From: baseball@catch-the-fever.scd.ucar.edu (Gregg Walters)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: US presidential curse
Date: 5 Nov 92 07:47:41 GMT
Organization: Scientific Computing Divison/NCAR Boulder, CO

Barney -

In your original posting you said Christians prayed for Reagan >>

>> Before the shooting of Reagan a group of Christians heard about
>> this curse and sat Ronald Reagan in a chair and prayed for him,
>> breaking the curse in Jesus' name. The result: Reagan was shot
>> but survived to outlive his term in office.

>> 1980 Reagan shot by John Hinkley, Mar 1981, but survived.
>> 2000 ? (You're okay, whoever you are)

Then in your E-mail response to my questions, you quoted them an
answered >>

>>  >  I don't deny the power of prayer, but
>>  >  did anyone pray for the other "cursed" presidents?
>>  >  Results?
>>
>> Unfortunately I haven't got the information to hand. I would
>> suggest that none of the previous presidents had specific prayer
>> to remove the curse, and thus remained under its dark shadow.
>>
>> The book I mentioned in my posting - could you get a copy,
>> either from a library or bookstore? And let me know what you
>> thought of it. Unfortunately as I live in England it takes
>> circa 3 months to get US books shipped across - and I would be
>> interested to find out more about it, especially the answer
>> to your question.

Let me get this straight.  You are impressed by the words of these
speakers, and it seems to me that you have chosen to pass them along,
with your own extrapolations, without prayerful examination, and are
now asking me to research the original words for you.

I am not going to invest the time and money to locate this book.
For some reason this subject feels like a diversion from answering
Christ's command to spread His Word.  The power of curses is not
in their perceived effectiveness, but in causing the loss of time and
spiritual energy people spend discussing them.

I believe that there is always some number of Christians who daily
pray for the safety of the American President, with or without the
knowledge of any curse that needs to be broken.  Such prayers have
been and continue to be answered positively - in over 200 years of
American presidents, only a tiny handful of days have been marred
by the death of a president while in office.  I could easily say
similar things for the leaders of all the other nations, past and
present.

But let us consider the Lincoln assassination from another angle.  It
is my understanding that Lincoln was a religious man, and I am certain
that many prayed for his life before he passed on.  Do you believe that
their prayers were answered negatively because they lacked a specific
reference to this curse?

Do you believe that all the other presidents under this curse (except
Reagan) were not freed because, even though prayers were being offered
for their safety, none specifically referenced this curse?

As you understand it, what was the "prayer formula" that broke this curse?
I am asking who was praying for who, and with what words, since your
messages seem to suggest that this was significant.

How do we know that the presidents to be elected in 2000, 2020, ... etc
have been freed from this curse?  Perhaps each such president must offer
the same prayer as was offered by/for Reagan?

Do your presentations of these events represent your interpretations, or
are you simply relaying those of Prince, Lewis, Hicks, et al?  In other
words, are your messages just communicating observations of these people's
beliefs in the hope of getting clarification for yourself?

Consider the following scenario which I believe to be analagous.  If a
person prays for a sick person, and this disease has been plaguing people
for ages, but the person praying does not know the name of the disease,
do you mean to say that the sick person will die?

Please study the words yourself.  Deceptive people create strawmen
(perhaps that is what this particular curse story is all about) to impress
people with their own importance.  Remember that Christ said that many who
come in his name are deceivers.  I am not yet ready to rebuke Prince,
Lewis, and Hicks, but I would advise caution.

Gregg