“At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do, it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”
-- President Barrack Obama at a memorial for the victims of the Tuscon, Ariz. shooting, Jan. 11, 2011.
What the hell is the matter with Kansas?
A man representing our state, its legislature and people thought it would be cute to forward an email, praying for the death of our president. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/1116/biblical-anti-obama-slogan-use-of-psalm-1098-funny-or-sinister Kansas Speaker of the House Mike O’ Neal said he had at last found a “Biblical prayer for our president.” He then quotes Psalm 109:8:
"Let his days be few; and let another take his office. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children."
What a sterling example of our Middle American Heartland values – faith, family and good old fashioned Kansas pragmatism. The man doesn’t like President Obama’s politics so he uses God and the Bible to justify wanting him dead. This compassionate, conservative Christian wants God to make Michele a widow and Sasha and Malia, orphans.
Invoking God and a religious text to wish death on a human being – I thought only radical Muslims did that. But I’ve found that many right-thinking Christian conservatives believe praying for the death of those evil, unsaved elements destroying America is under God’s umbrella. Take my fat friend, Mr. Grissmachy, for example.
Mr. Grissmachy, an old guy from my hometown, likes to seat his corpulent torso over the stools of the Backwater Bar and Grill and preach God, country and the American Way. Ever since the 9-11 tragedy brought Americans of all stripes together in a harmonious spirit of pride and patriotism, Mr. Grissmachy has been on the warpath against Democrats, liberals, Muslims and everyone else ruining America.
Like many common sense, regular average Joe Americans, Mr. Grissmachy believes Obama is Muslim. He’s not buying Obama’s calm public assertions of being “Christian, by choice.” Nor is he fooled by those falsified birth certificates. Barry Hussein Obama is a radical Muslim, born in Kenya, Indonesia or some such country. He’s not a real American.
America is exceptional to all other countries in history, a Christian nation granted divine providence. Obama is The Other – a man whose presidency possibly signals the end times. He might be the anti-Christ. For these reasons, righteous Americans who believe in Jesus, guns, limited government, state’s rights, Ann Coulter, Ayn Rand and the Tea Party can justify a Christian fatwa against the president. When Obama is dead and Christian sharia is the supreme law of the land, they should all rejoice at that city upon a hill.
Naturally, in a nation founded on laws, many feel wishing death on the president crosses a line. They might be wondering why the Secret Service isn’t knocking on O’Neal’s door. But maybe those people are mistaken and O’Neal is misunderstood.
His response to the backlash is that he was only referring to the first sentence in the scripture, the part about “another taking his office.” He’s only praying that God will elect a new president to the White House in 2012.
Okay, so was O’Neal only talking about first sentence of the verse, as he says now, or was he referring to it “word-for-word,” like he said in his email?
I don’t cut the guy any slack. Only days before his latest hate-mail went out, O’Neal was in the news for another mass email he sent, calling the First Lady, “Mrs. YoMama.”
It’s a bottomless sea of national embarrassment here on the Great Plains. Just when it looks like Texas, Arizona, South Carolina or some other state will become the laughing stock -- the model of bumpkin-ness and intolerance in America – Kansas comes back to claim its place on the throne of backwardness.
I would like to think that most Kansans are not as cruel and mean-spirited as our loud-mouth leaders would lead the public to believe. Then I think of the bumper stickers I’ve seen on the road, reading: “Prayer for Obama: Psalm 109:8.” Now I know what that meant.
O’Neal speaks for the clergymen and church-goers I know in this area who “like” a page calling for Obama’s death on their facebooks. For awhile, there was a preacher in my hometown who said he didn’t think anyone who voted Democrat would make it to Heaven.
I’m embarrassed to have yet another hate monger make the news in my home state, but Kansas is just a slice of Intolerant America. The sentiments of many here were expressed a few years ago by California Southern Baptist pastor, Wiley Drake. In a 2009 interview with Fox News, Drake said he was praying for Obama’s death. http://video.foxnews.com/v/3931975/
Blasphemous prayers that someone dies, crude racial caricatures in emails and Tea Party signs – that’s where we are in America in 2012 a year after the Tuscon, Az. shootings, a couple of days away from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
-- President Barrack Obama at a memorial for the victims of the Tuscon, Ariz. shooting, Jan. 11, 2011.
