Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Psalm 109 as a weapon

Some of my readers aren't old enough to remember when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Well, I am. Here's something most of the TV documentaries don't dwell on -- some people openly expressed their pleasure that Kennedy was dead.

And, before Nov. 22, 1963 there were plenty of people who openly expressed their hatred for President Kennedy; some who saw him as too Catholic, too much of a pinko liberal and too determined to desegregate Southern public schools, said he should be killed.

Well, somebody was listening.

Now some of the crazy rightwingers who like to say President Barack Obama was born on Mars and is a secret Muslim, etc., have taken another step toward the dangerous game of calling for his assassination.

The newest gimmick is to use Psalm 109 in the Old Testament. T-shirts and bumper stickers are being circulated with this message on them: "Pray for Obama Psalm 109:8."

Psalm 109 is very Old Testament. Take a look at verses six through ten and I think you'll get the picture:
:6 Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.
:7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.
:8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
:9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
:10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
Yes, it's hard not to notice the verse that follows the one cited on the T-shirts. Are the people behind this sicko campaign glad it scares some of us who would rather not see Obama's children fatherless?

Of course they are.

Do they hope some unhinged Bible-thumper will see the words in verse nine as marching orders and try to kill Obama?

What do you think?

If deliberately inciting lunatics to commit murder isn't evil, what is? Are there any Republicans, Christians or otherwise, who will step forward to condemn such tactics?

What do you think?

10 comments:

James Young said...

I suppose it's no worse than far-Lefties who use the Sermon on the Mount as a political weapon.

Anonymous said...

I think your last few articles show that you are slowly losing your mind.

F.T. Rea said...

Anonymous,

Slowly?

pigeater said...

Yeah...I'd have to say it's kinda hard to get worked up over this considering that the same thing was done with Bush so often that it didn't even qualify as newsworthy.

Maybe some consistency would lend credibility to the outrage.

F.T. Rea said...

Pigeater,

Saying the same thing was done to Bush doesn't make it true.

Bush was ridiculed, sometimes in silly or vulgar ways. Some would say he had it coming. Some would disagree. But there were no T-shirts using Bible verses calling for his death.

pigeater said...

Take a day or two to skim through some of the lovely images here.

http://zombietime.com/

Now ask the same question "who will step forward to condemn these tactics?"

I remember saying back during the Danish Cartoon embarrassment that it would only be a matter of time before Christians figured out what Muslims already had. Threats of violence are the best way to shut down criticism from the left.

I also remember saying that there was a time when American journalists would have been outraged if they were asked to self censor because of threats by fanatics...of any stripe.

Those were the days.

F.T. Rea said...

Religious fanatics scare me whether they're shooting doctors, burning their own children to death, or blowing themselves up to kill everyone around them.

Scott said...

Calling for Bush to stand trial as a war criminal is a lot different from calling for his assassination or Obama's.

I am for Bush standing trial.

Unknown said...

The irony regarding JFK is that he was shot not by a right wing loonie, but by a pro communist loner who thought he was being too hard on Castro.

Sirhan Sirhan shot RFK, whose progressive compassion probably would have made him sympathetic, in defense of his "country"(Palestine).

That being said, it is nauseating to see the line being blurred between the lunatic fringe and the conservative right. There is a nastiness invading the political dialog that is feeding on itself. I don't think it represents all or most conservatives, but this kind of thing needs to be roundly condemned before we pay a bitter price for it.

pigeater said...

A collection of photos of protestors calling for Bush to be killed as well as documented quotes ect from individuals promoting same.

http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621

It's the old "if a death threat falls in the woods but Jon Stewart isn't there to report it, does the avant garde know it occured" dilema.

Fear of fanatics? Fanatics..not just of the religious stripe, but all fanatics, thrive on fear. That's the reaction they want. If you're not willing to stand up to all of them, even those you might sympathize with on some level, then you might as well go sit in the corner because you're not a serious person.