Focus on the Family Pulls “Rain on Obama’s Parade” Video

A couple weeks ago, James Dobson‘s Focus on the Family posted a video on its website urging viewers to pray for rain — Specifically on the night Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President. The video features Stuart Shepard, director of digital media at Focus Action:

The video was meant to be “mildly humorous.”

I guess it’s hard to distinguish Focus on the Family’s sense of humor… these are the same people, after all, who (seriously) said that Spongebob Squarepants was part of a pro-homosexual agenda.

In any case, Focus’ own people didn’t like the idea that their prayers should be used to inflict harm on others — (It’s not like Obama’s gay, right?)

They complained.

Focus has since removed the video from their website.

I think the money quotation comes from Tom Minnery, Focus Action’s vice president of public policy. He may be talking about the “Rain on Obama’s Parade” video but I think we can extrapolate it to just about everything Focus does:

“If people took it seriously, we regret it,” Minnery said Monday.

Roy McKenzie

how idiotic. of course we’re going to take it seriously. you’re not the onion. you don’t have a track record of spoofing or making jokes.

Stuart Shepard is a douche bag.
Shane

What an idiot.

Everyone knows if you really want rain you have to sacrifice a couple birds, lambs, or possibly an unblemished male goat.

Leviticus 1:17 “…and then the priest shall burn it on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.”

Jesus does love the smell of that burnt offering.
Richard Wade

Imagine the possibilities: Imagine that it does rain torrentially, there is widespread property damage and people are hurt. Shepard, Dobson and Focus on the Farce then face their own flood of hundreds of civil lawsuits. In order to defend themselves they’d have to claim that their prayers did not work and that God did not do it.

Here’s a chance to find out if God really is a Republican.
Brandonazz

If I know in advance that it’s a joke, I can easily see it as a joke.

If I had stumbled upon the video alone, I would probaby think he was serious.
Gregory

Well, I will give them this — it was mildly humorous, in the way that watching people be complete nutjobs can be.
justin jm

From the article,

“If people took it seriously, we regret it,” Minnery said Monday.

Riight…

Seriously, I’ve never known these guys to regret anything. I think they simply got an idea how ridiculous they look to outsiders. I wonder if they’ve even stopped praying for rain.

Oh, btw Shane, if you really want rain, you gotta do a good dance.
Darwin’s Dagger

I hope it rains like hell all week, until Obama comes out for his speech under a clearing sky full of rainbows and white doves. Then let the theists explain that development to their children.
WICK

It wasn’t a joke. You can watch the other videos they have on the website, and they’re all just as horrible. Not funny, and not representative of the Christ they claim to speak for.

I hope by now, the world realizes that Jimmy Dobson and his clan do NOT speak for Evangelicals.
Siamang

It’s only funny if it’s clear that it won’t happen.

The fact that these people think that they COULD pray and that WOULD make rain, makes this not humor, and instead something like a threat.

So either these people don’t believe that they can make it rain, and they’re having fun playing with the “but wouldn’t it be COOL if we really, really could?” fantasy… or it’s an actual threat.

And you know there’s some problem with religion when here in the 21st century people still are performing rain dances.

Someone wake me up when mankind evolves. Seriously. This is caveman shit. Put down the club, get off your dinosaur and grow up, religion.
Metro

Focus on the Freakshow?

Mind if I don’t waste a few seconds of my precious and only life watching them? I’ve got widgets to pack, or something …
j swift

It seems like I remember reading something in the Bible about the Devil taking Jesus for a little journey and tempting him to throw himself from some place high. Jesus told the devil it was not good to test God.

If it is a bad thing to test God by pitching oneself off a building or mountain wouldn’t it bad, though not necessarily as bad, to ask God for something so childish and petty?
Richard Wade

Gee, I wonder what went wrong. The weather was beautiful during the entire Democratic National Convention, and Obama’s wonderful speech was made under a lovely starry sky. Maybe God isn’t a Republican after all. Or maybe he takes his orders from Focus on the Family and he’s just following orders, since they sheepishly cancelled the rainstorm. God wouldn’t want to get fired, not in this economy.