I can not in any way take credit for this thought, I’ve heard it from multiple sources. But I felt it deserved a page on the interwebs.
Pastor Wiley Blake of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif. has been praying for the death of President Obama. On “The Alan Colmes”, this exchange took place:
“Are you praying for his death?” Colmes asked.
“Yes,” Drake replied.
“So you’re praying for the death of the president of the United States?”
“Yes.”
What I’ve heard others say, and I’m going to lay out the argument for, is that under the United States’ criminal law, Blake is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder (at the minimum). Let’s investigate the terms at hand.
Murder consists of an intentional unlawful act with a design to kill and fatal consequences. Generally, an intention to cause great bodily harm is considered indistinguishable from an intention to kill, as is an act so inherently dangerous that any reasonable person would realize the likelihood of fatality. Thus, if the defendant hurled the victim from a bridge, it is no defense to argue that harm was not contemplated, or that the defendant hoped only to break bones. source
Conspiracy to commit murder is an agreement of two or more people to commit a crame, or to accomplish a legal end through illegal actions. Conspiracy law usually does not require proof of specific intent by the defendants to injure any specific person to establish an illegal agreement. Instead, usually the law only requires the conspirators have agreed to engage in a certain illegal act. This is sometimes described as a “general intent” to violate the law. source
Blake is praying to God for the death of President Obama. What is prayer? Clearly in this case, his prayer is a request from God for an end result. Let’s rephrase it using the work “asking”: Blake is asking God for the death of President Obama.
Now, let’s change God with “a hitman”: Blake is asking a hitman for the death of President Obama. Clearly with these terms, Blake is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder. So what’s different between “asking a hitman” and “praying to God?” In the eyes of a believer, absolutely nothing.
Can someone be charged with conspiracy to commit murder for praying?
There’s really only two options: Either prayer has power and thus praying for the death of someone is conspiracy to commit murder or prayer has no power. Obviously we know where I stand on the issue — prayer is absolutely, positively powerless.
For a believer they will assert prayer has power. It would certainly be an interesting court case, but I believe that Blake can be charged with conspiracy to commit murder and probably even convicted. Why do I think that if I don’t think prayer has any power?
Let’s form an analogy. Let’s say Bob posts an ad on Craigslist for a hitman. Let’s say Bob and an anonymous person talk about it and agree to whatever terms are necessary. Bob then gets arrested. It does not matter whether or not this anonymous person could murder the target or not. The intent is still there and the conspiracy is still there. A death does not need to happen for conspiracy to take place.
OK, really, **should** we charge people with conspiracy to commit murder?
Now that’s a harder question to answer. We’ve seen what can happen to someone like George Tiller. I honestly think that we should prosecute those who publicly admit they are praying for the death of someone, because there are people who will take matters into their own hands.
But we won’t have anyone remotely soon attempt to prosecute this sort of charge. Instead, when confronted with someone who prays for the death of someone, this series of questions should give them reason to pause:
- Are you praying for the death of X?
- Do you believe God can kill X?
- Do you believe that God answers prayers?
- Do you realize that because you are asking for the death of X from God, whom you feel will respond to your prayers and whom you also believe has the ability to kill X, you are guilty of conspiracy to commit murder?
