Is This Really in the Bible?

An Arizona pastor recently preached a sermon that included a prayer request that God strike the President of the United States with a brain tumor and that he die in the manner of the late Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts. A direct quote reads “I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today.” He went on to say that he does not condone killing and that his message and position centers on spiritual warfare. O.K., so it is appropriate to pray that God will afflict a person with terminal disease as long as it is benefits God’s own Kingdom? This guy’s a preacher so it is correct to expect that his statement be consistent with the Bible. Where is this found in scripture? The Old Testament possibly? It’s certainly not in the Old Testament book of Jonah. God made Jonah take His message to the arch enemies of Israel, a group who stood for everything Israel opposed. Jonah tried his best to circumvent God’s plans for the Assyrians because he, not God, hated them so. Is there a lesson here for God’s called and chosen leaders?

In short, yes there is. Lesson One: Always remember that you are not only speaking for your church or organization, but for all of Christianity as well. If you say something that is patently unscriptural and that reeks of bad theology you will do damage to God’s Kingdom. Someone will hear what you say and make decisions about the reality of God and the integrity of scripture. Lesson Two: Know scripture and theology. Assuming this Arizona minister went to seminary it is hard to believe that his theology could be so grossly incorrect. The New Testament is built upon a foundation of love, forgiveness and selfless living. The Royal Law found in James puts the needs of other people ahead of our own. No place in scripture reads Thouest hack me off so I pray that God striketh you with a terminal case of boils. Quite the contrary actually. Lesson Three: Mixing faith and politics has always made for a bad stew. Jesus made it clear that believers should not seek to overthrow Roman rule because it differed with the mission of the church. The job of the church is to reach, teach and disciple people and not to be the administrator of the country. Over the past thirty years there has been a great deal of diffusion on this subject and the end result has not been pretty. The church has become smaller and less influential and a large segment of society has written us off completely. Lesson Four: If you are a moron and break lessons one and two on a regular basis and make God look badly in the eyes of those He has called us to reach…seek a new line of work. Enough said.


MM