Praying for Obama's death: evil, immoral, Biblically sanctioned
August 31, 6:35 PM
Anchorage Liberal Examiner
Mike Ghouse comment at the end of the articlehttp://www.examiner.com/x-19545-Anchorage-Liberal-Examiner~y2009m8d31-Praying-for-Obamas-death-evil-immoral-Biblically-sanctioned It's well understood that right-wingers oppose the Obama Presidency and want to see him voted out next year. Some go so far as to publicly express their hope that the President will fail, letting their hatred of him supersede their (supposed) love of country. Now, though, an Arizona pastor has gone a step further; Steven Anderson wants the President to die of brain cancer, just like Ted Kennedy did. And he wants it to happen today.
On August 16th, Anderson preached:
"Why should Barack Obama melt like a snail? Why should Barack Obama die like the untimely birth of a woman? Why should his children be fatherless and his wife a widow, as we read in this passage?
Well, I will tell you why. Because, since Barack Obama thinks it is OK to use a salty solution, right, to abort the unborn, because that's how abortions are done, my friend, using salt -- and I would like to see Barack Obama melt like a snail tonight... And yet you're going to tell me that I'm supposed to pray for the socialist devil, murderer, infanticide, who wants to see young children and he wants to see babies killed through abortion and partial-birth abortion and all these different things -- you're gonna tell me I'm supposed to pray for God to give him a good lunch tomorrow while he's in Phoenix, Arizona.
Nope. I'm not gonna pray for his good. I'm going to pray that he dies and goes to hell."
Later, rather than apologize for making abhorrent statements about the leader that the citizens of the United States elected, Anderson went even further: "I'd like to see him die, like Ted Kennedy, of brain cancer."
To the pastor's credit, at least he's not demanding Obama's head over the issue of health care reform.
And so yet another honorable "pro-life" person strides onto the national stage, sending letters to God begging for the Almighty to leave Michelle Obama a widow and Sasha and Malia fatherless because Obama dared to respect the law of the United States. This honorable "pro-life" person bragged about his parishioners carrying guns to church, and was nothing but proud when one of his own, a man named Christopher Broughton, attended a Phoenix event featuring President Obama while carrying a loaded rifle. The event was one day after Anderson's "death to Obama" sermon.
There's nothing factually wrong with this vile fundamentalist rhetoric. Anderson's prayers for the death of our democratically elected President stem from a Biblical command to kill all "murderers," which many sects of Christianity interpret as including people who have, provide or enable abortions. All this sick man is doing is following the word of the Bible as clearly stated. It's logical, if one accepts the laws of the Bible as true and does not cherry-pick, that Barack Obama, along with all abortion providers, women who have had abortions, administrators of hospitals that employ doctors who provide abortions, and so on should get a bullet between the eyes.
More moderate Christians are certainly quick to disown this man, as they did Scott Roeder, Michael Griffin, Paul Jennings Hill, John Salvi, Eric Rudolph, and James Kopp - and those are just the murderers. The list goes on; abortion providers have been shot, sent death threats and bomb threats and anthrax threats, assaulted, bombed, vandalized... They're just fundamentalists, just extremists, the moderate wing will say. How many people have to commit these appalling acts of violence before they become mainstream?
In the end, though, Anderson's just being a good Christian. He is following the literal word of the Bible because he believes that is the inerrant word of God. In addition to praying for the death of America's President, he's also given a sermon on the merits of killing homosexuals (who, he asserts, "recruit through rape"). It makes sense that his followers, being convinced that Barack Obama is, if not the Antichrist, an extremely evil man, and being in possession of firearms, should move to do justice upon him. Perhaps one of them will become convinced that he is God's tool for removing Barack Obama from office and from this world; in a community of religious fundamentalists, it's just as likely as a fundamentalist Muslim believing his holy duty is to become a suicide bomber.
Speaking of Muslims, how do you think the Christian right would feel if it were a Muslim man praying for the death of America's head of state?
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If it were a Muslim, it would have been a fodder for the likes of Beck, Limbaugh and the radicals among the Republican leadership and the hate mongers like Spencer, Emerson and their likes. They would have feasted for months.
Think about the congregation of Anderson, how could they tolerate a hate sermon? Would Jesus have approved this? No wonder Nation is moving towards Atheism, where at least they don't preach hate towards any one. Anderson, Hagee, Robertson, Falwell are the biggest anti-christ guys in our nation who teach exacatly opposite of the teachings of Jesus - Love and embrace God's creation.
Mike Ghouse is a thinker, writer speaker and an activist of pluralism, interfaith, co-existence, peace, Islam and India. He is a frequent guest at the TV, radio and print media offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. His websites and Blogs are listed on http://www.mikeghouse.net/#
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