{"id":13575,"date":"2008-11-12T05:09:50","date_gmt":"2008-11-12T12:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/11\/12\/praying-for-electoral-victory.html"},"modified":"2008-11-12T05:09:50","modified_gmt":"2008-11-12T12:09:50","slug":"praying_for_electoral_vic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/12\/praying_for_electoral_vic.html","title":{"rendered":"Praying for electoral victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

So one would think that, if anyone could be prayed into office, it would be the McCain\/Palin ticket<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Prayer for John McCain and Sarah Palin<\/p>\n

Please pass this prayer on right now on behalf of John McCain. Please start prayer chains immediately for the election.<\/p>\n

This election can be turned around for the glory of God if we will stop worrying and get on our knees!!! How many people can you pass this on to? Let us pray.<\/p>\n

Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to You right now asking for a miracle in this election. Lord, we lift up to You right now Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin. Lord, we ask that You would just wrap Your arms around them and their families at this critical time. Father, we ask for miracle upon miracle in this election. We know that only You can turn the tide of evil in this election. Father, as we await the final days of the election, we ask in complete faith that You would allow the truth to be known across this land Lord, we ask for forgiveness for putting You last. . . Father, please heal our land and homes, allow us to have another chance to love You the way you should be loved. Lord, we ask specifically for John and Sarah’s health, wisdom, words, actions and their campaign staff. Lord, we lift them all up to You now. Father, we also specifically ask for the voters in many states who are battleground states. Lord, please convict the hearts of voters in Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, North Dakota, Virginia, Nevada and Colorado.<\/p>\n

Father we beg for every electoral vote. Lord, we lift all of our needs up to You now. In the name of Jesus we claim victory in Your name. Lord, we pray for Your will to be done in a mighty way…we know that this election can and will glorify You! Father, place the man you would have to lead our country in a Christian way on November 4. We love You, Lord. We await Your holy miracles…<\/p>\n

In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen<\/p>\n

Send this on to as many people as you can think of. . . . .let it reach every corner of America. Get on your knees for this election. . . . Pray for God to send a REVIVAL across this land. Christians, it is time we get on our knees . . . . talk to people, speak up. . . . we’ve been silent too long.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Presumably a whole passel of folks joined in on that fervent prayer, given the rhetoric floating around about the Demon Socialist Commie Scary Atheist Pagan Muslim Obama.<\/p>\n

And, yet … there the Scary Man is, elected and ready to destroy our Christian Nation.<\/p>\n

Of course, there were a lot of people praying for<\/em> Obama to win. But let’s discount them, for they are deluded and not Real Christians.<\/p>\n

Or maybe …<\/p>\n

… maybe praying to God to swing an election in favor of someone or another is arrogant presumption. Clearly intercessory prayer doesn’t work like some sort of magic spell — the out of “and sometimes God answers no” demonstrates that. That doesn’t seem to sway the “name it and claim it” crowd, but, well … I try to to not be too irrational in my religious delusions.<\/p>\n

To my way of thinking, prayer is a way for the pray-er to actually consider and focus on what’s important to them — and what they can do about it beyond talking with God about it. So I don’t pray for God to make buckets of food appear to the starving people of the world — obviously, if God’s waiting for me to actually wish for that before He does it, there’s something seriously borked with the universe. Instead, I try to pray mostly for myself in that context — “Help me generous with what I have, to share with others who are in need” — or, if I’m feeling like being broader in prayer, I might pray for generosity in others, including myself.<\/p>\n

Because, ultimately, if someone’s going to help feed the starving, it’s going to be people like me, not a sudden appearance of manna in the slums of the world.<\/p>\n

When it comes to things like the election, I’m similarly dubious about praying to God for one candidate or the other. It’s like praying for a football game — or about a war<\/a>. (I also tend to be leery of magic wishes — too many D&D games and rereadings of “The Monkey’s Paw.”) <\/p>\n

There’s firstly the presumption that the candidate I like is, in fact, the “chosen of the Lord.” Jeez, I have enough of a difficult time trying to figure out how I’m<\/em> not living up to my own moral code and beliefs; making that judgment about another person to the degree that I would ask a favor of God to personally intercede on his or her behalf? That’s just asking for trouble.<\/p>\n

