Image by thisisbossi via Flickr

Here is a disturbing new trend appearing in America:

There’s a new slogan making its way onto car bumpers and across the Internet. It reads simply: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8”

A nice sentiment?

Maybe not.

The psalm reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”

Presidential criticism through witty slogans is nothing new. Bumper stickers, t-shirts, and hats with “1/20/09” commemorated President Bush’s last day in office.

But the verse immediately following the psalm referenced is a bit more ominous: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

How “Christian” of them. Not really. Psalms is one of the greatest books in the Bible to twist and mangle into your own beliefs. It deals mainly with human emotions, which makes it easy to twist and mangle into anyone’s own belief.

Let me expand on that. Psalms 109 starts off with:

“I love them, but even while I am praying for them, they are trying to destroy me”

(Psalms 109:4)

I don’t think any of the people proudly displaying this bumper sticker would have actually prayed or loved Obama. If these were people who voted for and supported Obama then I could see it, but only if they read the first two paragraphs of Psalms 109.

Once you get to the end of Psalms 109, it states why this person is praying for the demise of the individual targeted in Psalms 109:8:

“But I will give repeated thanks to the Lord, praising him to everyone. For he stands beside the poor and hungry to save them from their enemies”

(Psalms 109:30-31)

So are we to believe the hate filled right wing extremists, who would purchase and proudly display such a saying, are actually caring about the poor and hungry? Most likely these are the same people who go out and protest any attempt at the government actually giving help to the needy.

This is just another example of how the right claims to be Christian, but only to the extent that they can totally mangle the words of God to their own fulfillment. It’s obvious anyone who believes in this bumper sticker hasn’t read Psalms 109, let alone the Bible. Since we are talking about a gross misrepresentation of the words of God then this can easily be considered blasphemy.