<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The anonymous Kirk apologist Princess writes:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">"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. . . Metzler's approach here is simply lacking in the charity that is required of a Christian"</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">And the Princess goes on:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">"And since Mr. Metzler brings up <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>'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 <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>. 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.. . ."</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">As usual, the Princess’ lips drip with...something other than sincerity and truth.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Oh my! How dare you claim that I had intentions of defend Doug Wilson!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How presumptuous!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Why, this is not even Christian! </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Perhaps she felt comfortable finally answering me here since I hardly furthered an argument this time around, but rather just directed you to the kind of prayer the Princess *would* be committed to defending.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Ah! There I go again! How unchristian of me to presume that the Princess would want to defend this prayer!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is just putting intentions in her little royal heart! What audacity! How off base my sniffing snoozer was!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I just can’t get anything right anymore.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Now, let me direct your attention to the fact that the Princess does not deny my preliminary claims, answer any arguments (whether explicit or implicit), or explain to us how “obvious” it is that there is a wonderful meaning hidden behind Wilson’s lengthy pleading with God to harm, punish, mutilate, and remove from all grace particular people. The Princess can’t claim that these particular people are unrelenting murderers and rapists, since <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City> is contextually committed to praying these prayers to local critics in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Moscow</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State></st1:place>. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The claim that my bracketed comments suggest an uncharitable reading into <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City>’s meaning is unwarranted, to say the least; they were largely argumentative questions directly made to the natural meaning of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>’s words. The princess writes:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“he puts words into Doug Wilson's mouth based on his assumptions concerning <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>. (Note all the bracketed insertions into the extended quote from <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City>'s blog.)”</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Also curious is the Princess’ worry about *who* the prayer was directed to, since it doesn’t matter to me at all if there were particular people Wilson had in mind when writing this prayer (although the larger context is suggestive). The point is that when someone prays a prayer like this they *are* to have specific people in mind; further, this prayer was explicitly given as a defense for the use of imprecatory prayer of the kind prayed by the Kirk. And when Wilson and the Kirk prays imprecatory prayers *they do* have specific individuals in mind. And as I stated in my original post, and what the Princess has not denied, <st1:City w:st="on">Wilson</st1:City>’s practice of imprecatory prayer has been largely directed to local neighbors in the <st1:City w:st="on">Moscow</st1:City> community, local neighbors who happened to have great public concern about <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:City> doing things like praying imprecatory prayers. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The point is obvious and yet the Princess expends all her/his/their energy trying to simply cover the point up through great concern over my uncharitable suggestion that the Princess was actually interested in defending Doug Wilson’s imprecatory prayers!</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The Princess leaves us with some disturbing words for the contemporary American Christian: </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">“[I]mprecatory 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."</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I dare hope for the Kirk to gain any more *strength*! </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Here again is the prayer for your own consideration; here is the model prayer of imprecation, the kind of prayer Wilson and other Kirkers have prayed against their critics here in our otherwise fairly peaceful small town of <st1:City w:st="on">Mosocw</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Idaho</st1:place></st1:State>. Here is the gospel of peace to the surrounding. . . . “enemy”:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Father, we pray that the angel of the Lord would chase them down. We pray</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">that You would set for them a dark and slippery place, and that the angel</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">of the Lord would persecute them there. They have hated us without any</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">just cause at all, and they have devised all their plots without any good</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">reason. We ask You therefore to rise up and defend us. Stand in the pass</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">behind us, and lower Your spear against them. Turn them back from their</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">wicked attacks. Rout them, we pray. Chase them like chaff in a stiff</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">wind. We pray that You would string Your bow, sharpen Your sword, make</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">ready all the instruments of death. Ordain Your arrows to fly against</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">those who persecute the righteous. Make their mischief to roll back on</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">their own impudent heads.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">. . . Let their table become poisonous to them, let it become a snare.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Let their eyes be darkened, and judicial blindness fall upon them.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">We pray that their eyes would be blinded by You; strike them so that they</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">cannot see. Father, we pray that You would make their loins shake</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">continuously, that they would be seized with fear and amazement. Pour out</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">hot indignation all over them; take hold of them tightly in Your wrathful</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">anger. May their dwellings become empty and desolate—for whenever You</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">chastise anyone else, they love to pile on as though You were not there.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">They persecute the one that You are disciplining, and by their talk they</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">dismay the one who is suffering under Your hand. Add iniquity to their</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">iniquity; make a great heap of their sins. Do not let them enter into</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Your righteousness. Blot them out of the book of the living. Do not</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">record their names alongside the names of the righteous.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">God of our praise, do not hold Your peace. The mouths of the wicked and</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">the mouths of the deceitful have joined in chorus together, and they are</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">speaking against us with lying tongue. They are surrounding us</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">with words of hatred, and they fight against us without good reason</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">. It is because we love You that they are our adversaries</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">, but we still give ourselves to prayer. Not only have we</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">incurred their hostility by loving You, but we have also loved them, and</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">have been treacherously betrayed by them. They returned evil for good,</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">and hatred for love, ingratitude for kindness.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Let these wicked men come under the rule and reign of wicked men. Let</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Satan be continually at their right hand, accusing them. When they come</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">into judgment, when the trial comes, we pray that the verdict of guilty</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">would be rendered. When they cry out to You, let their prayers be</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">reckoned as sinful. When they pray to You, let the ceiling above them</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">remain silent. Cut short their days. When they have abused offices within</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Your Church, let other faithful men rise up to take their place.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Let their children be orphaned, cut off without a father. Let their wives</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">be widows, and we pray that their children would be desolate, having to</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">beg their bread in empty places. We pray that the extortioner would come</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">back at them, catching them in their plots, and taking all that they</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">have. May strangers and aliens pillage them and leave them with nothing.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">We pray that when this happens, and Your hand is evident, that no one</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">would show mercy, and that no kindness would be extended to his</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">fatherless children. Cut off his posterity; may his name and his line</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">come to nothing. Recall how sinful his father was, and call up again the</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">sins of his mother. May their sins come before Your throne continually so</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">that their name may be blotted out, and remembered on the earth no more.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">We ask for this because he is merciless. He loved to kick the poor and</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">downtrodden, and sought to kill the broken-hearted. He loved cursing, and</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">so give him that cursing. He detested blessing, so let blessing remain</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">far away from him. He would put on curses like a comfortable coat; let</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">those curses of his seep into him deeply. Tie those curses around him</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">permanently. Let this be the clothing of all our enemies.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Let them curse, so long as You bless. When they get up in the morning,</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">and hear of the blessings You have bestowed on us, let them be greatly</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">ashamed. Let confusion cover over them completely, as though it were a</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">mantle. I pray that You stand at our right hand, and that You would</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">always save us from those who would condemn our souls.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">We offer this pray to You in the righteous and holy name of the Lord</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Jesus Christ, and amen.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Posted by Douglas Wilson - 11/24/2006 1:04:30 PM | Link to this post |</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Print this post”</P>
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