Should Christians Pray for the Death of President Obama?

Although the Republicans have been going at it for several months, we are not yet into the heat of the presidential race, and already some Christians are praying for the early demise of President Obama.

When I say, “demise,” I mean death.

At least that’s the implication of the recent email sent by Mike O’Neal, the Republican speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives. That email followed a previous one in which O’ Neal had referred to Michelle Obama as “Mrs. Yomama.”

I doubt O’Neal will be a dinner guest at White House any time soon.

O’Neal is not the first to invoke a prayer for the early exit of President Obama. Soon after his election, some conservative Christians circulated a bumper sticker which called on Christians to pray, tongue-in-cheek, for the president: The “prayer” cites Psalm 109:8, a Bible verse in the
form of a “prayer for Obama,” which says, “May his days be few; may another take
his office.”

O’Neal’s email was an extension of that bumper sticker mentality.

The problem is in the phrase, which neither O’Neal nor the bumper sticker purveyors quote directly, but which immediately follows their scriptural citation. It reads: “May his children become fatherless, and his wife a widow. May his children wander as beggars and be driven from their ruined homes.”

Although O’Neal issued an apology saying he only meant that Obama’s days in office be few, the Scripture, taken in context (and O’Neal is apparently interested in the context for his email stated, “At last — I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up — it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an AMEN? AMEN!!!!!!”) calls not just for the cessation of employment, in this case the presidency, but for the cessation of life for the person of interest, the enemy---in this case President Obama.

For centuries thoughtful Christians have struggled with this passage, since Christians are not supposed to curse their enemies. The psalm is part of a group of psalms called “imprecatory psalms,” because they call on God to deal with enemies, in some cases, as in Psalm 109, by removing them from planet Earth. Many of the Early Church Fathers dealt with the problem by interpreting this psalm as a prophesy of Judas, since Peter quoted it in the upper room after the suicide of Jesus’ traitor.


Christian apologist and philosopher, C.S. Lewis, spoke of how Psalm 109 “strikes us in the face…like the heat from a furnace mouth.” Lewis pointed to the spirit of hatred expressed in these psalms as a way of reminding us of the evil that resides within each of us, directing us to the humility and love we find in the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.

Certainly Christians should be mindful that Christ’s love prevails over hatred and evil. But, in regard to the Scripture O’Neil and other Christians like to cite in hopes of a convenient termination of the Obama administration, they should be mindful that the interpretation of this psalm hinges around verse 6, where the cursing of the enemy begins. Some maintain that David, traditionally believed to be the author of the psalm, is not cursing anyone but is rather quoting those who are cursing him. Indeed, some modern translations, like the New Living Translation, supply the words, “They say,” at the beginning of verse six.

In that case, by citing this passage, O’Neal and certain right-wing Christians are actually siding with the enemies of King David, the ones who made the false accusations against God’s anointed one, the ones David cried to God for help and protection against, the ones who prompted David to pray: “Let them curse me if they like, but you (God) will bless me!” (Psalm 109:28)

By analogy to the current situation, Obama would be the one falsely accused by the enemies of God---in this case, the Christian right.

Those summoning God to respond to their “Obama prayer” of Psalm 109 should not only reflect on the legitimization of calling on a loving, forgiving, merciful God to slay another Christian (President Obama is a professing Christian, regardless of what one thinks of his political agenda), but they should also be mindful, as they so cavalierly quote Scripture, of whose side they find themselves on.

Praying for the judgment of an enemy is easy.

But loving one is Christian.

And thoroughly biblical.