The biblical answer, of course, is No.
But that doesn't seem to seem to be stopping a certain Baptist pastor (and I use "Baptist" loosely here, as nearly every Baptist I know would condemn this fellow) in Phoenix from not only praying to this end, but telling his congregation they should, too. Here's the relevant part of the news article:
Compare that with the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:43-45:A Phoenix-area pastor has started to draw protesters to his congregation after he delivered a sermon titled, "Why I Hate Barack Obama," and told his parishioners that he prays for President Obama's death.
Pastor Steven Anderson stood by his sermon in an interview with MyFOXPhoenix, which reports that the pastor continues to encourage his parishioners to join him in praying for the president's death.
"I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today," he told MyFOXPhoenix on Sunday. He called his message "spiritual warfare" and said he does not condone killing.
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.Even if you find it hard to think of our president as "your enemy," it is clear that the Bible teaches us to love everyone, regardless of what we think of their actions toward us or anyone else. The Bible also teaches us very clearly in Romans 13:1-2 that God ordains all earthly "powers"—in fact, we know that God Himself allowed Barack Obama to win last year's election [Neither I nor any man can explain why this happened, but it is not ours to know the mind of God].
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
I could write on this at length, but my brother wrote a fine piece on this very topic first, so I will encourage you to read what he has to say.
2 comments:
It is very easy to make negative comments about our current President since we don't agree with him. But in explaining our responsibility to show him respect, I've been teaching my children that the Lord commands us to respect his office, his position as president even though we may not respect his decisions or him as a person.
As a side note: My husband was reading the article about this "Baptist" pastor and remarked, "See, it's this kind of thing that makes my job more difficult." He a police officer, and a born again believer.
This guy is in the same mold as the kooks down in Witchita that protest at soldiers funerals, saying things like "thank God for IEDs."
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