{"id":130849,"date":"2016-06-11T14:39:01","date_gmt":"2016-06-11T20:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/11\/and-theyll-know-we-are-christians-by-our-joking-invocation-of-death-curses.html"},"modified":"2016-06-11T15:39:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-11T21:39:09","slug":"and-theyll-know-we-are-christians-by-our-joking-invocation-of-death-curses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/11\/and-theyll-know-we-are-christians-by-our-joking-invocation-of-death-curses.html","title":{"rendered":"And they'll know we are Christians by our joking invocation of death curses"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Perdue is the GOP junior Senator from the great state of Georgia. And at the currently-running Faith and Freedom conference, he just suggested Psalm 109:8 as an appropriate prayer for Obama.<\/p>\n

'We should pray for him like Psalms 109:8 says: Let his days be few, and let another have his office.'<\/i><\/p>\n

Perdue is said to be a fairly moderate, nice guy, more focused on business than evangelism — and it's not beyond the pale to suggest that he was using just the literal words there, not implying what the rest of the passage says [https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=psalm+109&version=KJV<\/a>]: <\/p>\n

6 Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.
12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with 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.<\/p>\n

But there are plenty of right-wing sites that do<\/i> emphasize this imprecatory prayer as a literal curse against Obama and his family. And, as the article suggests, it's just that kind of Overton Window shift in rhetoric from "respectable" government officials that makes the rise of Donald "I have no filter between Id and Vocal Cords" Trump so very much not a surprise.<\/p>\n

Perdue's spokesperson has responded, “Senator Perdue said we are called to pray for our country, for our leaders, and for our president. He in no way wishes harm towards our president and everyone in the room understood that. However, we should add the media to our prayer list because they are pushing a narrative to create controversy and that is exactly what the American people are tired of.”<\/i><\/p>\n

At the very best, it's in exceedingly poor taste. And if Sen. Perdue isn't aware of the whole of the passage, or of how that passage is being used in a far more vitriolic fashion than his spokescritter claims he intended, then shame on him.<\/p>\n

(Ironically, some translations [https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=psalm+109&version=NRSV<\/a>] and scholars suggest that this imprecatory prayer is not being said by the Psalmist, but being quoted as a prayer being said against him by his unjust enemies.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nA Republican senator just prayed that Obama’s “days be few.” This is how the GOP got Trump.<\/a><\/span>
\nIf fewer Republican leaders spoke like this, maybe their base wouldn’t have turned to Trump.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Perdue is the GOP junior Senator from the great state of Georgia. And at the currently-running Faith and Freedom conference, he just suggested Psalm 109:8 as an appropriate prayer for Obama. 'We should pray for him like Psalms 109:8 says: Let his days be few, and let another have his office.' Perdue is said … Continue reading “And they'll know we are Christians by our joking invocation of death curses”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,358,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-poor-citizenship","category-religious-zanies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16247,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/11\/20\/unblogged-bits-for-friday-20-november-2009.html","url_meta":{"origin":130849,"position":0},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Friday, 20 November 2009","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Nov-09 5:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Michigan Town Rejects Liz Cheney\u2019s \u2018Fearmongering\u2019 And Welcomes Guantanamo Detainees: Zaid Jilani GOPers Scream \u2018Rationing,\u2019 But Shun Bill Ensuring Mammograms \u00ab The Washington Independent - Again with the rampant hypocrisy. Government \"rationing\" (even when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13636,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/02\/how_far_we_have_come.html","url_meta":{"origin":130849,"position":1},"title":"How far we have come","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Nov-08 7:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The daughter of a slave gets to vote for a black nominee for president -- and may very well see that nominee win. 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