Houston Pastor: Pray That Spirits Of Darkness Confuse LGBT Rights Supporters

As Houston officials review the validity of the petition signatures to place a repeal of the HERO ordinance on the public ballot, a local pastor is asking his followers to make "imprecatory prayers" against the bill's supporters. Via the pro-gay Texas Freedom Network:

Imprecatory prayers are those that ask God to burden, curse or even destroy wicked individuals and institutions. They typically are tied to the Bible’s imprecatory Psalms, such as Psalm 109:9 (“May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.”) and Psalm 137:9 (“How blessed will be the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.”). In an article emailed to supporters over the weekend, Welch writes that city officials are nearly done determining whether there are enough valid petition signatures to put repeal of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance on the November ballot. He calls on repeal supporters to pray while city officials finish that work:“PRAY - imprecatory prayers for the Lord to oversee every detail and every person involved, to expose any impropriety, to bind spiritual forces of darkness in the city and to send confusion into the enemy camp.”

TFN adds: "We’re not sure what in the world Welch means with his calls for imprecatory prayers regarding the HERO repeal effort. But whether or not he really wants the destruction of anyone (or any institution) in Houston, his call is chilling and dark. History is full of disturbed people who have done horrible things in the twisted belief that they were carrying out God’s will."

Read Welch's full message.

JMG reader Mike reports that the signature verification process has been going on for three weeks and that a preliminary report might be issued tomorrow. Over the weekend, Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis dropped in to cheer on the many volunteers who are scouring the petitions.

RELATED: As TFN notes (and as was reported here on JMG at the time), imprecatory prayers have been launched by pastors against President Obama and by Scott Lively, who claims that God heard his prayers to destroy a Massachusetts strip club which burned in a 2012 fire that injured 20, some of whom were firefighters. That fire was suspected to have been caused by the accidental puncturing of a gas line by a utility worker.