Praying for Obama to die

Remember Stuart Shepard, The Focus On The Family broadcaster who asked for all God fearing Americans to pray for rain in Denver on the night of Obama's nomination?

Well Stuart, the Southern Baptists have seen your rain prayer, raised it, and and gone all in. A former "Second Vice President" of the Southern Baptist Convention has made the news. And it ain't good.

It's now time to introduce "imprecatory prayer".

This is from Bob Allen, with the Associated Baptist Press.
(For the uninitiated, The Associated Baptist Press is the media wing of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a group that grew weary of Disney Boycotts, 2nd class status for women, etc.)

NEW YORK (ABP) -- A former Southern Baptist Convention officer who on June 2 called the death of abortion provider George Tiller an answer to prayer said later in the day he is also praying "imprecatory prayer" against President Obama.

You can look to Psalm 35 for a Biblical example of imprecatory prayer. In this psalm, King David was surrounded by enemies, and called down all sorts of bad mojo on them. This is the best verse by verse commentary I could find on short notice. In the Obama example, if you still don't understand...someone is asking God to cause Barack Obama to die.

Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., and former running mate of American Independent Party presidential candidate Alan Keyes, said June 2 on Fox News Radio he didn't understand why people were upset with his comments quoted by Associated Baptist Press from a webcast of his daily radio talk show.
"Imprecatory prayer is agreeing with God, and if people don't like that, they need to talk to God," Drake told syndicated talk-show host Alan Colmes. "God said it, I didn't. I was just agreeing with God."

Dang it, God talks to Alan Keyes, Moses, Oral Roberts, abortionist killers and street people all day, every day. But does he ever talk to the guy who is trying to find the cure for cancer?

Asked if there are others for whom Drake is praying "imprecatory prayer," Drake hesitated before answering that there are several. "The usurper that is in the White House is one, B. Hussein Obama," he said.
Later in the interview, Colmes returned to Drake's answer to make sure he heard him right.
"Are you praying for his death?" Colmes asked.
"Yes," Drake replied.
"So you're praying for the death of the president of the United States?"
"Yes."

There really isn't much to say, is there? I've said some harsh things about the Obamessiah on this site, and will continue to do so. I think Obama's policies are misguided, and I think they'll be disastrous for the country. But I don't want the man to die. Heck, he's got a wife and two kids. And do you know who gets the job if Obama goes to be with the Lord? I'm considering going into the back yard to organize a counter-strike prayer service.

But how can anyone calling himself a Follower Of Christ pray for the death of Barack Obama? Well, Reverend Drake has probably read a lot of Old Testament, some of Saint Paul's nastier letters, and perhaps The Book Of Revelation. That would do it. Never mind.

Colmes asked Drake if he was concerned that by saying that he might be placed on a Secret Service or FBI watch list, and if he believed it appropriate to talk or pray that way.
"I think it's appropriate to pray the Word of God," Drake said. "I'm not saying anything. What I am doing is repeating what God is saying, and if that puts me on somebody's list, then I'll just have to be on their list."
"You would like for the president of the United States to die?" Colmes asked once more.
"If he does not turn to God and does not turn his life around, I am asking God to enforce imprecatory prayers that are throughout the Scripture that would cause him death, that's correct."
Most of the half-hour interview on "The Alan Colmes Show" is premium programming available by paid subscription, but a five-minute clip appeared as a "top video" on the Fox News Radio website.



Drake said he didn't pray for Tiller to be murdered -- only that God would take his life by some method -- but that he "absolutely" believed that God wanted the doctor dead.
"I believe the whole Bible, Alan," he explained. "I don't just preach part of it. I don't just preach the soft, fuzzy, warm stuff where we're supposed to be nice to everybody. I preach the whole Bible."

Baloney. I bet Reverend Wiley Drake owns and wears clothing made from mixed fabrics. I bet he's gone years without preaching against eating shrimp and crabs. I bet he's never prayed an imprecatory prayer when someone collected firewood on the Sabbath.

