FRC Pleads With God to Stop Obamacare

September 23, 2013 by 31 Comments

The whole concept of prayer has long amused me. How many people do you suppose are praying every day that Obamacare will be scuttled? At least a million, I’d guess. The Family Research Council has repeatedly told their followers to pray for it and even given them the exact language. Here’s the latest:

Father, have mercy! We have groaned at the thought of this threat since it was passed in 2009, yet far worse is to come, unless You intervene. Americans are confused, and few understand this. Please forgive our sins that justify such bondage, and deliver us. Stir Americans who do understand to speak out during the short two weeks ahead! Grant our Congressmen the courage, will and unction to vote to defund Obamacare and to explain their reasons clearly to the American people. Intervene to prevent further lies and manipulation to advance a socialist system that Americans do not want. Lord, You are our Healer and the Hope of our nation! (Ex 2:24; 4:15; 6:5; 15:26; Josh 1:7; Neh 9:26-31; Is 58:1; Dan 9:3-17; Mt 21:22; Jn 14:13; 15:16; 16:23; Act 7:34; Rev 12:11)

Translation: Look, we’ve been asking you this for a long time and you haven’t done a thing. We really, really mean it this time, we need you to do something. But of course, when “he” doesn’t do anything, that will do absolutely nothing to diminish their faith in the power of prayer. As Dan Barker says, nothing fails like prayer — but that fact never seems to have any effect at all on believers.

Filed Under: Wingnuttia 31 Comments
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After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

  • http://www.electricminstrel.com Brett McCoy

    But are there more people praying for some kind of relief, so they can get healthcare? It’s a battle of wills! Which side will God take?

  • http://howlandbolton.com richardelguru

    I keep praying that people will stop praying, but it doesn’t help.

  • raven

    I really don’t see why they are so focused on Obamacare.

    It simply isn’t that big a deal. It is a private insurance exchange. Basically an extension of what we have now. and modeled on Romneycare, a system set up in Massachusetts years ago without the world ending.

    It is likely the fundie death cultists and Tea Partiers will end up being heavy users of it. They tend to be poor, uneducated, and stupid. one of the demographics without health insurance now. In fact, there are reports already that this will happen.

    Probably they just need something to hate and babble on about. Fundie xianity is boring. Their all powerful Sky Fairy never shows up and does nothing.

  • Larry

    #2

    Why would you want them to stop praying? It keeps them from doing something, you know, effective.

  • cthulhusminion

    Unfortunately for them, I prayed for God to not answer any more prayers

  • eamick

    Father, have mercy! We have groaned at the thought of this threat since it was passed in 2009

    Maybe the Big Guy hasn’t intervened because He isn’t sure what they’re talking about? Obamacare was passed and signed into law in 2010.

  • raven

    Lord, You are our Healer and the Hope of our nation!

    A bunch of meaningless bible quotes taken out of context. The bible Sky Fairy was focused on Israel, not the USA, which didn’t even exist yet.

    And factually wrong. I’ve done research on faith healing cults. Which is not easy because they are very secretive, inasmuch as human child sacrifice can be felony murder.

    To make a long story short, they die like flies, often and for what would be trivial conditions with modern medicine.

  • Randomfactor

    Voltaire’s prayer trumps theirs. “Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.”

  • http://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/User:Modusoperandi Modusoperandi

    “Dear Lord, why does the Family Research Council want more families to not have health insurance?”

  • dugglebogey

    Also, God, if you’re not too busy, please kill poor people. Amen.

  • dugglebogey

    Have you ever noticed that the word praying and the word preying sound exactly the same?

  • raven

    Why Republicans Are Starting to Love Health Reform – The Daily …

    www. thedailybeast. com/…/why-republicans-are-starting-to-love-health-r…‎

    Aug 28, 2013 – Turns out a lot of Republicans love coverage for their kids, and … Thanks to Obamacare, the grown-ups are putting their kids on their insurance …

    Here is one report of GOPers favoring Obamacare. IIRC, you can put your kids on your insurance up to age 26.

    Not sure how reliable this source is though. IIRC, it is Newsweek online. A lot of what you read about Obamacare is simply propaganda.

  • anachronistes

    That’s true, Raven. It’s the only reason two of my daughters have health insurance right now. It would end when each turns 26, but I just received a letter from Blue Cross informing me that my privately-purchased plan will end in January, due to the ACA, so I have to go shopping for a new plan all over agin.

    And my f#*’n senator Pat Toomey just sent an e-mail trumpeting how proud he was of his efforts to “defund, derail and obstruct” Obamacare. I responded back telling him if he had any conscience and sense of decency he’d be ashamed.

    ChrisL

  • Michael Heath

    raven,

    Why you do always link to a site where the link is always inoperable? If you’re going to copy and paste a link or two links to a comment post, why not just do that, rather than do whatever else you also do to insure it’s not clickable when posted here. Why go through the extra effort so the link doesn’t work?

  • colnago80

    Hey folks, here’s a Google site which will shorten links. It will also prevent Youtube and other video sites from imbedding.

    http://goo.gl/

  • Chiroptera

    The Family Research Council is talking about Obamacare? Did they finally run out of gay people to hate? I told them they’d better pace themselves.

  • uzza

    Grant our Congressmen unction? What? This made no sense, did she mean gumption? Unctiousness? Nah, Google says, apparently fundies use this word with an entirely different meaning than the real world. I did not know this.

