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There weren’t a lot of comments on my last blog about the camouflage Bible. Maybe most people just read it and thought, “wow, that’s weird” or something even more innocuous. I thought more people would be riled up about it. Maybe folks thought the conclusions I was drawing were too much of a stretch.
Well, let’s give this another try from a different angle. I’m concerned about what the religious right, or perhaps more accurately a segment of the religious right is becoming. The latest efforts from the lunatic fringe include bumper stickers and T-shirts saying, “Pray for Obama, Psalm 109:8.”
In case you haven’t memorized all 150 Psalms, I’ll break it down for you beginning in verse 8 and reading into verse 9 – which is certainly part of the Obama reference:
“May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.”
When Scripture admonishes us to “pray for our leaders,” I don’t think it means to pray that they are assassinated. This rhetoric is far from justifiable regardless of what one’s politics might be!
When the apostle Paul wrote that “the letter kills” (2 Corinthian 3:6) he just might have had in mind the echoes of a religious lunatic fringe that once employed their sacred scriptures to do away with another prominent voice in history – Jesus. The justification for that deed came from the cries of those recorded in John 19:7 as they exclaimed, “We have a law, and by that law he ought to die.”
This sort of reasoning did not come as a surprise for Jesus, who earlier read the corrupt and violent hearts of these religious leaders and said, “You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).
Religion and violence – it’s a marriage made in hell that’s unfortunately been with humankind since the beginning – and it’s time it ceases.
Jesus looked at the religious elite’s motives and the violence within their hearts and did not mince words. Perhaps it is time for those of us who follow Jesus to stand up and do the same today. Enough is enough.
To read more background on this story, see Frank Schaeffer‘s incisive analysis here.
27 comments to “Religious Right is Wrong”
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Truly frightening. I think he is right about Obama’s supporters. We better be just as vocal. He can’t solve all the problems at once and the maniacs need to know that we are not going anywhere.
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If Christians are called to love their enemies, it wouldn’t kill these folks to pray for wisdom for a guy who supports policies they don’t like…
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I think every pastor/preacher and televangelist should denounce this on Sunday morning.
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Thanks Tim for pointing this out.
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Be outraged…sure….
But is there outrage at Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Was there outrage at the movie about the assassination of the previous president?
If those don’t outrage you but this attempt at political humor (even if poor and in bad taste) does your outrage is hypocritical at worst and simply political at best…but not Christian in the least.
Kudo’s to the author for being the first post I’ve seen that includes the words “a segment” of the religious right.
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Ok, I actually read the post.
Yep, that’s outta-whack for sure. Crazy thing is that I’ve actually heard whispers of one person that *I KNOW* saying some stuff to that effect.
Obama wouldn’t have his seat of authority without God’s “permission”.
Why is it that all the right wingers were saying “This is GOD’s man…we are to honor the president whomever he may be” (in trying to stay in harmony with St,. Paul) when Bush was in office.
Now that Obama is in there it’s “Let’s pray that he dies!”.
Jeeeeeeezzz………..
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Johnny,
Beware of stereotyping. Any “right-winger” that I know does believe that Obama is in power because God put him there. Just like Nero was in Paul’s day.
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Daniel,
Granted; that was a broad stroke on my part. I shouldn’t say “all right wingers”, I should say “most right wingers that I encounter”.
Be blessed.
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I think the camo bible was insidious to say the least.
I think the Psalm 109 pray for Obama is a surprisingly nasty curse. It is not Christian behavior even if it comes from the religious “right” –segment or no. It’s outright, alright, but hardly upright. What a descent into madness if Christians were to allow themselves such depravity and to invoke incantations of hatred. Whatever happened to the integrity of a sound moral outlook?
It *is* human nature to hate enemies. There’s nothing special about it. It has nothing to do with the mind of Christ.
Who said assassinate Bush? Oh yeh … they weren’t Christians either, were they?
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I am a bit baffled. People are mentioning assassination, but all this verse is calling for is a prayer for God to take action, not for man to assassinate or take any direct action. God did in His sovereignty put Obama in office, because our nation “deserves” the judgment…but God can likewise remove him from office…even remove him from this earth, by simply not giving him his next breath.
If people are simply calling for an end to his dangerous reign through prayer, then how really is that wrong? We, as individuals are to love our enemies…but love doesn’t require blind following into error and sin. If someone has done wrong against us, we are to approach them to seek reconciliation (Matt 18). If a leader is acting in an unjust and evil manor, the Bible gives plenty of examples of prayer for the wisdom, salvation OR removal of that leader.
I think Schaeffer’s equating this with the radical Muslims is ridiculous. Muslims seek to push their agenda through physical violence; this issue is simply calling for people to pray against this leader; not to take matters into their own hands through violence. For a Christian to act in any way other than prayer, would be to go against the very God they claim to serve. If Muslims were simply praying to their “god” there would be no threat.
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To Me it doesn’t matter if you are on the right or the left, if you are advocating harm to come upon someone that you may be in disagreement with, then you may want to examine your motive. If either side believes that God answers A prayer based on what we hate then we too need to examine our motives. My Bible proclaims that God is LOVE. I have said it before and will say it again. You will know that you have created GOD in your imagine when he hates the same things you do!!
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True…but one cannot raise one attribute of God to the exclusion of the others. Romans 1:18ff comes to mind among other passages. God may not hate the things we hate, but we need to be sure we hate the things he hates while loving what he loves and extending grace to others as he extended it to us.
