pray for our president

March 30, 2003 6:29 PM

"Pray that the President and his advisers will seek God and his wisdom daily and not rely on their own understanding"i think these people might be on to something.
posted by specialk420 (20 comments total)

At least a little background?

In Touch Ministries wants the kids, teens and UK citizens also.
posted by ?! at 6:57 PM on March 30, 2003

I posted a little something on this in another thread here.

I didn't address this very interesting line here:

Monday's reads "Pray that the President and his advisers will be strong and courageous to do what is right regardless of critics".

For the sake of fairness, shouldn't this also include critics and "Yes Men"? There's more than a hint that these "critics" whoever they may be, are wrong and the President will do right, through the magic of prayer. Okay fine, but the Yes Men he surrounds himself with are equally able to make the wrong decisions and give the wrong advice. As an example, Rumsfeld playing four star general comes to mind.

"Yes Mr. Rumsfeld what an excellent plan! Less is more!"

*Two minutes later by the water cooler*

"What a fucking moron. Shh, here he comes. Be cool, you don't want to get fired."
posted by skallas at 7:59 PM on March 30, 2003

Skallas, if all I had to depend on to lead the country was human brains (of ANY political persuasion) I would be in total despair. And frankly I wouldn't want any mefite (to include myself) to be The Leader Of the Free World.

If we Christians had prayed for Bill Clinton as much as we should have, he would have been the greatest president we have ever had, and Monicagate would have never happened. Our bad.
(ot)
If you would care to give me permission to pray for you, you might be pleasantly surprised at the results.(/ot)
posted by konolia at 8:42 PM on March 30, 2003

I thought it was Shrub's faith in myths and his own propaganda that got us into this war in the first place.
posted by mischief at 9:50 PM on March 30, 2003

God said "Thou Shalt Not Kill" in plain fucking Hebrew, it's not like Bush has to search that hard.
posted by inksyndicate at 9:54 PM on March 30, 2003

My favorite comment on prayer:
"God answers all prayers. But sometimes the answer is 'No'."
Wish I remembered who said it first (but it was definitely NOT The Onion).
posted by wendell at 10:41 PM on March 30, 2003

konolia: if all I had to depend on to lead the country was human brains (of ANY political persuasion) I would be in total despair

Man, that explains a lot! Thanks Konolia!
posted by Dick Paris at 11:40 PM on March 30, 2003

konolia: OK then. I'll bite. Pray for me. Specifically, in what ways may I expect to be pleasantly surprised?

While I'm all for freedom of religion, it seems that overt expression of Christian faith is a bad idea for all those involved in the war. Whatever you may think of the motives for the war, Bush et al have tried to dispell the notion that this is a holy war against Islam. As long as the Iraqis, rightly or wrongly, believe it, there is no prospect for peace in the area while the Americans remain.
posted by salmacis at 1:09 AM on March 31, 2003

inksyndicate: "Thou shalt not kill" obviously means something more along the lines of "Thou shalt not murder." There are enough examples of God-directed war in the Bible to show that's not what He was talking about.

And to follow obvious replies to that last paragraph:

1. Okay, okay, you think what Bush is doing is murder. Fine.
2. No, I don't think this is a God-directed war.
posted by TheFarSeid at 2:50 AM on March 31, 2003

If we Christians had prayed for Bill Clinton as much as we should have, he would have been the greatest president we have ever had

What do you mean, "would have been the greatest?" I'm pretty sure he was forgiven his one small transgression, just not by the right wing nuts or the Southern Baptist branch of the Republican party. Now, putting that aside, let's compare again which has more closely follows the dictates of God konolia, or might you be a wee bit biased like this "ministry?"
posted by nofundy at 4:53 AM on March 31, 2003

(Interior, Hague War Tribunal)

Prosecutor: Mr. Bush, you are accused of crimes against humanity. Your direct actions caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, you attacked a country with no provocation, and you conspired to cover up the ineptitude of your own administration. How plead ye?

Bush: God made me do it. I prayed every day, and this is the result.

Prosecutor: So you say you have no free will, and you did not take these actions yourself.

Bush: Of course I have free will. But when god tells me to do something, I do it. I have to.

