rounds a while back, where a pastor describes being beaten and tazed by the border patrol? Anderson’s the guy.
I can sympathize somewhat with this guy’s feelings, but like I said before, it would be stupid to say these things aloud even if we assumed them to be moral ideas.
I do think *your* prayer, though, is a little overoptimistic. And on top of that, I’m not sure what objective benefit could come from praying for Obama’s health! Asking for his wisdom and repentence is good, though (but optimistic).
“I do think *your* prayer, though, is a little overoptimistic. And on top of that, I’m not sure what objective benefit could come from praying for Obama’s health! Asking for his wisdom and repentence is good, though (but optimistic)”
Ditto to Drew, I can’t see praying benefit for a man that is so obviously against the values that define a Christian life. I generally think it’s best to pray that he suffers from conviction, that his conscience will so utterly inflict him that he will surrender his position. I do hope he fails, and I want him alive to experience it.
I think this pastor (and all of us) need to re-read 1 Tim 2 and Rom 12 and 13. Man, what is happening to the church?
The Phoenix pastor seems to have cut out that pesky last Chapter of Romans
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2013:1-2&version=AMP
Romans 13
1 LET EVERY person be loyally subject to the governing (civil) authorities. For there is no authority except from God [by His permission, His sanction], and those that exist do so by God’s appointment.
2 Therefore he who resists and sets himself up against the authorities resists what God has appointed and arranged [in divine order]. And those who resist will bring down judgment upon themselves [receiving the penalty due them].
and I won’t even get into the mess of so called “psychic and soulish” prayers – bad stuff.
disclaimer: you won’t find a more ardent Obama (and about 95% of all current democrats) opponent than myself, but I will not bring God’s wrath on me by praying for someone’s death.
Shimauma and Drew… of course praying for President Obama’s health is a good thing. I have three words which unequivocally prove it:
President Joe Biden.
That said, I don’t think any prayer is overoptimistic. God can (and does) do miraculous works in people, and Barack Obama is not exempt from God’s power. If God chose to glorify himself through Obama, He could certainly do so. And I pray He will.
I struggle with the mechanics of that chapter myself, Michael… It all depends on the meaning of “resist” I guess.
Tea parties, supporting other candidates, praying he will smarten up and change his ways… what I am really convicted of lately is that I spend a great deal more time and energy worrying about the politics of this kingdom than building up treasure for the next. It’s not like, 10,000 years from now, we’ll care who won the 2008 election.
The Constitution governs our country. The Constitution deserves our loyalty, not Barack Obama. And even if that were not the case, a Christian need simply look at the examples of Moses, Rahab, Elijah, Jehu, John the Baptist, etc. to see that governmental authority is far from absolute. Even Romans 13 itself states that we should give the government what we *owe*, not necessarily whatever it demands.
This Anderson fellow is reviled among Bible-believing Baptists. He is a cultist using the Baptist name.
Ed Groover´s last blog ..Huckabee on Israel
Except for the KJV-onlyism, which most Christians would probably agree is a little hokey, his church’s beliefs seem relatively standard.
http://www.faithfulwordbaptist.org/page6.html
They make it a point to state that they are non-dispensational. They don’t say exactly what eschatology they embrace, but a lot of emphasis on political activism and OT curses comes from the postmillennial folks.
Imo, one of the strongest arguments against Anderson’s prayer would not be the biblical command to love our neighbor, but rather the OT admonitions against cursing national leaders. On the other hand, a person could potentially come up with some reasons why those commands might not apply to all situations. (Did Jehu pray for Jezebel before he threw her out a window? Also, as I stated above, Barack Obama is not a king.)
Also, the greater 1) clarity of the gospel and 2) presence of the Holy Spirit during the present age might arguably make some of the OT curses obsolete. Like Laura argued, praying for people’s repentence might be both realistic and also superior to praying for his death. Christians routinely accept this type of argument when they argue for religious tolerance — as opposed to the rather intolerant Israelite regime. It’s not explicitly stated in the Bible, but it’s a decent argument.
Drew´s last blog ..More consistency, please
lol, it turns out this preacher is the same guy who ranted in church about how real men “pisseth against the wall.” I listened to some of his sermons over the past couple of days. He posts them all on his website and many of them on Youtube. He’s pretty flakey (against smoking, drinking, the NIV, rock music, women in pants, etc.), but also fairly insightful. In both cases, he’s incredibly entertaining. I laughed more listening to this guy than I do watching shows like South Park. And you can tell just from listening to him for a few minutes that he doesn’t take himself real seriously.
Here’s a brief sample of his preaching:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xKvdU0qgrs&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S99oKuZrxcI&feature=channel
Anyway, I listened to the sermon we’re talking about, and the prayer for Obama to melt like a snail was actually a pretty small part of it. Even if you disagreed with the idea, it didn’t really sound as outrageous when you heard it in context.
Drew´s last blog ..The hysteria over Joe Wilson’s outburst