The first Republican Abraham Lincoln famously proclaimed, "My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side." And as Matthew 4:23-24 tells us, Jesus never refused treatment to those with preexisting conditions, instead "healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." But as their prayers to God to block health care reform in the run-up to last night's decisive Senate vote show, today's Republicans apparently have no room for either Lincoln or Jesus in God's Own Party.
As the critical vote neared on Sunday, Republican Tom Coburn (R-OK) asked for divine intervention to prevent Democrats from shutting down the GOP filibuster. Coburn, who earlier this month warned seniors about passage of health care reform ("I've got a message for you: you're going to die soon."), hoped that the blizzard which buried Washington DC would similarly put Democrats in a deep freeze:

"What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight. That's what they ought to pray."

(As Media Matters noted, conservatives debated whether the "snowpocalypse" which shut down Washington reflected the Lord's righteous anger over the Copenhagen climate change agreement or "that God hates the Democrats' health care deform.")
Of course, Dr. Coburn's pleas to the Almighty came just days after the Family Research Council organized a "prayercast" to smite health care reform. Featuring the FRC's Tony Perkins, Lou Engle, James Dobson and the usual suspects among the religious right, the event also featured Rep. Michele Bachman (R-MN) and sitting United States Senators Jim Demint (R-SC) and Sam Brownback (R-KS).
As Perkins made clear, the agenda was much broader than health care. Abraham Lincoln notwithstanding, the conservatives wanted God on their side for more than a successful filibuster:

"Life and death hinges on the Senate health care bill. We face significant threats to the God-given right to human life through government funding of abortions, our health from rationing, our family finances from higher taxes, and our general freedoms posed by the government plan to take over health care."

For his part, South Carolina's Jim Demint not only to the heavens for Obama's "Waterloo," but for that of the United States Constitution as well:

"We cannot fall for this idea that we need to keep our faith in a closet and let the country go its own secular way."

During a 2000 GOP presidential campaign debate, candidate George W. Bush won thunderous applause from the assembled Republican faithful by citing Jesus as his favorite philosopher because "he changed my heart." Of course, by July 2007, President Bush's new heart told him, "People have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room." Mitch McConnell and Tom Delay were among those who Republicans who similarly argued that the prayers of 47 million uninsured Americans' would be answered in the emergency room.
As for the prayers this week of hardline Republicans and their amen corner, they went unheard - at least for last night. Of course, the self-proclaimed God's Own Party is now a far cry from the Party of Lincoln. As Abraham Lincoln put it in his Second Inaugural:

"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

UPDATE: Former Arkansas Governor and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, who often credits the "hand of God" for his political successes, branded Ben Nelson (D-NE) a Judas. He said the last time a deal like the one Nelson negotiated with Democratic leaders was when "30 pieces of silver exchanged hands." So far, there is no reaction from Sarah Palin, the woman who previously called the Iraq war "a task that is from God" and urged supporters to pray for her trans-Alaska pipeline.