Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:35:10.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Let Death Seize Upon Them: Populism in Political Prayers of Imprecation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2020

Cynthia Burack Open the ORCID record for Cynthia Burack [Opens in a new window]
Cynthia Burack*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Cynthia Burack, Ohio State University, 286 University Hall, 230 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH43210-1311. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the United States, religious elites routinely use prayer to set and communicate political agendas, shape the opinions of Christian publics, and mobilize political activism. Among political prayers distributed to believers, imprecation is rare. In this paper, I examine a set of cases of imprecatory political prayers publicized since the turn of millennium that have undeniable U.S. political subtexts and objects. Using the work of James Scott and Jan-Werner Müller, I argue that most political prayers of imprecation can fruitfully be read as manifestations of right-wing populism. These prayers reveal a hidden transcript of rage aimed not only at mainstream political arrangements and political elites but also at the comparatively polite discourse characteristic of mainstream U.S. Christian traditions, including much Christian conservatism.

Type
Article
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , September 2020 , pp. 492 - 516
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allen, Bob. 2009. “Drake, Former SBC Officer, Says He's Praying for Obama to Die (Updated).” Baptist News Global. June 3, 2009. https://baptistnews.com/archives/item/4126-drake-former-sbc-officer-says-hes-praying-for-obama-to-die-updated (Accessed on October 10, 2015).Google Scholar
Berlet, Chip, and Lyons, Matthew N.. 2002. Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Brady, Jeff. 2015. “Colorado Springs a Mecca for Evangelical Christians.” NPR. January 17, 2015. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4287106 (Accessed on April 1, 2017).Google Scholar
Burack, Cynthia. 2008. Sin, Sex, and Democracy: Antigay Rhetoric and the Christian Right. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Burack, Cynthia. 2014. “The Politics of a Praying Nation: The Presidential Prayer Team and Christian Right Sexual Morality.” Religion and Popular Culture 26 (2): 215–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canovan, Margaret. 1981. Populism. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Celock, John. 2012. “Mike O'Neal, Kansas House Speaker, Announces Retirement.” Huffington Post. June 1, 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/01/mike-oneal-kansas-house-speaker-retirement_n_1562891.html (Accessed on April 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents. Nd. “Curse Tablets from Roman Britain,” (no date). http://curses.csad.ox.ac.uk/4DLINK2/4DACTION/WebRequestCurseTabletSearch?searchType=latin-index&searchField=CSAD_ID&thisListPosition=0&displayImage=1&displayLatin=1&displayEnglish=1&searchTerm=uley-76 (Accessed on March 7, 2013).Google Scholar
Cohen, Cathy J. 1999. The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooperman, Alan. 2006. “Navy Chaplain Guilty of Disobeying an Order.” Washington Post. September 15, 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401544.html (accessed on April 1, 2017).Google Scholar
Day, John N. 2005. Crying for Justice: What the Psalms Teach Us about Mercy and Vengeance in an Age of Terrorism. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.Google Scholar
De Cleen, Benjamin, and Galanopoulos, Antonis. 2016. “Populism, Nationalism, and Transnationalism.” Open Democracy. October 25, 2016. https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/antonis-galanopoulos-benjamin-de-cleen/you-can-use-populism-to-send-migrants-back (Accessed on January 19, 2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, David A. 2009. “The Prophetic Voice and the Face of the Other in Barack Obama's ‘A More Perfect Union’ Address, March 18, 2008.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 12: 167–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frazer, James George. Nd. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Chapter Three, Part 1: “The Principles of Magic” (University of Virginia Electronic Text Center). http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=FraGold.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=4&division=div2 (Accessed on March 10, 2013).Google Scholar
Gibson, David. 2012. “Praying for God to Hurt Someone is Not Illegal, Judge Rules.” Washington Post. April 16, 2012. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/praying-for-god-to-hurt-someone-is-not-illegal-judge-rules/2012/04/06/gIQAae5B0S_story.html?utm_term=.2c6c1babc509 (Accessed on April 22, 2015).Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1986. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York, NY: Touchstone.Google Scholar
Hardy, Thomas. 2001. The Mayor of Casterbridge: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Ingersoll, Julie J. 2015. Building God's Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Josephson, Jyl J., and Burack, Cynthia. 2006. “Inside, Out, and In-Between: Sexual Minorities, the Christian Right, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.” In Religion, Politics, and American Identity: New Directions, New Controversies, eds. Gutterman, David S. and Murphy, Andrew R.. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 247–265.Google Scholar
