DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN.
Aside from the annoyance of all capital letters, and misspelling Swayze and Farrah, the very idea of this really struck me wrong.
The friends who joined are kind people, and we have agreed to disagree on many things. But this one was just too wrong, and I left a note on one of their walls, wondering about the appropriateness of praying for our President's death, or anyone's death. Do they really think their God would approve of such a prayer, or answer it? If he did, wouldn't that make him vindictive and hateful and a big, smiting jerk?
Of course, there were similar prayers for the death of Senator Robert Byrd during the health care debate. And Michele Bachmann called for people to get on their knees and pray for the defeat of health care reform:
That’s really where this battle will be won—on our knees in prayer and fasting. Remember: faith without works is dead. So we’re asking you to do all of it: pray, fast, believe, trust the Lord, but also act.
Ooooops! The bill passed! It would seem that God wasn't paying attention to your prayers and fasting, Bachmann. And Robert Byrd is still alive. Maybe God was out playing golf and had one too many at the 19th Hole so he missed your call. Or maybe he got stuck in traffic on the Skyway and wasn't able to get home in time to fulfill his nightly smiting requests. Or maybe, just maybe, he finds such requests abhorrent.
Or perhaps there is no one there to hear such prayers.
I suppose to a lot of people, such a group was funny. It had kind of a funny premise, although I have to wonder about anyone whose favorite actress was Farrah Fawcett. She really wasn't that great. But for anyone who is a devout Christian to actually pray for someone's death is just not funny to me, especially in the current charged atmosphere. It again begs the question: why on earth would I want to be associated with any religion that prays for the death of others; or that believes that God visited an earthquake upon Haiti because the Haitian people made a "pact with the devil" a couple of hundred years ago; or thinks that another earthquake (in which people died and were injured) was sent to show us his love for us; or believes that he blew up a fucking volcano in Iceland because the United States passed health care reform? Do you have any idea how insane that sounds? Even forgetting the rational, scientific explanations for all of these things, why would I want to be associated with someone who thinks so little of human life that he picks people off like our lives are part of his goddamn video game?
I'd really like to know.
You are so right on all counts. But even reasoned, logical argument is lost on these people. Their brains are irretrievable infected by religion.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea why people would be like this. Just please let my mother stop calling me a few times a day and saying, "You know, we are living in the time of Revelations." And uh yeah, she voted for Obama so I'm really scared about what is being said on the other side of the aisle.
ReplyDeleteLife must be an immensely disappointing place for the whacky god botherers.
ReplyDeleteLet's be honest. We're talking about people whose favourite actor and actress were Patrick Swayze and Farrah Fawcett...
ReplyDelete'nuff said.
I've said it before, but it bears repeating:
ReplyDeleteI loathed the Bush White House years--both Bushes.
Loathed.Them.
Sarah Palin. Hate her.
Tom Tancredo is a morn.
Maggie Gallagher is a wingnut.
I could go on, but then I'd be hijacking a post, so....back on point.
Never once, never, did I stoop so low as to think, much less say, that I was praying for any of these people to die.
People who call themselves Christians and then pray for the death of anyone are fooling themselves.
They are so not-Christ-like.
LOL: Call Me Paul!!
ReplyDeleteI pray for the death of those stupid facebook pages that people sit around and think up!!!! Find something constructive to do with your time, people!
I remember a CS Lewis quote where he supposedly said, "Prayer doesn't change God, it changes me." Or something to that effect. I find it hard to believe that God is so mercurial that His mind can be changed.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right. While I might not agree with some of the President's policies, I can respect the office which he holds and his right to hold it. To pray for his death is not cool.
Besides, I'd be surprised if God has Facebook account. :0)
I agree with Miss Ginger!
ReplyDeleteXOXOXOXOXO
Great post Beth... It's like Rush Limbaugh saying 'I hope the President fails.' Is not the President's failure our failure too?
ReplyDeleteWishing someone dead is so sick... For my friend who did post that FB group page, I jokingly said... 'funny thing is, I was just thinking this morning how much I luuv luuv luuv Dick Cheney and Dubya...'
:-D
I believe in God. I don't go to church, I don't hang out with "christians", I don't join groups that wish death on anyone either by Prayer or other methods. I don't think natural disasters happen because bad people live there. Funny thing, my God doesn't condone that behavior and I sure as hell can't find THAT stuff in the Bible.
ReplyDeleteMost "christians" I know are the biggest hypocrits, liars, judges & overall nasty people BUT they DO sing the loudest in the choir. That makes up for everything doesn't it?
Things like this make me love my animals more each day.
I hope they get majorly harrassed by the Secret Service!
ReplyDeleteLisa pretty much wrote my thoughts. I firmly believe in God, no longer attend church due to some experiences with so-called "christians". It's this type of things that I simply don't understand!
ReplyDeleteI didn't like Bush - neither of them. Nor did I ever pray for them to fail or for their death. I prayed for our country, I prayed the right choices would be made, I prayed for a lot of things but NEVER did I pray for death or illness of anyone!
BTW, I came because I saw your comment on Lisa's FB and I haven't yet seen the group. Thanks for posting this and speaking up!
Really enjoyed reading the comments. So few professed christians would pass the muster they claim is required. Hypocritical.
ReplyDeleteYa know, Lisa has a point. It has suddenly occurred to me that these people aren't really the world's biggest Patrick Swayze/Farrah Fawcett fans. They're lying about that. They are lying liars who lie...just like their former President.
ReplyDeleteBeth, I noticed the very same post on some of my friends pages tonight and it made me sad. I mean really, do these people know what they are really saying? I want to believe that they do not.I started to leave a comment for them but decided that it would serve no purpose so I didn't. In the end,I still just feel sad that people can be so thoroughly thoughless.
ReplyDeleteThough obviously they meant it as a clever joke, I see your point here - people don't always put there brain in gear before spouting something. It's dangerously stupid to wish death on anyone even in jest. Death is the only sure thing in life, talk about irony. We have opinions, some call them votes, but we can use them to put folks in power who speak for most people. Is that fair? Majority rules? Not really - anyone got something better?
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention religion: I don't have it, I do have alot of faith however.
ReplyDeleteRidiculousness is reaching epic proportions. Is the world going mad? Thank goodness for like-minded folks here, a safe haven composed of people who still have a brain, compassion, and the ability to reason!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. Even as a joke, it's so tasteless to allude to praying for the death of anyone. Christians like these make me totally understand why people manifest distaste for organized religion and dismiss Christians as hypocrites.
ReplyDeleteDear Beth,
ReplyDeleteYour post is mysterious and very very sad.
In the history of the world there have always been "sickos"... you know it, I know it.
natalie
Lurkynat
He isn't, and he doesn't. People who teach that He is this way will be punished, and not with eternal hellfire, but with eternal death. I saw this, and, I'm sad to say, a few of my "friends" and even a relative put this on their walls. I hated it. It is so hateful, so spiteful, so tasteless, so classless.
ReplyDelete