Part of the Bible, Drake claimed, is imprecatory prayer -- words of judgment in the Psalms prayed back to God -- a practice he said the church has lost.
Drake fielded calls from a few listeners, including one identifying himself as a lifelong Southern Baptist who said he was saddened to hear a minister would pray for someone to die.

I've never heard a minister pray something like this, but I've heard a minister admit doing it. I used to be a part time music minister in some small Southern Baptist churches. In one of them, three large families were giving the preacher hell over I don't remember what all. The minister was a nice enough guy, but he told me that he had prayed for God to do something harmful to those families and was comforted when one of their kids had a minor motorcyle wreck. True story.

"This whole concept that we're always to pray little, nice, soft, fluffy, prayers -- that we're not to pray imprecatory prayer -- has been something that just, in all honesty, that Southern Baptists have lost, and we need to regain imprecatory prayer," Drake said. "It is in the Bible, and we are proud to say as Southern Baptists that we believe the Book. You've got to believe the whole Book, brother, or you don't believe any of it."

Let's bring back Infant Damnation while we're at it. And "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". And it might be nice to raid the Canaanites and take some of their women. And daughters.

Asked if he thinks there might be other people praying imprecatory prayers for him that might be successful, Drake said, "Well, that's certainly possible, but that's in God's hands, not in mine."
Asked if he claimed to know God's will, Drake replied: "In some cases I do. Not in all cases. I know this, that if I do die right now, I'll go to heaven when I die because I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That's why I'll go to heaven and not to hell. And the reason George Tiller went to hell when he died was not because he killed babies, as terrible as that was.

Brother Drake, let me remind you that George Tiller was acting as an usher at a Lutheran church when he was shot. I know, I know, the Lutherans drink beer. Their preachers wear funny robes. Baptists make fun of them as God's Frozen Chosen. But I don't think they'll be excluded from heaven, if there is one.

"If he went to hell, and I think he did -- that's God's judgment and not mine -- but if he did go to hell it's because he did not accept Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior."
Drake said he did not believe Tiller's accused killer is a pro-life Christian.
"I'm of the opinion -- and now everybody's going to say 'There goes Wiley down the conspiracy-theory road,' I'm of the opinion that somebody in the Obama camp had this guy killed."

O for the love of God. Gag me with a dirty diaper.

"Who benefits the most from this man killing a doctor?" Drake asked. "We certainly don't. Pro-life people certainly don't. It hurts us. It damages us, but Obama will indeed advance it. This will be one of those crises to take advantage of, and he's already done that."
Drake said he had no evidence and admitted his opinion for now is "pure speculation."
"Everybody said [Lee Harvey] Oswald was a lone gunman, et cetera, et cetera, too," he said. "But I think we're going to find there was somebody else involved."
Drake said Tiller's murder would be a setback for pro-life Christians seeking to end abortion by legal and proper means. He said he also expects to see answers to other imprecatory prayers in the days ahead.

Well, yeah, we're all going to die one day. Me, you, Wiley Drake, Barack Obama, and the cute little kid on the Gerber baby food jar. But that doesn't mean a prayer has been answered.

Brother Drake, if you want to oppose President Obama's policies, start a blog. Go to some protests. Hand out some yard signs in the next election. Write a letter to the editor. But the most useless, counterproductive, and idiotic thing I can imagine anyone doing? Going on talk shows claiming that you've prayed for Obama to die.

"God says very clearly in his Word that we are to continue to pray and he will answer our prayers," Drake said.

Ok, I'm going to give it a shot. God, I know that I'm a sinner. But please, please help me see things from Wiley Drake's point of view. But don't stick my head all the way up my rear end.

Sing Oldham, vice president for convention relations with the SBC Executive Committee, was unavailable for comment until late on May 4. Mr. Oldham said blah blah blah blah.....you can hit the links up top to see him distancing himself from Drake much like Obama distanced himself from Reverend Wright.

I've been trying to restrict my theology posts to Sundays, or do away with them altogether. The Southern Baptists just keep pulling me back.

Pics from the You Will Anyway blog (a blog worthy of further study, BTW). A fresh coat of whitening to Little Green Footballs for the link.