Prayer for Justice’s Death
The Rev. J. Richard Olivas of the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles is exhorting his congregation to pray for the death of Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. because of his position on abortion.
Since when did Christians feel they had to pray for the death of another? It goes back to Christ’s time, and those who did received a sharp rebuke. The apostles learned early on how Christ felt about praying for another’s death.
In the Gospel of Luke (Luke 9:52-55) the apostles, James and John, went ahead of Christ to a Samaritan village to make arrangements for Him. The Samaritans did not receive Him there, Verse 54: “And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven to consume them?”
Verse 55: “But He turned and rebuked them.”
As Christians we must support and pray for Justice Brennan as an individual created by God even though we do not support his 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade, legalizing abortion.
We must always pray with great wisdom. We can pray that Justice Brennan has a change of heart. We can pray for his salvation, and we can pray for his removal from office. But we are not called by Christ to pray for another’s death.
MISTYN J. TWITCHELL
San Francisco
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