Ammon Bundy (a mormon) recently cited God's command - "I was asked to do this by the lord" and "I did it how he told me to do it" - in occupying the Malheur Wildlife Reserve.
In doing so, he Bundy outed himself as a prophet: "A divinely inspired interpreter, revealer, or teacher of the will or thought of God." Which is hardly shocking considering the non-response to George W. Bush's claim of divine marching orders behind the invasion of Iraq.
"Prayer" in today's United States has been transformed by evangelicals into a conversation with God that deals with worldly maters. Prayer, to the evangelical, is often means of asking for something in the world to happen. Anyone in a Southern town is familiar with "prayer requests" that seek to increase the likelihood of some worldly outcome by having more individuals express their will to God that it happen. Prayer can also be a means of receiving orders on how to act on a worldly matter, such as with Bundy, Bush and many paranoid schizophrenics.
Before getting into the prophetic nature of evangelical prayer, I want to note the superstitious aspect of it as well, i.e. "attributed to or thought to reveal some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature." Protestant theologians haven't always bought that we can shape God's plan for what happens on earth and beyond based via prayer or the purchasing of indulgences; indeed, criticisms of "Catholic superstition" from Martin Luther to Ian Paisley still echo. Protestantism was partially born in protest of Catholicism's priestly powers to secure God's intervention in worldly affairs. But this aspect of Catholicism has been adopted by American evangelicals, with everyone who has been "saved" having the same privileges as the Catholic priests.
Once "superstition" and a "personal relationship with God" are established, prophecy happens naturally.
The point of the above, I suppose, is that anyone who cites God's will in their course of action is treading on theological thin ice. They do not have the support of longstanding religious tradition, even if they have many likeminded contemporaries. It does not take a religious person to point out someone's religious malpractice, particularly when this religious malpractice - as at Malheur - results in the placement of personal preferences or beliefs above the law of the land.
In 1960, JFK gave a speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in which he basically assured a bunch of Protestant ministers that he wouldn't be taking marching orders from the Pope. At this point, it is evangelical Protestants seeking government office who must face scrutiny: will they defer to the law of the land or, like Kim Davis, choose to defy it when it conflicts with whatever they think God says to them?
In 1960, JFK gave a speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in which he basically assured a bunch of Protestant ministers that he wouldn't be taking marching orders from the Pope. At this point, it is evangelical Protestants seeking government office who must face scrutiny: will they defer to the law of the land or, like Kim Davis, choose to defy it when it conflicts with whatever they think God says to them?
