Praying For God To Hurt Someone Is Not Illegal, Judge Rules

By David Gibson
Religion News Service

(RNS) Is it okay to ask God to do harm to another person? The theology of such "imprecatory prayer" may be a matter of debate, but a Dallas judge has ruled it is legal, at least as long as no one is actually threatened or harmed.

District Court Judge Martin Hoffman on Monday (April 2) dismissed a lawsuit brought by Mikey Weinstein against a former Navy chaplain who he said used "curse" prayers like those in Psalm 109 to incite others to harm the Jewish agnostic and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and his family.

Hoffman said there was no evidence that the prayers by Gordon Klingenschmitt, who had been endorsed for the Navy chaplaincy by the Dallas-based Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches, were connected to threats made against Weinstein and his family or damage done to his property.

According to the lawsuit, Klingenschmitt posted a prayer on his website urging followers to pray for the downfall of MRFF.

"I praise God for religious freedom because the judge declared it's OK to pray imprecatory prayers and quote Psalm 109," Klingenschmitt said after the ruling, according to The Dallas Morning News. Psalm 109 calls for the death of an opponent and curses on his widow and children, among other things.

Hoffman's ruling did not actually turn on constitutional questions as much as it did on Weinstein's claims that the prayers incited the threats and vandalism.

Weinstein, a former Air Force lawyer who started the foundation to battle what he sees as undue religious influence in the armed forces, said Friday (April 6) that "a very aggressive appeal is highly likely." He said he has received numerous death threats, had swastikas painted on his house, and that his windows have been shot out and animal carcasses left on his doorstep as a result of his activism.

"We are disappointed in the ruling because we believe the judge made a mistake in not understanding that imprecatory prayers are code words for trolling for assassins for the Weinstein family," Weinstein said. "I don't think the judge understood that these are not regular prayers," he added, comparing imprecatory prayer to a radical Islamic fatwa.

Imprecatory prayers have a long if complicated history in religious traditions. But this type of prayer, and Psalm 109 in particular, has become a hot topic since President Obama's election as a number of religious conservatives have invoked it against him.

In the most recent case, the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Kansas, Mike O'Neal, sparked an outcry in January when he sent Psalm 109 to Republican colleagues, writing, "At last -- I can honestly voice a biblical prayer for our president!"

"Thankfully, the district court recognized that if people are forced to stop offering imprecatory prayers, half the churches, synagogues and mosques in this country will have to be shut down," said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a legal advocacy group that helped defend the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches.

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Comments

[Kyrani99]

01:42 PM on 07/01/2012

I have used imprecatory prayer or what I call counter pathological ideas to protect myself and my property and ward off harm as you can see here on my blog http://kyrani99.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/solutions-what-you-can-do-to-prevent-heart-problems/
have a look at the bottom of this post.

One thing I have to add about this case in this article is that "calls for the death of an opponent and curses on his widow and children" is NOT VALID and wouldn't work anyway. You cannot curse / or apply any negative mental volition to someone who has not done any crimes and it doesn't matter how closely related they are to the offender. Only where there is a debt will it work.

[Kyrani99]

01:35 PM on 07/01/2012

An imprecatory prayer is 100% legitimate because when a crime is committed a debt is incurred. That debt is 100% collectable IN THE MENTAL / SPIRITUAL REALM and only those wronged can collect, under normal conditions. Nothing needs to nor should be done in the physical realm. Even the intent to do a crime / violation is a crime and incurs a debt. You can use this debt to counter an offender before they can do the actual crime. I have used this

[El Justiciero]

08:12 AM on 04/17/2012

This honestly sounds like some black magic hoodoo to me. When did the military start letting satanists preach?

[El Justiciero]

10:38 PM on 04/16/2012

What country is this in? Afghanistan? Iraq? Iran? Oh, TEXAS. . . that explains it.
I pray Gordon Klingenschmitt gets painful genital warts and a bad case of hemorrhoids.

[Nathaneal Green]

07:59 PM on 04/16/2012

I'll wonder how many judges claimed their dockets were too full and they could not possibly handle this case? What an odd lawsuit.

[LeighAnne P]

12:52 PM on 04/16/2012

"Thankfully, the district court recognized that if people are forced to stop offering imprecatory prayers, half the churches, synagogues and mosques in this country will have to be shut down," said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute

HALF of the religious circles are cursing people??? I hope not!!!

[pragview13]

05:22 PM on 04/15/2012

Klingenschmitt and O'Neal are cut from the same cloth. To use prayer in this way is wrong - fortunately, prayers like this don't seem to work. Unfortuately, some people that listen to these wingnuts take it into their own hands to make the prayer a reality. And this, is where the true evil lies.

[rtgmath]

07:10 PM on 04/14/2012

"I praise God for religious freedom because the judge declared it's OK to pray imprecatory prayers and quote Psalm 109," Klingenschmitt said after the ruling, according to The Dallas Morning News. Psalm 109 calls for the death of an opponent and curses on his widow and children, among other things.

Wow. A strictly Old-Testament "Christian." Let's see. Romans 12:17-18 "Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people."

Luke 11:4 "and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us."

Matthew 5:44-45 "But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven."

Matthew 6:14-15 "For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins."

This chaplain does not follow Christ.

[kfodom]

01:40 AM on 04/16/2012

Amen.

[crydespite]

09:21 AM on 04/14/2012

I bet God is breathing a huge sigh of relief just now.

But seriously this is about as through the looking glass as I've seen this year: someone takes the Navy to court to stop them doing something they don't believe could possibly happen, and a judge says it's ok as long as nothing, er, actually happens? I agree with Weinstein that the Chaplains have no business doing this (because they actually do believe it would work) but I'm not sure a court case was going to help and in fact the outcome is just ludicrous.

[SoldAmerican]

12:24 AM on 04/14/2012

Eating your own _feces is also legal!

[SoldAmerican]

11:09 PM on 04/13/2012

J_esus is eviI... he is more responsible for all these evangeIicals

[SoldAmerican]

11:08 PM on 04/13/2012

Evangelicals are Sh!!!butts!

[SoldAmerican]

11:08 PM on 04/13/2012

Evangelicals are m0 f0s

[SoldAmerican]

11:06 PM on 04/13/2012

I pray that all evangelical Chirches bu rn and fall!

[SoldAmerican]

11:12 PM on 04/13/2012

For they are as ev!I as the TaI!beenies.