Imprecatory prayer
From RationalWiki
Imprecatory prayer is prayer asking God to kill, maim, curse, send into eternal damnation, or otherwise harm an enemy. In the United States imprecatory prayer is most often invoked by both sides before an important football game.
"Love your enemies"? Not a chance. The teachings of Jesus go out the window here. Those who say imprecatory prayer is scriptural point to Psalms, which contains several such prayers.
The practice seems to be increasing in popularity lately:
- Dr. Wiley Drake, of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California, has decided to publicly "ask the children of God to go into action with imprecatory prayer" to try to get God to curse his enemies for him.[1][2][3]
- Peter J. Peters leads his radio listeners in an imprecatory prayer against the "enemies of God" almost every show.
- Fred Phelps says an imprecatory prayer against the whole world every hour, by the sound of it.
On the other hand, proponents of name it and claim it theology teach that the words that come out of your mouth are a "creative force" which actually speaks something into being. Therefore, they warn, watch what you say because anything you say can work against you as an imprecatory prayer. According to this teaching, if you say, "I don't feel so good today", you have just literally prayed an imprecatory prayer over yourself making yourself sick.[citation needed] Don't say "damn it!" either because saying so is praying an imprecatory prayer over your current situation asking God to send you (or whomever) to Hell. So say only positive things which will speak health and wealth into your life, or don't say anything at all.