  • Chiroptera

    uzza, #17:

    Actually, fundies use a whole heck of a lot of words with different meanings than the real world. I’ve been trying to start an aid organization: Dictionaries for Conservatives.

  • raven

    Why you do always link to a site where the link is always inoperable?

    1. I do it very deliberately.

    2. B y p utting in a f ew extr a spaces.

    3. Because I don’t trust any live links on internet forums. It’s one way that malicious people use to put malware on your computer. Or a way to hack your computer and get your real identity. I’m not interested in more death threats and spending more hours with the FBI.

    4. If you really want to follow the link, copy it and take out the spaces. It’s very easy.

  • raven

    I’m also very careful with xian and right wing nutcase sites.

    I noticed a long time ago that they often had malware on them. In fact, studies have shown that you are more likely to get malware from a xian site than a porn site. For example, The Daily Caller is notorious for all their malware.

  • Larry

    Did they finally run out of gay people to hate?

    Absolutely not. They’re quite adept at multi-tasking their hatreds.

  • http://www.ranum.com Marcus Ranum

    But didn’t god give them obama and obamacare? Why do they hate god’s will so much?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=730511544 billdaniels

    What the hell are all those letters and numbers at the end of the prayer? They look like the “lucky numbers” you get on a fortune cookie message. Do you have to say all those numbers in order to make the prayer work? If they are bible quotes, are they there so god can check your work?

  • exdrone

    If the FRC aren’t praying more than 30 hours-a-week, then they are not considered full-time believers, and so according to the ACA, god is not obliged to provide them coverage for answered prayer. However, they are free to seek coverage by another deity on the free market.

  • howardhershey

    It certainly seems to be the case that the only reason why Republicans hate Obamacare is because it will significantly reduce the 40+ million uninsured Americans. Even some of their Congress thugs support the idea that children should be able to be on their parent’s insurance until 26 (I was able to keep my two daughters on when otherwise one might have had no insurance after age 19 and I would have to keep convincing them that the other was a full-time student below age 23). And some of them (those who obviously do not understand medical econ 101) want to do away with pre-existing conditions for insurance without having a mandate.

    But the idea that *nearly* all Americans would have access to affordable health insurance drives them crazy. They want people to die for lack of health insurance or go broke. They want medicine to be a privilege for those who can afford it.

  • dan4

    “Please forgive our sins that justify such bondage, and deliver us.”

    Huh? This seems like a non sequitur with the rest of the prayer.

  • mostlylabrador

    @raven #3

    They tend to be poor, uneducated, and stupid. one of the demographics without health insurance now.

    I think the majority of people also overlook another important demographic, namely me. I pull in a 6 figure salary as a contractor but do not receive benefits from any company or organization for whom I work. Even though I make plenty of money, no matter how much of it I am willing to spend on healthcare no one will insure me. This is due to the fact that as a young adult I had cancer, A.L.L. Leukemia to be precise. Although I am well past the time frame that the medical establishment would consider the treatment (chemo, radiation and a BMT) to have cured me, I am still considered too high a risk and no insurer will take me; believe me, I’ve tried. This means that if I am in a major accident and require life saving treatment I would essentially be bankrupt and would never be able to repay those debts, especially if it left me unable to work. The Affordable Care Act is the first hope I have seen that may allow me to have insurance without working for a company that provides it.

    So, whenever I hear somebody, especially a “godly” person, talk about defunding this bill, I would love for them to look me in the eye and tell me that I don’t deserve to be insured. I know I am beating a dead horse here but if you simply believe, for any reason, that people don’t have a fundamental right to care, you’re not a good person.

  • smrnda

    I notice that many people who oppose Obamacare point out that *nobody* has read what it says (kind of like the Bible?) One mindless Fox News viewer I had the displeasure to sit near made that point, and then I told her that I knew someone who taught a course at a college where, every year, they go over some piece of legislation, and that I’d been able to get lots of information from this guy. She then huffed about how “I’m sure they don’t understand it!”

    I think some of these people can’t understand that other people might actually … know things they don’t, and they just reject anything they don’t understand as ‘doesn’t make sense.’ You see it with creationism, climate change denial, and everything else.

    The proof of this is in that horribly written word salad of a prayer, obviously written by someone throwing out words and phrases they got from a quick skim of the KJV.

    Though the ACA isn’t prefect, it at least means that I can’t be left to… die because of pre-existing conditions.

  • birgerjohansson

    “It simply isn’t that big a deal. ”

    Other things that are not a big deal: Artists making conrovercial pieces of art. GM rice with some vitamins from carrots. Black children being taught using their own pidgin English during the first few years of school.

    Giving girls vaccines against cancer-causing disease. Telling kids to use condoms.

    Demagogues will use whatever they find to whip up a frenzy.

  • http://polrant@blogspot.com democommie

    Raven and someayouother malcontents:

    I got an idea. Let’s all join the SBC and other whackaloon churches (I’ll hook up with the Phelpses). Once we get on the rolls then we start saying prayers like:

    “Hey GOD, FUCK YOU, and your son and that lamesass motherfucker Holy Ghost. Fuck all your works and, most especially, fuck your Wholly Babble!”

    Then, we loot the coffers when they all hie for the RGT’s*.

    * Righteous GODLY Thunderbolts

  • http://polrant@blogspot.com democommie

    Shit, I’ve got “Acronymnesia”

    It shouldabin, “RGTS’s” (Righteous GODLY Thunderbolt Shelters)

    I’m gonna pray for some Gecko Balboa, that memory stuff.