{"id":4711,"date":"2003-07-15T12:48:49","date_gmt":"2003-07-15T19:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=4711"},"modified":"2003-07-15T12:48:49","modified_gmt":"2003-07-15T19:48:49","slug":"prayer_offensiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/15\/prayer_offensiv.html","title":{"rendered":"Prayer offensive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OffensivePat Robertson is trying to drum up folks to pray that some Supreme Court justices retire<\/a> — specifically the dastardly folks who made up the majority on Lawrence v. Texas<\/i>.<\/p>\n

“We ask for miracles in regard to the Supreme Court,” Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “The 700 Club.”
\nRobertson has launched a 21-day “prayer offensive” directed at the Supreme Court in the wake of its 6-3 June vote that decriminalized sodomy.
\n[…] The same letter targets three justices in particular: “One justice is 83-years-old, another has cancer and another has a heart condition. Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire?”<\/p>\n

Yeah, that’s offensive prayer all right.<\/p>\n

Perhaps he’s trying to get his name in the news for something other than supporting Charles Taylor’s bloody regime in Liberia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What Robertson, 73, has not discussed in these broadcasts is his financial interest in Liberia. In an interview yesterday, he said he has “written off in my own mind” an $8 million investment in a gold mining venture that he made four years ago under an agreement with Taylor’s government.
\nYet, he added: “Hope springs eternal. Once the dust has cleared on this thing, chances are there will be some investors from someplace who want to invest. If I could find some people to sell it to, I’d be more than delighted.”<\/p>\n

I’ll pray, all right. I’ll pray that Pat Robertson has his wits about him when he finds himself called to account before his own Judge.<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/u>: Upon reading this, let me clarify what I find offensive about Robertson’s actions.<\/p>\n

Specific, public, policy-based prayer I find offensive. Praying that God will soften the hearts of the obstinate, or provide consolation to the grieving, or comfort to the sick, or something like that is fine. Praying that God will convince Senators to vote for SB 247 is dubious — it smacks of “God will listen to me, rather than those folks praying that the bill fails, because I’m righteous, y’know?” It’s like folks who pray for victory in a football game. Arrogance.<\/p>\n

Trying to get other <\/i>folks to pray that God will convince Senators to vote for SB 247 is worse, since it’s grandstanding, and compounding the error by getting other folks to assume righteousness. <\/p>\n

Trying to get folks to pray that God will convince people to retire is, to my mind, only one step away from getting folks to pray that the Justices involved croak, or break a leg on the way to the next decision, or whatever.<\/p>\n

I don’t think God works that way. Maybe that’s arrogance on my <\/i>part, but …<\/p>\n

That leaves aside the whole question of whether Robertson is right or wrong on the merits of Lawrence<\/i>. I think he’s wrong in a multitude of ways, needless to say. And, “hegemonic rage” or not, I think he’s also wrong to be trying to get folks to pray as to specifics of public policy in the US. At most, he ought <\/i>to be praying that the Justices involved will be inspired by the Holy Spirit, and know and follow God’s will — not dictating, instead, what that will should be, or presuming that they weren’t and don’t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pat Robertson is trying to drum up folks to pray that some Supreme Court justices retire — specifically the dastardly folks who made up the majority on Lawrence v. Texas….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8172,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/05\/03\/man_of_god.html","url_meta":{"origin":4711,"position":0},"title":"Man of God","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 3-May-05 1:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The bright side to having someone like Pat Robertson around is that he serves as a useful example of the dangers in commingling Church and State. One danger seems to...","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26845,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/05\/pat-robertson-blames-the-victims-twice.html","url_meta":{"origin":4711,"position":1},"title":"Pat Robertson blames the victims … twice","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Mar-12 12:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't write a lot about Pat Robertson because, honestly, I think he's more than a bit touched in the head these days (and not a good touch, at that). But his currently maunderings on the recent tornadoes and the death and destruction they brought with them require at least\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10500,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/04\/pat_robertson_prophesies.html","url_meta":{"origin":4711,"position":2},"title":"Pat Robertson prophesies","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Jan-07 4:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Pat's in the news again, making big claims for the upcoming Disaster of the Year, as Personally Revealed to him by the Lord Almighty. Evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson said...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27112,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/15\/scotus-and-political-decisions.html","url_meta":{"origin":4711,"position":3},"title":"SCOTUS and "Political" Decisions","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-Mar-12 2:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's probably unreasonable to expect any Supreme Court Justice to rule with Vulcan-like precision merely on the legal merits of a given case -- if for no other reason than that they are (a) human, and (b) cases that get to (and are accepted by) SCOTUS are rarely so clear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14723,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/05\/06\/hunting-for-justices-in-some-of-the-wrong-places.html","url_meta":{"origin":4711,"position":4},"title":"Hunting for Justices in some of the wrong places","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-May-09 10:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've love to see another female justice on the Supreme Court. 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