FREEDOM TO HATE

Pray for Obama. On the surface, this seems like a noble, positive and uplifiting message.

I suppose that all Christian Americans and Christians around the world pray for divine guidance and assistance for their leaders. But, look closer at these items sold by Cafe Press...there is the by line, Psalm 109:8.

Can I get a witness? Can I hear an Amen in the back of the room? Can I read to you Pslam 109, verse 8?

   "Let his days be few; and let another take his office."

Why not, brothers and sisters, Why not take the entire Psalm which this line is taken from and appreciate the context of the "Imprecatory Prayer" it represents:

 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.

Diana Butler Bass at Beliefnet explains that Psalm 109 is one of the “imprecatory” prayers, “a lament in the form of petition to destroy one’s enemies.” While perhaps intended to be a joke, she notes that the psalm actually “entreats God to destroy the president”:

    It is the personal prayer of an individual, someone who has been dealt an injustice by another–and usually more powerful–person. The words of Psalm 109 are those of deep agony, the longings of a victim for retribution and justice. This psalm is considered one of the most difficult of all the psalms–full of violent images of vengeance and death.

The marketers of the merchandise in the picture above claim that it is a joke and of course, they are hiding behind their freedom of speech as Americans to spread this open attempt to trawl for violence so to speak...to enable some brain damaged idiot to do the job they are too lame to even admit they are asking for.

Again, the use of religion, the manipulation of religious indoctrination to spread hatred and violent ideas. A Teddy Bear bearing the message to children. Again, we are seeing the right wing racist eliminationist rage against a "liberal black president" being presented and rationalized as religious teaching. Why, much too often is Freedom of Religion synonymous with FREEDOM TO HATE?