Pastor Steven Anderson has used his position at Faithful World Baptist Church, in Tempe, Arizona to bring just a little more hate into the world. Pastor Anderson is praying for the death of President Obama and an eternity in hell.
“Nope. I’m not gonna pray for his good. I’m going to pray that he dies and goes to hell. When I go to bed tonight, that’s what I’m going to pray. And you say, ‘Are you just saying that?’ No. When I go to bed tonight, Steven L. Anderson is going to pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell.”
This is of course not the first death-dealing prayers to be spoken by preachers in the United States, including such prayers for the death of President Obama, judges, or others.
Of course, hate appears to come naturally to the good reverend in Arizona.
“… 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.”
Many have called for his arrest, which would be to combine an abusive use of the law with an abuse of the church.
18 U.S.C. 871 states:
(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
However, praying for the death of an individual is a long-accepted part of Christianity and other faiths. An “imprecatory prayer” is usually a reference to Psalm 35 where David calls upon the Lord to kill his enemies. There are a variety of imprecatory psalms containing curses or prayers for the punishment and death for one’s enemies. Psalms 7, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 109, 137 and 139.
Such an arrest would be a deprivation of the free of speech and the free exercise of religion, in my view.
This does not mean that this not a matter of legitimate concern or investigation. It is being reported that the Christopher Broughton, the man who recently carried an AR-15 to the speech of President Obama on that trip to Arizona, is a follower of Rev. Anderson.
For the full story, click here.
Carol writes: And btw wingnuts, no Christian pastor ever prayed for the death of a president. No matter how despicable they were.
why Carol, dear, just who are you calling wingnuts?
and why can’t a christian pastor pray for the death of a president? because you say so because it embarrasses you to be a christian when one of your own does stuff like this?
just to be clear, faith does not exclude hatred.
never did. never will.
Perhaps God will reward the good pastor by making his prayer come true … only not to our President but for the man who prays for our President’s death.
And btw wingnuts, no Christian pastor ever prayed for the death of a president. No matter how despicable they were.
slart writes: I feel like we should have some inane atheist dogma just to show those churchers that we can believe in stupid things too…
just because we don’t believe in god doesn’t mean that we can’t be morons.
how’s that for stupid?
Slarti,
You mean like the Church of Atheism? http://firstchurchofatheism.com/
I get what they’re saying, but calling it a church is just dumb.
AY,
There are as many ways to not believe in god(s) as there are ways to believe.
Steven Anderson, is living proof that bestiality will spawn an ass.
It would be a blow to free speech and freedom of religion to arrest—or even investigate—this obnoxious preacher now. Let him spew his ignorant, evangelical hatred and if at some point he calls on his flock of Christian soldiers to kill Mr. Obama before Easter—with direct specificity—or if the pastor states that he is going to kill the president before next Christmas, or with similar specifics, then 18 U.S.C. 871 should be invoked.
However, if the preacher simply states that after hearing gawd’s soft and tender voice in his head commanding ‘death to the darkie!’ that he directly told the devil, an angel, the Easter Bunny, and Cupid, slinging arrows to kill Obama by next Tuesday in the Wal-Mart parking lot, then leave the fool to his fantasy proselytizations of his faith/political nexuses.
Slarti-
Sorry, but I’ve been with 700+ first and second graders all week.
GWLSM,
I feel like we should have some inane atheist dogma just to show those churchers that we can believe in stupid things too…
AY,
Agnostics can meet to affirm their lack of belief.
The best course of action here should be obvious: Declare pastor Anderson and his flock enemy combatants and use extraordinary rendition to grab them and hustle them off to an offshore prison (Gitmo would be fine). Once there, since the pastor was inciting violence (by God, no less) against Americans (Vince Treacy having ably shown on this very blog that President Obama is a natural born citizen of the USA) and he and his flock could have operation knowledge of impending terrorist attacks against the US, they should be subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques until they are too mentally compromised to talk (or they are dead). I mean, don’t these people always ask WWDD? (What Would Dick (the war criminal) Do)
AY,
I’m thinking of founding an atheist church – we can sing hymns to the non-existence of god, preach sermons about how an enlightened moral code is based on philosophy not religion, and read from Lucretius. Oh, and collect money – it wouldn’t be a real church if you didn’t collect money…
Pardon me,
Did you really have to resort to limerick?
