Saturday, October 11, 2008

Davenport minister causes controversy

Updated below

The Quad Cities is getting some dubious national exposure thanks to John McCain and Rev. Arnold Conrad. At John McCain's rally today in Davenport, Iowa, Rev Conrad, former pastor of Grace Evangelical Free Church, delivered the invocation. According to the Iowa Independent this was what was said:

I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god - whether it's Hindu, Buddha, Allah - that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons," Conrad said.

And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day."

Can you believe that?! This joker is claiming that because non-Christians around the world are hoping for an Obama victory in November, the Christian God's reputation and honor is at stake in this election!

As Obama's election becomes more likely these people are getting more desperate and deranged.

Update: According to the QuadCities Times Rev. Arnold when questioned after the rally offered this clarification:

Arnold told the Times later that he wasn’t referring to any particular candidate and that he probably misspoke. “My prayer had nothing to do with either candidate,” he said. “My point was these people are praying that the person of their choice wins. If that happens, then they’re going to ascribe to their God that power, that their God made it happen as opposed to the God of the Bible.”

We were not told the question he was asked but I don't see how that can be the right answer to any question. He really seems to believe that non-Christians around the world would interpret an Obama victory as a victory of their god over the "God of the Bible." But doesn't he realize that the Muslim god is the "God of the Bible?" Doesn't he realize that Buddhists don't have a god?

If non-Christian's wishes coming true would be intrepreted as a victory for "their God" as "opposed to the God of the Bible" why are only their wishes about this election a problem? Wouldn't any of their wishes about anything coming true be just as much ascribed to "their God.. as opposed to the God of the Bible?" According to his argument wouldn't we have to try to keep any non-Christian's wishes from coming true to prevent a perceived defeat for "the God of the Bible?"

8 comments:

Dave Barrett said...

The following annoymous comment was emailed to me:
This guy is out there--Obama is a Christian, so are most of the people polled who plan to vote for him, and, to me, it's such an antique idea that there are several "gods" who are at war with each other, using humans as their proxies or pawns or something.

Dave Barrett said...

Yeah, the more I think about the theology behind the idea that God should intervene in this election to prevent people thinking the Buddhist and Muslim God is "bigger" than the Christian God the more my head hurts. Obviously this guy is not a monotheist. The vast majority of Christians believe there is only one God so the idea that some other God might score some sort of victory over "their" God would never even enter their heads!

Unknown said...

If this minister is correct and there are a bunch of different gods, then his Right-wind Christian god has greater problems than the success of the Democrats. One big problem for this Right-wing god is that he/she has a "minister" of limited insight and intelligence as a spokesman, a "minister" who tells his god what to do and what the god's goals should be.

Anonymous said...

some people need to learn to read [listen] in context, and discern the intent of a speaker

Dave Barrett said...

anonymous,
Don't tease us like that! What is the context and intent that some of us has missed? If you can shed any light on what Rev. Conrad really meant I am sure we all would appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

Talk about ignominy for the QCA!

I saw this clip on the cable news channels, but didn't note it had a Quad-city connection until the 3rd or 4th time I saw it.

How embarrassing.

And things like this can give the general public out there a lasting bad impression about the QCA.

I know it is less than rational to think it, but I've always felt some resentment towards Dubuque after they had a KKK rally several years back. It doesn't represent the values of most city residents, obviously, but it has left a bad taste in my mouth for the city ever since.

jtizdal said...

All of the news stories (including those that are nationwide now and are embarrassing our community) mention he's the past minster at Grace. Does anyone know if he's the same Arnie Conrad who is the Interim Senior Pastor at Bethany Baptist Church in Moline?

Dave Barrett said...

tiz,
It appears so. On the website of Interim Pastor Ministries, of which Dr. Arnold Conrad is the Executive Director, it says that he was a pastor in the Evangelical Free Chruch for 37 years. Undoubtably he is the same Rev. Arnold Conrad who is the former minister of Grace Evangelical Free Church as mentioned in all the news stories. The website says that he received a Doctor of Ministry Degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This matches the Bethany Baptist Church’s website you linked to which says that their Interim minister is Arnold Conrad who “holds his doctorate from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.”
It is probably correct that Grace Evangelical Free Church rather than Bethany Baptist Church is mentioned in the news stories since the former church actually called him as their minister and he is just an interim at Bethany.