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It’s always easier to be angry. It’s always easier to be hateful. It’s always easier to condemn “them.” It’s always easier to act as the enforcer of God’s wrath. Jesus lived peace at any cost, even giving his own life, setting himself apart from the violent ruling of his day. Until we are willing to do the same, why do we claim to be “Christ-like”?
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Aman to that statement Kelley. Well said.
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Daniel, I would ask: is there anything God hates? If I am reading my Bible correctly when God made everything he said it was all GOOD!, it was man who decided that what God made wasn’t good. And that is where the judgement of God came. When we decide that God hates what I hate we are wrong, God hates nothing, we are the ones who hate and then proclaim God hates it because I hate it. God is LOVE not Hate!!
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I’m responding to both posts here since I just had a chance to read them today. Tim, I’m so thankful you are bringing attention to these issues…they are alarming and do call for followers of Jesus to speak up…. not only to the symptoms, but to the root of the mindset. First, the camouflage design is prevalent not only in Bibles, but in fashion. Much that is popular in the culture gets re-tread with a Jesus theme or scripture taken out of context and peddled to Christians who readily embrace it and think its “kewl”….often without understanding that everything has meaning/everything is connected. As you’ve pointed out with the “Pray for Obama” paraphernalia, the danger is the lack of understanding the seriousness of something that many saw as a clever use/marketing of scripture to make a political point. With the Bible so full of passages, imagery, and metaphors of war, battles, armies and enemies…. and few pastors/teachers/Christian colleges adequately explaining why that is so, some may embrace militaristic rhetoric and mindset, or remain baffled/conflicted about the connection between Jesus’ message of love/peace and the “seeming” approval of “Holy” aggression/ or violence by God in the Old Testament/Revelation. I’m reminded of the encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian recorded in Acts 8. The Ethiopian is reading from Isaiah and Philip asks him “Do you understand what you are reading?” His response was “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” What is not taught is just as critical as what is taught. Generations of sincere people have read the entire Bible, and have had many questions that remained unanswered, resulting in a compartmentalized theology that needs to be de-constructed then re-constructed….not a simple thing. Being part of the solution means working to explain the difficult things of scripture that have misled so many. I know you’ve been working at that for a long time…we need more people willing and equipped to do the same. I agree with Frank Schaeffer, we all have a choice—we can be alarmed or outraged while remaining a part of the problem, or engage as part of the solution.
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To be part of the solution to this is start loving our enemies. Opening up our eyes to the truth that humans are humans no matter where they are. We need to stop believing the Bible and live in the faith of the Spirit.
I often joke that the Bible was actually written down by aliens from another world and was a best seller on another planet and we humans have turned it into a religion. Star Trek taught me how harmful it is to take a book and form a society on it, see the original series episode “A Piece of the Action”.I do have faith in Jesus’ WAY being the life to live. I have come to understand that no matter HOW we think we’ve got God locked into the world, he is still outside of it unless we have our inner-self changed by His story of unconditional love. I was one of those who loved the Left Behind series until I realized that there is no love in the books. It’s all about a lie!
I read a quote today that “The world doesn’t change, we do.” All that was happening in Jesus’ day is happening again because we don’t learn from the past and so we keep repeating the same destructive message instead of one of life.
The good news here is that most people are turning back to the Father and are leaving the “world” behind. Those that are left behind, including the government system are going to end up in a dying world. There is a better way of life and that is DOING what Jesus did. -
Jeff, am a quite a bit confused about your suggestion of President Obama’s socialistic agenda, Could you please explain what that agenda might be? And also if you believe that president Obama has a socialist agenda for us all I am wondering what are your thoughts about what President Bush was doing the past 8 years with putting folks into gauntonamo just for being a person of interest and once in, they had no rights at all, that sort of thing could have easily happened to anyone of us.
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Tim,
I’ve come to gladly appreciate what Kevin once wrote about demonizing others, when he said near the end of his article; “Finally, examine your own worldview. How do you see people and the world in which we live? Is it filled with evil that must be defeated or people that must be loved? Is it rife with problems that threaten us all, or is it saturated with the God who fills all in all? It is run by a few power greedy malefactors who whisper in secret to control everyone, or do we all create our common world together as a result of our collective decision making?
As we consciously decide to refrain from demonizing, we will develop an atmosphere in which we will be more apt to create solutions to our pressing societal (and personal) situations. By casting out the “demons” that we so readily harbor, we can begin to see the world and ourselves in a new light.”Everyone, it’s a great article, worth a read or re-read for us all. It is found at http://www.presence.tv/cms/soc-demon-be-gone.php
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wow — look what happens when you don’t read Tim’s blog every day..! Must repent!
First — I heartily agree with what Tim has shared, and what Frank has revealed. Go Tim and Frank!
Just one side-note on camo-wear … it can have another (perhaps also inflammatory) association … out here in Oregon, hunting is a way of life. A way I do not participate in (I cannot look my food in the eye and then eat it — it has to come to me in plastic wrap — and even then, I’m becoming somewhat conflicted re. eating meat, but I digress).j
Anyway, out here, in radically-liberal Oregon (all but for my own uber-religious county – sigh), camoflauge isn’t associated with military so much as with hunting … which, of course, is just another form of violence some say …
I wonder if broccoli has feelings …?!?
Thanks Tim! The use of violent rhetoric is growing exponentially, and it has to stop before something violent actually happens.