Second, there’s the presumption that I know what God’s will — assuming God had a particular intent for an election during one certain year in a small nation-state on a tiny planet orbiting an undistinguished sun in one of a million galaxies — actually is in this instance. Assuming there’s a Divine Plan, my prayer would seem unnecessary to sway God toward it, or futile to sway God against it. Further, there’s always the possibility that what I think of as God’s will — even assuming I really truly have a handle on God’s sense of right and wrong — is what God really wants to see happen right this moment. Maybe (if I may be Biblical) the rumors about Obama are correct, and this is the prelude to the End Times with Obama as the Anti-Christ, Eek! In that case, it would be both futile and kind of uppity for me to tell God not <\/em>to fulfill the prophecies in Revelations simply because I prefer John McCain’s policy on off-shore drilling, or even on abortion. (Which I don’t, but work with me here.)<\/p>\n

And what’s God supposed to do with such a prayer, anyway? Tweak the voting machines? Compel people to zombie-like vote for the candidate of my choosing?  Fiery letters in the sky to vote for the right guy?  Sneak angels into polling places to throw the election? Drop an anvil on the opposition’s head the day before the election?<\/p>\n

The most I feel I can legitimately do is pray for wisdom and clarity for myself when I enter the voting booth, charity in dealing with wins and losses, and resolve to continue to do what I glean as right. And, if I want to spread that prayer out further, hope for the same for the electorate.<\/p>\n

I might have, in any given election, my own expectations about which candidate that wisdom might lead people to choose — but I try not to assume my own omniscient righteousness too much such that it justifies fervent prayer. For all that I have an ego the size of Baltimore, some times, I really try to maintain humility about a few things at least.<\/p>\n

So I was unimpressed, and unmoved, even before the election, by exhortations to pray for victory for McCain (I didn’t receive any similar missives re Obama), save that they motivated me to go out and actually do <\/em>something for the candidate of my choice, and promoted prayers that both candidates (especially, ahem, the one I wanted to win) exercised good judgment and courage were they to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So one would think that, if anyone could be prayed into office, it would be the McCain\/Palin ticket. Prayer for John McCain and Sarah Palin Please pass this prayer on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_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":[54,27,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2008","category-religion","category-religion-me"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12860,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/16\/election_round_up_3.html","url_meta":{"origin":13575,"position":0},"title":"Election Round-Up!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Sep-08 3:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a relatively slow news day in some ways. Sure, there was the shocking news that Palin has decided to not cooperate with the Troopergate investigation. Sure, she...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/voting-butterfly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12797,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/25\/dave_does_the_election_4.html","url_meta":{"origin":13575,"position":1},"title":"***Dave Does the Election","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 25-Sep-08 1:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, tons more coverage today of McCain's campaign \"suspension\" (when you're producing strong shocks all the time, I guess you've got suspension, ahem) and debate dodge. Is he flailing,...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/john_mccain2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12744,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/10\/06\/dave_does_the_election_mo.html","url_meta":{"origin":13575,"position":2},"title":"***Dave Does the Election – Monday Night Edition","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-Oct-08 6:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The McCain\/Palin have gone into high gear, quite openly and explicitly openly and explicitly\u00a0shifting their strategy away from podunk thinks like \"issues\" and \"policy\" and in favor of --...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12939,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/04\/with_friends_like_thse.html","url_meta":{"origin":13575,"position":3},"title":"With friends like thse …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Sep-08 11:08am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some conservative Christians are so enamored of Palin, they not only now want McCain to win, they want him to win and then quickly\u00a0die. Antiabortion militant and all-round theocratic activist...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12730,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/10\/08\/dave_does_the_election.html","url_meta":{"origin":13575,"position":4},"title":"***Dave Does the Election","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Oct-08 9:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Things were sort of scatter-shot today, so creating a narrative is a bit of a challenge. There's the post-post-debate (transcript) discussion of McCain's reference to Obama as \"That One,\"...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13721,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/10\/12\/dave_does_the_election_em.html","url_meta":{"origin":13575,"position":5},"title":"***Dave Does the Election – Emergency Quick Buffer-Flushing Edition!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 12-Oct-08 9:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"A bit briefer than my usual analysis, but trying to get this out before I head off for 19 hours of flight (and another 8 of night time): MCCAIN...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/voting-butterfly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}