Six Minnesota politicians found their homes spray-painted with graffiti that called for them to resign and included a reference to Psalm 2, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
The targeted politicians seem very diverse: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D), Rep. Keith Ellison (D), Sen. Norm Coleman (R), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R), Rep. Jim Ramstad (R), and Rep. John Kline (R). Coleman is a Jew, Bachmann is an evangelical, and Ellison is the country’s only Muslim congressman.
Patricia Lopez writes that Bachmann’s home, garage and driveway were defaced with the words “Resign Now, Scum, Psalm 2.” The graffiti also said “Vote No on the bailout.” Bachmann was one of 171 representatives to vote against the $700 billion financial bailout package.
Lopez writes:
The invocation of Psalm 2 also does little to shed light on possible motives. Sometimes called the coronation psalm, it refers to rulers who have displeased God and risk his wrath, said William Barnes, a professor of Hebrew and the Old Testament at North Central University in Minneapolis. “I took it to a meeting [of biblical scholars] today and we just don’t know what to make of it,” he said. “It’s not something we’ve commonly seen used in a political context.”
Parts of Psalm 2 include, “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters. … You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery. Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. (NIV)”