IS,
Do you really have any doubt that this is true?
Now what was I doing 5 minutes ago…
Anon writes: Question to be fielded. If a most of the people believe in a deity of some sort and they meet in church or a tavern, bar or the stock exchange where do agnostics meet?
The reason I ask this, an atheist denys the existence of god? Christian affirm the existence of a god. How do you affirm your belief in agnosticism?
me: we don’t have meetings. we don’t wear T-shirts or have club issued bumper stickers. we look just like ordinary people only just a bit more attractive since we don’t worry about second comings or gods retribution or sin or stuff like that which tends to age people in horrible ways.
there is no agnostic belief or atheist belief, I speak as an atheist who has taken her “not quite sure” stance into the end zone of ” uh uh. no way.”
we go to sleep easily and awaken refreshed. we don’t hide behind false morality. and we contribute to the economy in ways believers can’t because we don’t tithe anywhere which gives us that extra 2-10% income to blow on vacations, shoes, plastic surgery and fancy cars.
btw. we like bars and don;t mind sharing them with the believers.
If he is convinced that god is real and he anticipates results from his prayer, does that make is suddenly illegal? Even more, if someone else gets the call from God to kill the President, what does that do to the status of reverend?
if this is true, that guy is a rectal towel.
That Lucretius was tough on religion in general, but a very smart guy. This isn’t for mespo because I’m sure he’s probably read it, but if anyone is interested in reading De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) an English translation is available here in a variety of formats:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/785
It is well worth the read.
“Such evil deeds could religion prompt.
Lucretius (96 BC – 55 BC), De Rerum Natura “
Death in the name of peace is so 1984 doublespeak … “war is peace” …
These folks usually have the facts wrong too.
The Earth is not flat, and it is older than 7,000 years.
AY,
This is not just a simple prayer to solve a situation. This so-called man of God implores God to kill Obama. This should be investigated by the Secret Service. Especially since one of the idiots who brought a gun to Obama’s speech is a devotee of this alleged minister.
there once was a pastor from tempe
he was dumber than curly and shemp, he
prayed something evil
and told many people,
proof to all that his soul’s empty.
Mike A.,
I wondered if anyone was going to catch that. I didn’t notice until I hit submit and I must confess I had a bit of a laugh on myself and Mr. Gabriel too. While I’ll concede a Sledgehammer is a more angelic weapon than a taser, we should also acknowledge that particular musicians willingness to Shock the Monkey. The Arch-angels proper? Eh, I think a flaming taser isn’t nearly as visual as a flaming sword. Cecile B. DeMille would not approve.
I’d be shocked if he was arrested for threatening the life of the President. The Democrats are terrified of the right wing and probably fear making Anderson a martyr to gun-totin’ “free-speechers”.
People like Attorney General Eric Holder will cynically triangulate the theory that it’s better policy to let him stay free and vilify him. The actual law on the matter probably won’t ever figure in the equation. Such is the cowardly cynicism of the powers that be…
Gyges,
Oh come on, the Liberals did this when Bush was in office. I mean those dirty hippies were ALWAYS calling for Bush to die, and I lost count of how many times some tree-hugging granola muncher brought herbal tea to a protest. Everybody know you could very easily brew the tea with something poisonous, dip a blow dart in it and use it to kill somebody. There’s no right to keep and bear tea in The U.S. Constitution.
*****************************
Yeah and there were no laws against smoking herb on the Washington Mall until Nixon. So go figure that one out.
Ya ever known a hippy or a stoner that was stoned at the time remember what they were doing 5 minutes ago? Thought so or not.