Praying for President Obama, the “Right” Way

“Religion and politics don’t mix” so the old saying goes, but it can be very entertaining (or downright scary) when you decide to mix a little religion with far right-wing politics. And where better to find examples of that than the Free Republic web site, home of the lunatics in the lunatic fringe.

One of their long time contributors used to start a daily thread called “Pray for President Bush.” A laudable endeavor, if you happen to be religiously minded, and the prayers he invoked were certainly uplifting enough:

Pray for President Bush day 2579

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank You for this day and for Your mercy and blessings towards us. I thank You for Your power and grace. I think You for Your love. Lord, forgive us of all of our trespasses before You and help us to forgive others as You have forgiven us.

Lord, I pray for the President today. He seems to have a tender heart. May it be attentive to Your plans and Word. May He rest in Your strength to accomplish Your will. May His heart always seek after You. May he have the courage to stand for the one true God, for besides You there is no other god. And, may He triumph over his enemies as he obeys Your will.

I pray for Israel. Let us remain her friend and work towards her good. Lord, protect her from her enemies. Protect her from Ahmadinejad. And may her heart turn to God, her maker.

For it is in the precious name of Christ Jesus that I pray these things, Amen.

But then a funny thing happened. A Democrat won the Presidential election, and the poor old prayer blogger didn’t know what to do. He started off by continuing the daily entreaties to pray for President Obama, but soon the right-wing rabble was roused and vehemently objected to the notion that a left-wing Marxist Muslim Kenyan usurper was worthy of their daily prayers. So after a little soul searching our brave little blogger offered to compromise, and turned the daily thread into the occasional weekly thread to pray for both President Obama and the Republic. But I wonder if you can detect the ever so slight change in tone when it comes to praying for a Democratic president rather than a Republican one…

Pray for the Republic and Obama Weeks 69-71

Lord God, I come to You today watching my country’s government and being stunned at the audacity of those who claim to represent us. Are they in an alternate universe? How shameful! Then, I look at the nation and more than half of the people are against the action they are taking; and yet, it seems they are going to let them just get by with it. Are they spraying us with stuff to make us passive? Where is America’s fighting spirit? Have we become so cynical so as to not risk the wrath of someone like Pelosi? I’m sad for my country. I am fearful for her. She teeters on the edge of a precipice and won’t so much as take a stand and oppose it. Where are the men and women who will say count me in when it comes to leading this country back to its foundations? Are they gone? Is America gone? Lord, only You know and only You can save her.

I know our nation deserves Your wrath. Our abortions have made our streets flow with blood and our rivers and oceans stink with the corruption of deeds of selfishness and callousness. Greed and stupidity caused our nation to elect a Marxist to power. And Naivety and apathy keep him there. God of all Creation, save us from ourselves. Draw us back to You. Keep our corrupt government from destroying us all. And help us to learn the lesson so that we don’t repeat it.

For it is in Jesus’ Holy name and precious name that I pray these things, Amen.

In the words of America’s favorite cartoon hippie, “Zoinks!” After reading all that I have this uncontrollable urge to look outside my window to see if the streets are running red with blood and fire and brimstone are falling from the sky. Funny, though, all I see is a neighbor’s kid playing around on his skateboard in the warm evening sunshine.

Every day I live in this country, I am more and more convinced that while right wing conservatives may physically inhabit the same planet we do, their minds are unimaginably far off in some other reality or dimension most of the time. It’s the only explanation that makes sense to me.