Prosecutor: Doesn't god choose to use a light touch? "When you do things right, it won't appear you've done anything at all" and all that? Why is he or she, your God, speaking directly to you.

Bush: Because I pray. That's all I have to do is pray and I get what I want.
posted by benjh at 4:56 AM on March 31, 2003

I wonder what the islamic and jewish and catholic and hindu prayers for the same day were, and I wonder who's supplying those to our soldiers, if anyone is.
posted by amberglow at 5:45 AM on March 31, 2003

Salmacis, you're on.

Nofundy, I'm not just talking about Clinton and his sex drive. There are a lot of decisions a president makes, and I can assure you that all of them really want to make the right ones.

To the rest of you: God specifically said "Thou shalt not murder." There are times when war is necessary. I really don't know if this one is or isn't, as I am not privy to a lot of info that went into this decision. I dare say neither are the rest of us.
And I frankly still don't understand this hostility towards prayer. None of us are holding a gun to your heads to join us. In fact I would defend your right NOT to pray, even while thinking you wrong.

At this point none of us has the perspective to judge Bush's presidency-or for that matter, Clinton's. That is for future historians to examine. We will certainly know a lot more once the war is over, at least, but even then it will take quite a bit of time to judge.
posted by konolia at 6:21 AM on March 31, 2003

That's all I have to do is pray and I get what I want

Not true. We get what we need. I don't give MY kids everything they want, because I don't want to raise spoiled brats. And God is a lot smarter than I am.

By the way, I had a need for a car (my husband needed our car for work and I needed transportation.) I was GIVEN a car, with tags and insurance included, not to mention one with good gas mileage. And I never asked a human for it. That's just the latest answer to prayer. I would be here all day if I told you all the things God has done for me.
posted by konolia at 6:30 AM on March 31, 2003

Salmacis, you're on.

Cool. I may even buy my first ever lottery ticket this Saturday! :-)
posted by salmacis at 7:04 AM on March 31, 2003

That's just the latest answer to prayer.

Why didnt god answer many of our prayers for these children?

was he or she too busy sorting out the details on getting you your new car? come down out of your cloud and please ask our president to come with you.
posted by specialk420 at 7:38 AM on March 31, 2003

The book of Job was written about just such unanswerable questions. And I certainly have a few unanswered questions myself. My question to YOU is how do you know just how many tragedies have been averted thru prayer?
As to my car, the same God who can take care of transportation can take care of the rest of the world without breaking into a sweat. The difference between you and I is that I understand that God is under no obligation to explain himself to me.

Smarter people than I have debated about the meaning and existence of evil. Getting into it here would serve no purpose other than making me a sitting duck for people who disagree with my viewpoint.
posted by konolia at 8:10 AM on March 31, 2003

Pray for W indeed! :)
posted by LouReedsSon at 9:29 AM on March 31, 2003

As to my car, the same God who can take care of transportation can take care of the rest of the world without breaking into a sweat.

whew! thanks for clearing that up for me.

i wonder if you can explain why the leader of the christian religion and many others do not agree with dubya's (guided by faith) vision for "liberating" iraq through the use of bombs and machine guns? does he know better?
posted by specialk420 at 10:30 AM on March 31, 2003

The Post is down for maintenance (?) but I assume your first post invokes the Pope. He only leads the Catholics-us Protestants -Baptists, Presbyterians, pentecostals, nondenominational Charismatics, Methodists, etc.etc. don't recognise him as an authority.

Besides, who said I did (or didn't, for that matter )agree with his decision that we go to war? I don't expect you to have kept up with all my posts on this but I really am not sure what to think about it at this juncture. What I do know is whatever the case, the President needs prayer. If he screwed up re this war, he most assuredly needs it! If it's the right thing, he needs it because war is a nasty thing and needs to be gotten thru as quickly as possible-not to mention with as few casualties as possible.

Fairminded people can disagree on all of this, and none of us really have a corner on the mind of God-we are taught that we all see thru a glass darkly-therefore it behooves us to be humble regarding our opinions on this or any other matter. I know that is what I strive for.

One thing I do know, and that is that if this country becomes totally polarized over this, it's a bad thing. I remember Vietnam all too well.
posted by konolia at 12:29 PM on March 31, 2003