Conservatives have picked a curious new slogan to oppose President Barack Obama: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” It is a quote from Psalm 109:8, but conservatives leave off the full passage: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” It is a damnation or imprecatory prayer.
In this case, conservatives are citing a passage that would seem to advocate Obama’s death. While obviously not the intended meaning, it is an interesting example of how these passages are used with no consideration of their actual meaning.
It is often interesting to see religious people use passages with little understanding of their meaning or to sanitize the passage to omit the violent Biblical message. This was the case recently in the controversy over cheerleaders like Georgia’s Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School who use Biblical verses as part of their cheers, here. They use such passages as Ezra 10:4: “Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.” The only problem is that this Biblical passage describes how Ezra followed the lead of God to banish foreign women and their innocent children for not being pure.
The Psalm is one of David and is an imprecatory prayer for God to destroy his enemies in the most horrible ways. We have seen the use of imprecatory prayers against Obama and others recently, here.
Here is the whole Psalm:
Help Me, O Lord My God
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.109:1 Be not silent, O God of my praise!
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They encircle me with words of hate,
and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer. [1]
5 So they reward me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.6 Appoint a wicked man against him;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin!
8 May his days be few;
may another take his office!
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
10 May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
11 May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
12 Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children!
13 May his posterity be cut off;
may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
15 Let them be before the Lord continually,
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!16 For he did not remember to show kindness,
but pursued the poor and needy
and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come [2] upon him!
He did not delight in blessing; may it be far [3] from him!
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
may it soak [4] into his body like water,
like oil into his bones!
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,
like a belt that he puts on every day!
20 May this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord,
of those who speak evil against my life!21 But you, O God my Lord,
deal on my behalf for your name’s sake;
because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is stricken within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting;
my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they wag their heads.26 Help me, O Lord my God!
Save me according to your steadfast love!
27 Let them know that this is your hand;
you, O Lord, have done it!
28 Let them curse, but you will bless!
They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor;
may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord;
I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.
Of course, the part about “May the creditor seize all that he has” appears to be working, at least for the Chinese government holding our debt. It is always nice to see the religious call for “his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!” After all, there is no vengeance and violence quite like Biblical vengeance and violence.
For the full story, click here.
This is just so, so, so, so against everything the Christ I learned about. Do I need to read this in order to develop a better understanding of the Christianity that they so profess?
I’ve personally seen this kind of lunacy before in the rural south in the 1960’s-early 1970’s as reality was beginning to set in that the constitution meant ALL people, not just WHITE people… Everything started to turn toward the religious and prayers for ‘death to the outsiders” but much worse than these amateur renderings….
A couple of bumper stickers here, a t-shirt there and a broken coffee mug or two is one story… When these nut-bags start lynching people in public, during the day, that’s when we have a serious issue that we have to deal with as a culture.
LETHAL WEAPON, 3:16–Ninja Prayer! Starring Mel Gibson, in theaters of the absurd now.
The force is strong with this one, St. Luke.
Indeed Mark, John’s powers were a revelation to me. He is a beast for God.
Bibleman is thinking of dumping Cypher for him.
“While obviously not the intended meaning”
Oh, you are very wrong about that, sir. This is precisely their intended meaning.
Just yesterday these pages were rife with profound criticism for Scientology as if it was the only dangerous cult.
It’s always fascinating when we get to see America’s deeply racist, violent underbelly exposing itself.
Am I crazy to speculate that part of why we are in conflict with groups like al Qaeda is that a fair number of Americans are the hateful, ignorant, fundamentalist twins of the “jihadis”.
From the Monitor’s full article, a quote from Deborah Lauter, director of civil rights at the Anti-Defamation League:
““The problem is you don’t know if people who are donning that message in a shirt or on a bumper sticker are fully aware of the quote or what follows.”
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No, that is not the problem.
Whoever wears the shirt or uses the bumper sticker is advocating for an “imprecatory prayer for God to destroy his enemies in the most horrible ways.” (Notice that the “his” in the preceding sentence is not capitalized so it is not referring to God’s enemies but to the enemies of the person uttering the prayer.) Thus advocating for the destruction of Obama and his family is the prayer one is supporting.
