Gettting Well Versed
Frederick Clarkson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Fri Feb 03, 2012 at 11:20:45 AM EST
Michelle Boorstein at The Washington Post's "Under God" blog reports that Faithful America's petition calling for Kansas House Speaker Michael O'Neal to resign now has 40,000 signatures.  That's up from 30,000 a week ago ago when I reported for AlterNet the continuing story of imprecatory prayers directed at president Obama.

The "joke" for several years has been "Pray for Obama: Psalm 109.8."  The verse states, "Let his days be few, and let another take his office."  Haw, haw, haw.  But as anyone who takes the time to look at the Psalm itself will see, the very next verse states:  "May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow."    

Not so funny after all.

And that continues to be the point.

"The verse clearly refers to death, not to his days in office," Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center told me in an interview for my AlterNet story.

"These are not amusing or harmless words," he said.  "They are calling for someone's death and they ought to be recognized as such."  

O'Neal is still refusing to resign, but we can be sure that the e-mail at the center of the controversy, which was forwarded to O'Neal, and he in turn forwarded to the Republican caucus in the Kansas House, will continue to live in the culture, endlessly forwarded and the bumper sticker slogan will continue to appear on tee shirts and bumper stickers and other such merch;  and the imprecatory Psalm itself will continue to be  used by demagogic preachers.

Thus this is not a "news" item that becomes stale and people rush on to the next outrage.  This is a matter that has a lot of cultural momentum.  The continuing efforts to hold O'Neal accountable for his casual invocation of an imprecatory prayer, and ongoing reporting of the controversy, may help to thwart it.

The way this will work is if we don't have to reinvent the wheel each time Psalm 109.8 pops up. We know that this is not a joke and we know why.




Display:
All it takes is a lucky nutcase who thinks that he can "Help God along" and we might loose our president - the first one in decades that I really hold in high regard.

In fact, IMO they're trolling for someone to do just that.  We do know that the dominionists have no qualms about using violence (they prefer to do it from hiding or in secret), and some of their words DO sound like marching orders.

by ArchaeoBob on Fri Feb 03, 2012 at 05:16:05 PM EST

Bob:

Unfortunately, I agree that you are right to be worried; Michelle must be worried stiff every time he leaves the safety of the family quarters in the White House.

Reading reports on the explosion in membership of the right wing militia and white-supremacist groups offers no comfort at all.  And yet, every time anyone raises any sort of alarm, the right screams that we are slandering these good people.  What about President Obama and the other targets of their hatred?

My prayer for my President is that he might live through his term(s) of office, and be able to live in peace afterwards.

Unlike previous Presidents, I am not so sure his world will get much safer after his term(s) of office end.  I think the threat will only marginally decrease during the rest of his life.  And that would be a tragedy no matter at what point in his life an attempt might be made.

He has literally put his life on the line for his country.  And Trump?  and the rest of the birthers?  And the Romney clan (father and sons), Gingrich, etc.  What have THEY risked for their country?  

This is a quiet courage that is unrecognized by too many Americans.

Pr Chris

by CalSailor on Sat Feb 04, 2012 at 02:59:52 AM EST
Parent



It's really shameful that this country has such vile people in places of even minor authority. O'Neal's disingenuous explanation and tepid apology come nowhere near excusing his rather transparent, bombastic, wingnut rhetoric. I guess racism and murder are kinda funny, huh, Mr. Speaker?

by burkew77 on Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 01:27:34 PM EST

I may not be fully informed about what is going on here, but why are the Christian leaders not stepping up and rebuking his comments? Especially considering he doesn't have great political pull, pastors should be openly disapproving of these sorts of actions.

by JamesLim on Mon Feb 13, 2012 at 04:45:04 PM EST


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