Humanism, atheism and other freedoms

A group of Christians is working hard to bring about the deaths of members of an organisation dedicated to protecting the US Constitution. Wiley Drake, a Southern Baptist pastor, is leading his flock in so-called imprecatory prayers – or curses, if you prefer – as part of an attack against Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Okay, the use of the word ‘terrorists’ in the headline might seem hyperbolic. People resort to this term far too readily these days. But I wanted to highlight how a group of people, calling themselves Christians and therefore (one assumes) signed up to concepts such as loving one’s enemy and turning the other cheek, seem all to ready to embrace violence. In this case, their chosen agent of terror might be an imaginary friend, but the lethal intent is clear, nevertheless.

As Americans United points out:

Drake directed his followers to Psalms 109 (as well as Psalms 55, 58, 68, 69 and 83) for examples of imprecatory prayers.

Verses from those texts ask God to bring death and destruction to those targeted.

“Let his days be few; and let another take his office,” says one passage. “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg.”

Another passage says, “Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell.”

The language of Drake’s email to his parishioners is even less ambiguous. He talks of going “into action” and says “let us do battle”. He also mentions certain members of Americans United by name and ends the email bizarrely, and somewhat chillingly, with, “Let us pray and see what our God will do. How is their health, by the way ?????”.

And why is Drake so consumed with homicidal passion? The reason is that Americans United has filed a complaint against him with the IRS, alleging that Drake has used his church for political ends – activity that would affect its tax exemption. According to the complaint, Drake used both letters on church stationery and his radio programme to support presidential loser Mike Huckabee.

At one level, this whole affair might seem just a little silly. This summoning of god to smite an enemy is hilariously primitive. It is a stunningly clear illustration of how certain species of Christian regress so easily to the uncivilised superstition of the stone age. And the direct effect of this call to prayer will be precisely … nothing. That’s always the result of relying on a mythical entity to do your dirty work. One presumes the same people prayed for Huckabee’s success, and look how much good that did.

But there could be more serious consequences. One can easily imagine one of the more unhinged members of Drake’s congregation taking it into his or her head to become the agent of god, to assist the deity by being his corporeal representative. Drake’s words could be just the catalyst to push some angry Christian into lethal action.

Christians usually insist that theirs is a loving faith, that Jesus was a prophet of peace. And by and large they might be right. But a religion is not defined by cherry-picked citations from your favourite scriptures or by pointing to the actions of a few. It is defined by how the faith is applied, by the behaviour of those who follow the faith. And again, this means all the followers, not just those some might deem the ‘true’ believers.

Muslims often try to dismiss Islamist terrorists as perverting the true spirit of the Qur’an. Similarly, I’m sure there will be many Christians ready to condemn Drake’s extremist exploitation of the Bible, at his attempt to coerce god into acting as his hitman.

The point they cannot evade, however, is that the scriptures fully support this bizarre form of Christian terrorism. One could argue that Drake’s aggressive use of curses is as valid a form of Christianity as any other. Those phrases are right there in the Bible, an approved resource at the disposal of any Christian. And this canon is now pointed squarely at the heads of Americans United.

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