It's Just A Building, Jesus Doesn't Actually Live There

Conservatives over at Fox"Nation" take a highlighted story about Obama's faith and how he practices and framed it within the context of "if you don't attend church three times a week your anti-Christian.

If church attendance is one measure of a man's faith, then President Obama may appear to have lost some of his. The first family, once regular churchgoers, have publicly attended services in Washington just three times in the past year, by ABC News' count, even bypassing the pews on Christmas Day.

The Obamas will start looking for a church community in Washington, D.C.Obama quit Chicago's embattled Trinity United Church of Christ months before taking office in 2008 and has not formally joined a new one in his new hometown.

But sources familiar with the president's personal life say Obama remains a faithful Christian while in the White House, practicing his beliefs regularly in private with family and the aid of his BlackBerry.

"Barack Obama is a Christian. He's always been clear and unapologetic about that, and he's comfortable with his own faith," Rev. Jim Wallis, an Obama friend and spiritual adviser, said. "But I think the president, particularly a president, needs the kind of pastoral care or spiritual counsel with people who don't have a political agenda. And it's hard for a president to get that."

Rev. Wallis is right, this isn't about whether or not Obama is going to church, it's about a political agenda that conservatives are espousing - convince people Obama hates the baby Jesus because his ass isn't in a pew all week long.

George W. Bush was a near religious zealot, it seems, and that is the high-water mark that conservatives are attempting to tell Obama he has to meet. Oh, how did all that praying and church attendance play out for George W. Bush? I guess that depends on what he was really praying for.

Prayers Of The Right

The use of prayer, no matter what religious dogma you identify with, has always fascinated me. Some people pray for safety, success in an endeavour, or even wealth and prosperity. In more ways than can be enumerated at present, the bulk of "Christians" within America often are quite selfish in their prayers, though they believe that these will be off-set by offering prayers that would potentially benefit someone else.

Fox"Nation" is a crystal-clear example of not only conservative hypocrisy, but of how "christian prayer" is used as a blessing of life a prosperity as well as a literal summons for death upon a person.

The later would seem to run counter to the very nature of conservatives, that they stand for the what is right and just in God's eyes. More often than not you will here a conservative reference scripture, or at the very least the will of God and what it means to obey the Bible. But when you see and hear them pray for the death of Obama, and attempting to rationalize biblical scripture that they obviously know nothing about, it's rather difficult to accept their plea that people should pray for the health and safety of one of their own.

As for me, I will not pray for Rush to be safe or to fall prey to any illness. I don't think anyone should simply because he has never shown that he is capable to offering a prayer to anyone but himself. If he succumbs to an illness, a heart attack, or death by any other means, it will surely be stated that liberals/progressives wished this upon him and will rejoice in his passing. And to a small margin, that may be true. But the overriding factor is that Rush Limbaugh is more of a God in the eyes of conservatives than the God they claim to have pledged their life to.

For those that believe, prayer is a very powerful thing. For those of use that are skeptical, that are more grounded in the reality of life as it is, we see people using prayer now more than ever as a malevolent style of hate-speech designed to divide and not unite as the God in the bible would have it be used for. So for conservatives to complain that liberals/progressives aren't praying that Limbaugh remain healthy, I would ask them this - why should we pray for someone such as him? What has he done in the eyes of his God that would grant him favor in Heaven?

The Power Of Prayer

This has my vote for greatest call-in to CSPAN for 2009.



Praying for someone to fail, someone to die, someone to not wake up in time, or for someone to look like a blithering idiot does tend to go against the very nature of Christian prayer, doesn't it? But, that's the the observations of a neo-Christian progressive that happens to be living in one of the reddest areas of America.

I'm actually wondering what this caller has gleaned from his "prayer circles" over the years. Has he had his fridge mysteriously restocked with Bud-Light every Friday night without having to go to the store? Has his wife kept the kitchen clean and had dinner hot and ready once he unstraps his boots? Moreover, what and whom was this man praying for to begin with?

Of course, the spin on this at the moment is that the "prayer" was that someone would miss their alarm-clock warning on this, but the subtle implications range from death to accidents to even falling prey to a seizure and losing the ability to be present to vote. Sure, the words "let's all prey that Senator Byrd dies so his vote is lost" weren't used, but asking people to pray so that the legislative process can end doesn't exactly polish the image of Christianity.

Political Prayer

Why does this not surprise me?



