From: ptfarre@afterlife.ncsc.mil (Peter Farrell)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: US presidential curse
Date: 16 Nov 92 03:30:59 GMT
Organization: The Great Beyond

In article <Nov.12.02.58.18.1992.17232@geneva.rutgers.edu> baseball@catch-the-fever.scd.ucar.edu (Gregg Walters) writes:
>... 
>I just don't buy it.  These zero-year presidents have been the victims
>of illnesses and assassins with their own motivations, and the zero-year
>thing is just a coincidence.  No curse, spell or demon is needed to
>explain the cause of their deaths.  Nor is any exorcist needed to voice
>a "specific prayer" to terminate the coincidences.  I maintain that
>this is just a mindgame to divert us.
>
>I whole-heartedly support Steve Hayes' request (article 16436) >>
>
>>> When was this curse put on? And by whom? And why? Why every twenty years?
>>>
>... 
>Pending your delivery of information that identifies the native American
>responsible for the curse, his nation, the date it was made, the text
>of the curse, and where I can see this for myslef, I withdraw from this
>discussion.  As far as I'm concerned, I have just wasted a few hours
>entertaining a strawman theory.
>
>Gregg

Gregg,
You have no more certainty of the sheer coincidence of zero-year
Presidential death than the other man who claims they are the result
of a pagan curse from the early 19th century. You can no more prove
your side than he can his.  You are obviously not at all open minded to
the vaguest possibility of spiritual warfare.

During the first quarter of the 19th century, the U.S. Army
fought a series of battles against Indian nations in the Ohio valley.
It was during this period that, incidentally, germ warfare was first
conducted by the United States when American troops made a gift of
Smallpox-infested blankets to the Indians inhabiting the region.
Disease decimated their numbers.

One particular Indian warrior by the name of "Blue Jacket" actually
made a name for himself at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (in present
day Ohio) and the ferocity of these wars has been largely forgotten.
One of the most well-known of the serious Indian battles was
won by an American General, William Henry Harrison, who prevailed
in the Battle of Tippecanoe. 

One of the most famous Indian leaders of the day, Tecumseh, is the 
supposed author of the legendary curse. It was pronounced after
Tippecanoe and battles such as Fallen Timbers as the Indians gradually
lost ground against the United States.

What may have motivated such a curse is easy to imagine; in this period
the United States hoodwinked numerous Indian tribes out of their
traditional dwelling grounds. The sad tale of the Cherokee nation in
Georgia is one example. Whether Tecumseh himself actually pronounced
this curse or whether one of his tribal spiritualists did I do not
know, but the intense spirituality of the American Indian is well
known. They were deeply involved with spirits of the elements and I
believe they communed regularly with beings described in Scripture as
familiar spirits (ie, not good).

For the record, in 1840, William Henry Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe,
assumed the Presidency. He caught pneumonia and did not live out his term
of office.  In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President and was
later assassinated while still in office.  In 1880, James Garfield was
elected President and was later shot, dying of his wounds days later
while still in office.  In 1900, William McKinley was re-elected to
a second term and was shot by an anarachist the following year, dying
of his wounds later. (This brought Teddy Roosevelt to the Oval Office).
In 1920, Warren G. Harding was elected President in one of the largest
percentages of the popular vote ever. In 1923, he fell ill of a
sudden and mysterious case of "indigestion" which was later followed by
pneumonia, and he too died in office.  In 1940, Franklin Roosevelt was
re-elected to the White House only to die four years later of an illness.
(This put Harry Truman in the Oval Office for the first time.)  In 1960,
as most of us know, John F. Kennedy was elected President in one of the
tightest Presidential races ever. He was assassinated 3 years later
in Dallas, Texas. In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected for the first time,
and in the spring of the following year, was shot but survived. He was
re-elected in 1984 and lived out his time in the White House.

There are no other cases that I have ever heard of or read of where a
sitting U.S. President has failed to live out the term. NONE. Ronald
Reagan is the first zero-year President to survive his term in over
130 years. Pretty interesting "coincidence".  It is entirely plausible
that Reagan survived because this specific curse was addressed by a
group of Christians praying for him. What group that was, I do not know,
but it is known that 1980 was a big year for the Christian right in 
American politics. They were ecstatic at his election and they played a
large role in his victory.


-- 
Peter Farrell			| "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, 
ptfarre@afterlife.ncsc.mil 	| shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he
				| who does the will of my Father in heaven."