What the hell is the matter with Kansas?
A man representing our state, its legislature and people thought it would be cute to forward an email, praying for the death of our president. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/1116/biblical-anti-obama-slogan-use-of-psalm-1098-funny-or-sinister Kansas Speaker of the House Mike O’ Neal said he had at last found a “Biblical prayer for our president.” He then quotes Psalm 109:8:
"Let his days be few; and let another take his office. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children."
What a sterling example of our Middle American Heartland values – faith, family and good old fashioned Kansas pragmatism. The man doesn’t like President Obama’s politics so he uses God and the Bible to justify wanting him dead. This compassionate, conservative Christian wants God to make Michele a widow and Sasha and Malia, orphans.
Invoking God and a religious text to wish death on a human being – I thought only radical Muslims did that. But I’ve found that many right-thinking Christian conservatives believe praying for the death of those evil, unsaved elements destroying America is under God’s umbrella. Take my fat friend, Mr. Grissmachy, for example.
Mr. Grissmachy, an old guy from my hometown, likes to seat his corpulent torso over the stools of the Backwater Bar and Grill and preach God, country and the American Way. Ever since the 9-11 tragedy brought Americans of all stripes together in a harmonious spirit of pride and patriotism, Mr. Grissmachy has been on the warpath against Democrats, liberals, Muslims and everyone else ruining America.
Like many common sense, regular average Joe Americans, Mr. Grissmachy believes Obama is Muslim. He’s not buying Obama’s calm public assertions of being “Christian, by choice.” Nor is he fooled by those falsified birth certificates. Barry Hussein Obama is a radical Muslim, born in Kenya, Indonesia or some such country. He’s not a real American.
America is exceptional to all other countries in history, a Christian nation granted divine providence. Obama is The Other – a man whose presidency possibly signals the end times. He might be the anti-Christ. For these reasons, righteous Americans who believe in Jesus, guns, limited government, state’s rights, Ann Coulter, Ayn Rand and the Tea Party can justify a Christian fatwa against the president. When Obama is dead and Christian sharia is the supreme law of the land, they should all rejoice at that city upon a hill.
Naturally, in a nation founded on laws, many feel wishing death on the president crosses a line. They might be wondering why the Secret Service isn’t knocking on O’Neal’s door. But maybe those people are mistaken and O’Neal is misunderstood.
His response to the backlash is that he was only referring to the first sentence in the scripture, the part about “another taking his office.” He’s only praying that God will elect a new president to the White House in 2012.
Okay, so was O’Neal only talking about first sentence of the verse, as he says now, or was he referring to it “word-for-word,” like he said in his email?
I don’t cut the guy any slack. Only days before his latest hate-mail went out, O’Neal was in the news for another mass email he sent, calling the First Lady, “Mrs. YoMama.”
It’s a bottomless sea of national embarrassment here on the Great Plains. Just when it looks like Texas, Arizona, South Carolina or some other state will become the laughing stock -- the model of bumpkin-ness and intolerance in America – Kansas comes back to claim its place on the throne of backwardness.
I would like to think that most Kansans are not as cruel and mean-spirited as our loud-mouth leaders would lead the public to believe. Then I think of the bumper stickers I’ve seen on the road, reading: “Prayer for Obama: Psalm 109:8.” Now I know what that meant.
O’Neal speaks for the clergymen and church-goers I know in this area who “like” a page calling for Obama’s death on their facebooks. For awhile, there was a preacher in my hometown who said he didn’t think anyone who voted Democrat would make it to Heaven.
I’m embarrassed to have yet another hate monger make the news in my home state, but Kansas is just a slice of Intolerant America. The sentiments of many here were expressed a few years ago by California Southern Baptist pastor, Wiley Drake. In a 2009 interview with Fox News, Drake said he was praying for Obama’s death. http://video.foxnews.com/v/3931975/
Blasphemous prayers that someone dies, crude racial caricatures in emails and Tea Party signs – that’s where we are in America in 2012 a year after the Tuscon, Az. shootings, a couple of days away from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