And while this notion of "lets pray on it and see what happens" has done so well for us in the past, the comment at the beginning of this clip where Palin talks about how leaders should be humble and realize that they don't have all the answers reminds me of what then candidate Obama said during the Rich Warren/Saddleback debates last year. Remember his comment about "when does life begin" and how that was "above his pay grade? Conservatives were literally falling over each other to use that soundbite in a completely alternative context. In reality, he was saying what all intellectually honest people have said at that point - that it's not for them to decide.

But that's another subject to tackle all together, as the wingnuttinest of conservatives will always claim to have the answers. So, in that regard, Palin is simply playing to the crowd with that bit of blathering.

Palin's attempts at convincing people that, "if we would only just pray a little more that it will all get better", reminds me of Christian Scientists that will refuse to carry their sick children to the doctor when they are sick and prefer to sit around their bed praying as their child dies. It's another manifestation of Palin's inability to articulate a point that shows she has even a tiny shred of leadership qualities.

So to that end I say that Palin should go right on praying and we'll see how far her prayers go when the nation desires action over superstitious rituals. After all, this was the woman who was blessed by a witch-doctor.

Praying For Death

The reality of reactionary conservatives "bumper-sticker" political discourse has been taken quite literally by the religious Right. Being the good Christians that they are, they are praying for Obama, just not the type of prayer that benefits anyone.

Open your bibles to Psalms 109:8

Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labor.
Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

The biblical text is quite clear - they are openly praying for Barack Obama to die.

And it doesn't stop there. Items can be purchased at CafePress.com with the bible verse and the words "Pray For Obama" on them.

Think Progress contacted CafePress and they seem to be intent on keeping the items up for sale:

We initially pulled the Psalm 109:8 content from our products today because broader media dialog indicated that these designs potentially suggested violence towards the president. Based on current public discourse and further review of the actual content, we have determined that it is fair political commentary and we are in the process of reinstating this merchandise. As with all of our content, these designs will continue to be reviewed and if at any time their meaning is construed as advocating violence we will revisit our decision.

And while some conservatives will claim that it is only the first portion of the Pslam that they are referencing, it should be pointed out that this is the party of "context", that continually says that you have to look at the totality of a statement to understand it's meaning. Also, this is the party that claims that things must be read and understood before moving forward. Kind of makes one realize that conservative Christians don't know much at all about their bible.

At Least It Wasn't Lamb's Blood

CBN's David Brody reports on a perculiar, yet common, "Christian ritual" that was conducted on Capital Hill:

The Christian group "Faith and Action in the Nation's Capitol" has made its way to Capitol Hill and Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor might be interested in what they did. They blessed the doors of Senate Hart Building Room 216 with prayer and oil because they believe this will be the room most likely used for her confirmation hearing which begins July 13th.

I'll pass on the obvious discussions of the seperation of Church and State on this. What I find more interesting is that this man was allowed to take a vile full of "oil" into the Senate Hart Building and then smear it on the doors to Rm 216.

Was this authorized by security? I'd like to see someone take insences sticks in and light them and pray to some Buddist or Hindu god that the confirmation brings out the truth. Although that "what if" situation is better left to those on the Right side of the discussion, it's relevant to point out that this "blessing" can be seen as a security issue.

That aside, what happens when "Faith and Action in the Nation's Capital" President, Rev. Rob Schenck, sees that his "prayer" that he sanctioned didn't turn out the way he had hoped?

It's never been considered by any devout worshiper, whatever denomination they belong to, that pray doesn't work all the time - they honestly believe that it does. They tend to spin more on what God does and doesn't answer than Bill O'Reilly does when discussing conservatives actions, thoughts, and deeds. If this "prayer" isn't answered in the fashion that they desire, look for Rev. Schenck to say something along the lines that God is testing their faith, that he has a plan for Sotomayor, or that perhaps people simply didn't pray hard enough.

Prayers Of The Far Right

There's been quite a bit of talk lately about how people are approaching the subject of death in regards to ones ideological opposites or perceieved enemies.

Fringe conservative "pastor" Wiley Drake is openly "praying" for Barack Obama's death. But, he says it's not really saying anything - it's actually God saying this.

No, seriously.

*click image to play audio from Alan Colmes radio program*



Why is this not suprising? It's because conservatives rationale for most of the idiotic things they say and do is that "God" told them to or that they were following the "word of the bible".

Whether Drake's "death prayer" is an isolated incident or not can't be determined as a concrete yes or no answer, but Obama has this uncanny ability to bring out the crazy, religious, zealots by simply being a black man with a funny name that just happened to win the Presidential election by a majority vote.

( h/t: Paddy @ The Political Carnival )