Kaminer, Wendy. 2009. “Murder, He Said.” The Atlantic. October 16, 2009. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2009/10/murder-he-said/28577/ (Accessed on January 31, 2019).Google Scholar
Laney, J. Carl Laney. 1981. “A Fresh Look at the Imprecatory Psalms.” Bibliotheca Sacra 138: 35–45.Google Scholar
Lobell, Jarrett A. 2012. “Curses!” September/October, 2012. http://archive.archaeology.org/1209/trenches/ancient_roman_lead_tablets_curses.html (Accessed on March 7, 2013).Google Scholar
Marley, David John. 2007. Pat Robertson: An American Life. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Miller, David. 2011. “Wiley Drake, Imprecatory Prayers and President Obama.” SBC Voices. June 25, 2011. http://sbcvoices.com/wiley-drake-imprecatory-prayers-and-president-obama/ (Accessed on October 10, 2015).Google Scholar
Montgomery, Peter. 2017a. “Lou Engle Calls for God to Take Out Judges Who Uphold Abortion Rights.” (People for the American Way). http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/lou-engle-calls-for-god-to-take-out-judges-who-uphold-abortion-rights/ (Accessed on October 7, 2017).Google Scholar
Montgomery, Peter. 2017b. “POTUS Shield: Trump's Dominionist Prayer Warriors and the ‘Prophetic Order of the United States.’” (People for the American Way). http://www.rightwingwatch.org/report/potus-shield-trumps-dominionist-prayer-warriors-and-the-prophetic-order-of-the-united-states/ (Accessed on October 7, 2017).Google Scholar
Müller, Jan-Werner. 2017. What is Populism? London: Penguin Random House.Google Scholar
Murphy, Roland E. 1993. “Psalms.” In The Oxford Companion to the Bible, eds. Coogan, Michael D. and Metzger, Bruce. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 626–629.Google Scholar
Nehrbass, Daniel Michael. 2013. Praying Curses: The Therapeutic and Preaching Value of the Imprecatory Psalms. Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications.Google Scholar
Novick, Tzvi. 2010. “Succeeding Judas: Exegesis in Acts 1:15–26.” Journal of Biblical Literature 129 (4): 795–799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obama, Barack. 2008. “A More Perfect Union,” Politico. March 18, 2008. http://www.politico.com/story/2008/03/transcript-of-obama-speech-009100 (Accessed on July 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2008. “Obama Weathers the Wright Storm, Clinton Faces Credibility Problem.” March 27, 2008. http://www.people-press.org/2008/03/27/section-1-rev-wright-and-obamas-race-and-religion/ (Accessed on February 2, 2016).Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2019. “With High Levels of Prayer, U.S. is an Outlier Among Wealthy Nations.” May 1, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/01/with-high-levels-of-prayer-u-s-is-an-outlier-among-wealthy-nations/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=9041e15b72-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_02_08_54&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-9041e15b72-399484645 (Accessed on May 7, 2019).Google Scholar
POTUS Shield. Nd. “Mission.” http://www.potusshield.org/mission.html (Accessed on July 3, 2017).Google Scholar
Robertson, Pat. Nd a. “Press Releases: Operation Supreme Court Freedom,” The Official Site of Pat Robertson. http://www.patrobertson.com/pressreleases/supremecourt/asp (Accessed on January 2, 2013).Google Scholar
Robertson, Pat. Nd b. “The Official Site of Pat Robertson.” http://www.patrobertson.com/ (Accessed on December 22, 2012).Google Scholar
Ross, Brian, and El-Buri, Rehab. 2008. “Obama's Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11.” ABC News. March 13, 2008. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/DemocraticDebate/story?id=4443788 (Accessed on September 9, 2015).Google Scholar
Rowland, Robert C., and Jones, John M.. 2011. “One Dream: Barack Obama, Race, and the American Dream.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 14 (1): 125–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, James C. 1990. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sementelli, Nick. Nd. “Tell House Speaker Mike O'Neal Who Prayed for the President's Death to Resign.” (SignOn.org). http://signon.org/sign/tell-house-speaker-mike (Accessed on March 8, 2013).Google Scholar
Tashman, Brian. 2017. “Alex Jones Asks God to Destroy Alec Baldwin.” People for the American Way. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-asks-god-to-destroy-alec-baldwin/ (Accessed on March 15, 2017).Google Scholar
Tucker-Worgs, Tamelyn N. 2011. The Black Mega-Church: Theology, Gender, and the Politics of Public Engagement. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Patricia A. 1994. I Heard it Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African-American Culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Angelia R., and Burack, Cynthia. 2012. “‘Where Liberty Reigns and God is Supreme’: The Christian Right and the Tea Party Movement.” New Political Science 34 (2): 172–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Jeremiah, Nd. “Confusing God and Government.” BlackPast.org. http://www.blackpast.org/2008-rev-jeremiah-wright-confusing-god-and-government (Accessed on October 14, 2015).Google Scholar
Youngblood, Kevin J. 2011. “Don't Get Even, Get Mad! Imprecatory Prayer as a Neglected Spiritual Discipline: (Psalm 69).” Leaven 19 (3): 153–157.Google Scholar