Failure to understand the Psalm’s meaning is ignorance that could have been avoided by simply reading the Psalm in its entirety and applying a tiny bit of intellectual reasoning while reading. Failure to do so is not a problem; it is, simply, stupidity.
The real problem is in others excusing such dull wittedness thus absolving the intercessor of any personal responsibility for his/her actions.
the other side of this is that they are advocating what Nal says they are advocating but are too stupid to have the right Psalm. Psalm 109 is for a leader (Obama) asking that his enemies be destroyed, not the other way around.
In my mind this bumper sticker is actually in support of the president whether that was the intention or not. I don’t think you can cherry pick a verse out of a Psalm and disregard the intent of the Psalm. Which in this case is clearly a prayer for a leader’s (David) enemies to be taken care of by God.
And these people are allowed to vote? Wow, next you’ll tell me that they live and are capable of breeding. Damn.
On her 11/17/2009 show, Rachel Maddow discussed this disturbing trend with Frank Schaeffer. FS comes on a few minutes into this segment: “This is serious business…the threat level faced by the Secret Service has gone up 400%; higher than any other time in 52 years for any President…these are not jokes…this bumper sticker says to some of them ‘it’s Open Season’ … it is the American version of the Taliban…Where are the people speaking out about these things!..”
where are the “moderates” and the so-called “liberal evangelicals”. I don’t see them speaking out about this. Chritianity has, sadly, become bankrupt and just as state-sponsored religion has withered more quickly than religion unassociated with the statem, the theorcratic fundies seem to be headed toward killing off any kind of legitimate religion with this stuff.
Like I said, when the neoCons are not punished they see it as encouraging more of the insane.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-accountability-is-plague-2.html
I must agree with Nal and with Lottakatz, this is intentionally a call to harm our President. Those behind it are seeking violence, as I have been writing for some time now. The mentality is that of “lynch mobs” who hung people for having a darker skin tone. A strong percentage of the Anti-Obama people, perhaps 10% of the entire American population hate him for his skin color and decry his legitimacy as President because of it. The hope among the public opinion leaders of this gaggle of bigots is to inflame some of the “crazies” among them to actually take action and try to harm our President. This is in effect treason and I can only hope that those charged with President Obama’s protection are reacting proactively to keeping him safe. I lived through the 60’s as an adult and I don’t want to have to deal with those nightmares again,
nor do I think that the country could survive viably were it to happen.
Jill: “…Our own govt. is bloated on spending for the death and destruction of other human beings…People, secular and religious should want a good life for others.”
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Absolutely. Every time I see talking heads whining about how we are going to pay for health care (even the stripped down, not quite half-measure it’s morphed into) I keep waiting for the the talking head with the opposing view to say “Get the heck out of Vietnam and Vietnam” Strike that; Iraq and Afghanistan. Sorry, I confuse them in my mind. (Sarcasm intended)
++++++++++++
Nal: “While obviously not the intended meaning, …
I’m not so sure.”
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Nal’s right IMO, these people know exactly what they are advocating with Psalm 109. You’re too kind Professor.
It’s funny how fundamentalism and death cults are so cozy no matter the flavor of religion. Not funny in the ha ha sense, of course.
Now, what was all that crap put out by christians about the bible being a book of peace and that the quran was not?
Ah, compassionate conservatism we hardly knew ye.
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Mohandas Gandhi
While obviously not the intended meaning, …
I’m not so sure.
We must all turn away from the death-cult.
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Amen.
This is despicable. This culture is a death-cult. I see it everywhere. So many religious people are wedded to death, not life. But it isn’t just the religious zealots of every stripe who feel this way. Our own govt. is bloated on spending for the death and destruction of other human beings. Our govt. tortures and protects those who order it. We worship violence. We must all turn away from the death-cult.
People, secular and religious should want a good life for others.
Have these people ever considered peaceful protest or the possibility of impeachment?