Tuesday, 24 November 2009

• "Pray For Obama": Harmless Rhetoric or Dangerous Misinterpretation?

  [Many thanks to cooldad, canicus, and several others who brought this information to my attention.]

  You may have seen it on a shirt or a bumper sticker, or heard about it in the news. The phrase, “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8,” is making the rounds, and it sounds, at least superficially, like a good thing.

  “A kind and generous statement,” writes Cathleen Falsani for USA Today. “Or is it?”

  As Christians, we know we are supposed to pray for those who are in authority over us (1 Timothy 2:1-4), but the Psalm referenced by the slogan asks for far less than prosperity and wisdom for our commander-in-chief:

  May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.
    -- Psalm 109:8

  Certainly this is not the first campaign of anti-presidential sentiment to occur this year. “Presidential criticism through witty slogans is nothing new,” explains Tracey Samuelson, a contributor to the Christian Science Monitor. “Bumper stickers, t-shirts, and hats with '1/20/09' commemorated President Bush’s last day in office.”

  Samuelson reached out to a Twitter user who had passed along the verse; the user said she “felt compelled to share the Psalm” because she wanted to “convey that she'd like him to only serve one term.”
  

  The slogan, and the verse itself, seem to be a harmless, slightly humorous expression of disapproval for the actions of President Obama, yet some believe there are much more dangerous implications. They cite the verses that follow the one in the slogan:

  May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.
  May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
  May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes.
  May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor
  May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.
  May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation.
  May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
  May their sins always remain before the Lord, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
    -- Psalm 109:8-15
  

  “The slogan comes at a time of heightened concern about antigovernment anger,” writes Samuelson. “Earlier this year, the president’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, said that Tea Parties could lead to something unhealthy. In September, authorities shut down a poll on Facebook asking if President Obama should be killed.”
  

  “Really, this is a trawling for assassins,” said Frank Schaeffer, author of Patience With God, on the Rachel Maddow Show last week. According to The Huffington Post, he also talked “about the ramping up of religious rhetoric, and the correlating of President Obama with the unjust kings of ancient Israel, 'who should be slaughtered if not by God then by just men.'”
  
  The Twitter user mentioned by Samuelson had not read the entire Bible passage and did not know what came after the verse she quoted. She, like so many others, passed the verse along not as a Biblical reference but as political rhetoric, paying no mind to the historical significance, context, or content of the verse.
  
  Regardless of one's political beliefs, Christians should be concerned, not simply because of the message being presented by the slogan, but by the potential for misuse and misinterpretation of a sacred text, the Word of God. While we shouldn't lead lives in a constant state of fear and cynicism, we also can't be ignorant to the ways people twist the Bible to fulfill their own needs.
  
  What is your reaction to the slogan and the verse it refers to? Do you think it is an innocent political statement, or is it a dangerous misinterpretation of the Bible?

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