Wednesday, July 15, 2009

WTF Would Jesus Pray For?

From gather.com:

Pastor Wiley Drake, a Southern Baptist pastor from Buena Park, California, says he is praying for Barack Obama's death.

He says his prayers request that God smite Obama "with—among other things—plagues, death, and eternal damnation."

He explained to Religion News Service: "That doesn’t mean I spend every waking hour praying for the death of the president. Of our prayers, 98 percent should be good prayers and 2 percent should be imprecatory."

"Imprecatory prayer" is a theological term for praying that bad things happen to bad people.

Pastor Drake's confession about his prayers for Barack Obama's death "came after Kansas abortionist George Tiller was gunned down in church. That killing, Drake said, was an answer to his prayers."
Well... Huh. I tried to find something about prayer percentages in the Bible, but I guess I must have missed it. I assume it's in there, though, since Southern Baptists reject Tradition in favor of Scriptural loyalty. God knows they wouldn't just go around making shit up. There are, of course, instances of "imprecatory" prayer in the Bible, but they are all in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ makes his opinion on prayer pretty clear.

Matthew 6:5-15 says:
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.' For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
I don't know where you get this stuff, Pastor Drake. WTFWJD?

2 comments:

Seattle Mama said...

I love that bit from Matthew! Most years I go to Ash Wednesday liturgy just to hear the first paragraph you quoted.

This douchebag disgusts me. What about love your neighbor? And as you so rightly poiinted out, what about forgiving those darned debtors/tresspassers? That's not how Jesus rolls.

Anonymous said...

ho Kyrios Iesous Christos!!!

Spare us from these "good" Christians!

http://jezebel.com/5315360/pastors-excuse-for-molesting-kid-she-was-a-big-girl#comments

Mononke-hime

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