A Republican senator mocked President Barack Obama today using a Bible verse that calls for the his days “to be few,” seemingly unaware that the dark passage also asks God to kill enemies and curse their offspring.
While addressing attendees of the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference on Friday, Georgia Senator David Perdue — like many speakers at the convention — spent some time criticizing the president. During his remarks, however, Perdue also encouraged listeners to use a specific Bible verse when praying for Obama.
“I think we should pray for Barack Obama,” he said. “And I think we need to be very specific about how we pray. We should pray like Psalm 109:8 says: it says, ‘let his days be few.’”
The very next verse reads ‘May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.’
Perdue only referenced verse 8, which reads “May his days be few; may another seize his position.” But the senator declined to note that Psalm 109 is well known among Biblical scholars as a call for God to not only kill the author’s enemies, but also curse their family for generations. The very next verse reads “May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow,” followed by “May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.”
The darker section of the scripture, pulled from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, is excerpted below:
May his days be few; may another seize his position.
May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
Attendees at the event defended Perdue’s use of the passage as a joke, but many acknowledged that it might have been a poor choice of scripture.
“He didn’t quote the whole thing,” Sancha Smith, Louisiana state director of Concerned Women for America, told ThinkProgress. “I took it as a joke. He was trying to be light-hearted about it.”
“I wouldn’t have used it,” she added.
“I don’t know what his spiritual life is,” Chase Davis, student at Georgia Southern University, said. “Maybe if someone told him, then he probably wouldn’t have done it.”
The verse has been used by other GOP lawmakers to criticize Obama in the past. In 2012, Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal (R) forwarded an email to supporters directing them to a bumper sticker that quotes Psalm 109:8, saying, “At last — I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up — it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an AMEN? AMEN!!!!!!”
O’Neal refused to apologize for the email, saying that he was only referring to the “days be few” section lifted out of context. Indeed, the anti-Obama biblical meme can be traced back to the earliest days of his presidency, when conservatives began tweeting the message and printing it on bumper stickers. A November 2009 article from the Christian Science Monitor noted that at least some of the meme’s proponents were unaware of the larger context of the passage.
This practice is sometimes referred to by religion scholars as “proof texting,” or quoting a section of scripture to make a point without providing adequate context. It’s a common tactic used by some conservative Christians to criticize those they disagree with, such as when Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson attempted to use scripture to argue that Americans only had two options for confronting ISIS soldiers: convert them to Christianity or kill them. Ironically, the same logic is used by ISIS itself to justify slaughtering Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities.
Update:
David Perdue’s spokeswoman has issued a statement about the his comment, saying the senator “in no way wishes harm towards our president” before chastising the media.
“Senator Purdue said we are called to pray for our country, for our leaders, and for our president,” the statement read. “He in no way wishes harm towards our president and everyone in the room understood that. However, we should add the media to our prayer list because they are pushing a narrative to create controversy and that is exactly what the American people are tired of.”
David Perdue spokeswoman Caroline Vanvick responds in an email: "He in no way wishes harm towards our president" pic.twitter.com/PPj5jtZv0n
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 10, 2016