[Vision2020] the Princess, Part 5 (Imprecatory Prayer)

[Taro Tanaka]

Mr. Metzler puts words in my mouth. He claims I wrote in defense of Doug 
Wilson; however, I made no mention of Doug Wilson. As usual, Mr. Metzler 
assumes too much. He still believes in the infallibility of old Pater 
Nostril. He not only puts words in my mouth based on his assumptions 
concerning me, he puts words into Doug Wilson's mouth based on his 
assumptions concerning Wilson. (Note all the bracketed insertions into the 
extended quote from Wilson's blog.)

Metzler's approach here is simply lacking in the charity that is required of 
a Christian.

With regard to Metzler's perceived true intent" and perceived "true target" 
of Wilson's prayer (note that Wilson names no names in his prayer), if the 
shoe fits . . . .

.. . . . if the shoe fits, please DON'T wear it, but rather, please examine 
yourself humbly before God and repent, and seek God's mercy, without which 
no man shall find salvation.

And since Mr. Metzler brings up Wilson's recent prayer posted online, let me 
state the obvious and acknowledge that there are ways of reading this prayer 
that would lead one to conclude it is an evil prayer. However, such a 
reading is either uncharitable or not biblically informed, or both, and 
reveals more about the person making the interpretation than it does about 
Wilson. There is also a charitable and biblically informed way of reading 
this prayer which does not lead one to condemn the person who made it. For 
example, the use of the word "curse" [from beginning to end, Wilson's prayer 
is essentially a concatenation of imprecatory prayer passages in the Bible] 
needs to be understood in its biblical context. God repeatedly brought 
curses upon the ancient nation of Israel for that nation's disobedience, but 
those were not brought for the purpose of bringing about Israel's damnation. 
Just the opposite was the case. There is no justification for reading into 
Wilson's imprecatory prayer the notion that he is calling for the eternal 
damnation of anyone.

In closing, let me repeat, I commented above on Wilson's use of imprecatory 
prayer only because Mr. Metzler brought it up. It was not in view when I 
responded to Keely. Even if one took the position that Wilson's particular 
use of imprecatory prayer is sinful, it would remain a fact that in 
principal imprecatory prayer is not only justifiable for the Christian, it 
is necessary, and its neglect is not a good thing. The fact that Christians 
fail to properly understand and use imprecatory prayer probably accounts for 
a considerable amount of the weakness experienced by Christian churches 
today.

-- Princess Sushitushi

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