Prayer… With A Vengeance

I don’t think I’ve ever prayed for someone else’s downfall. At least, not in the specific. This is apparently reason number 589 that I wouldn’t really fit in at First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, where they pray for vengeance.
Dear God,: Please let my orthodontist get hit by a car. Love, Jimmy
Prayer for opponent's misfortune finds little support

Until last week, "imprecatory prayer" was not in many people's vocabularies.

But then Rev. Wiley S. Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, urged his supporters to use Psalm 109 to focus prayers directed at the "enemies of God" -- including the leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Drake was urging the use of imprecatory prayer -- prayers for another's misfortune or for vengeance against God's enemies. Now such prayer is the talk of blogs and letters to the editor.

The controversy flared Aug. 14, the day the Washington-based group asked the Internal Revenue Service to probe the tax-exempt status of Drake's congregation.

Churches, as tax-exempt organizations, are prohibited from campaigning for candidates. Drake had earlier issued a statement on a church letterhead endorsing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican presidential candidate.

Drake told his supporters that he attempted to talk to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State about the issue. He cited a verse from the Gospel of Matthew that says "if your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you." Drake said his efforts were rebuffed.

"Now that all efforts have been exhausted, we must begin our Imprecatory Prayer, at the key points of the parliamentary role in the earth where we live," Drake wrote.

The article goes on to consult with various religious experts about what their faith tells them about praying for someone’s demise. Here’s what the rabbi has to say:

Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein, of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, said the kind of prayer called for by Drake is not "normative" in Jewish tradition.

"We ask God certainly to do justice and to bring those who are errant to justice, but what I would consider an imprecatory prayer is not normative in Judaism," he said. "There is a difference between saying, 'May the wicked be brought to justice,' and 'May John Smith be cursed.' When we start naming names, that takes 'prayer' to an entirely different level."

Full story

It’s interesting to me that so often in the Bible there’s discussion of how bad things should happen to our enemies, but we’re not allowed to request it specifically. Why is this? And why do we even care of some guy is telling people to pray for other’s misfortune. Do we think God is up there going, “Well, if you say so…”? Doesn’t God have a reasonably good moral compass?

I think it’s clear that Wiley Drake is an asshat, but I’m still not sure why imprecatory prayer is so bad. I’m not particularly tempted to go out cursing people anyway, but I don’t see what difference it makes. If people want to let off steam by praying for Osama Bin Laden’s death, or even if they want to wish that their algebra teacher gets scabies…who cares?