Pray Obama...Fails? Not a chance!

Unbelievable! I guess nothing should surprise me any longer, but I was surprised by the following headline sent in an email from KSLR here in San Antonio (the local AM Christian radio station): "PRAY OBAMA FAILS."

As someone who voted for McCain, Obama's victory has challenged me to put my own understanding of the civil realm into practice--I know I'm not alone. With every election votes are cast for the candidate who looses, and what are his or her supporters left to do? At least one Christian, Joseph Farah, thinks the answer is to "PRAY OBAMA FAILS." Seriously, I've heard of sore loosers before, but this guys seems to have gone too far. Check it out for yourself: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86469.

Apparently, Mr. Farah has already made up his mind that President(-elect, until later today) Obama is one of the "leaders" spoken of in Isaiah 9:16: "For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed." Really, Mr. Farah, is it really that simple?

If what you say is true, Mr. Farah, than the petition prayed this past Sunday at the altar where I serve would make me and all who prayed with me, "soft-minded believers." You say that "many American Christians believe, as an article of faith, that we are to pray for the success of our leaders. It has become a sort of conventional wisdom among soft-minded believers (emphasis added)."

Allow me to disagree, Mr. Farah. A soft-minded believer would be a Christian that prays for his or her country's president to fail because of differing opinions of preferred policy. Praying that Obama would receive wisdom from on high in order to lead this country into a prosperous future, and that he be surrounded with other leaders that also seek to serve is not a cowardly conclusion based on a misreading of Scripture. It is the prayer of faithful Christians who are killing the fleshly desire to get revenge because their man didn't win the election. It is the prayer, no doubt, that brave men like Dietrich Bonhoffer prayed, even as they struggled to determine their own faithful course of action.

Of course, the prayer book of the Scriptures itself (Psalms) contains prayers for the destruction of enemies--but in those cases, it seems to me that the enemy is not man's but God's. I wonder what it is that has caused Mr. Farah to conclude that Obama can be clearly labeled as an "evil leader"--and one of God's enemies. To me, it sounds like angry flesh talking.

Mr. Farah is free to pray as he wills, but he has failed convinced me. While I surely don't agree with much of the policy that the 44th President has promised to inact, I will continue to root for him, and pray that his leadership is guided by a higher wisdom than my own. But to pray that he fails? I know he's from Chicago, but unless he played second base for the Chicago Cubs, that won't be my prayer, and I hope it's not yours!