Praying for Death

Out on the lunatic fringe of Christian-right politics is a preacher named Wiley Drake, who last distinguished himself by being the 2008 vice-presidential running mate of Alan Keyes. (You may remember Keyes from the 2004 Senate campaign in Illinois; after the original GOP candidate imploded in a sex scandal, he was called in as a last-minute replacement and went on to get creamed by a guy named Barack Obama. Today, Keyes spends his time cozying up to the craziest of the crazies, insisting that Obama is a secret Muslim who was actually born in Kenya.)

Drake is fond of what he calls "imprecatory prayers," a ten-dollar phrase which means praying for someone to die. Now, as children we all had such moments, usually on the playground when you ask for God to send a bolt of lightning to zap a bully or something. But Drake really means it.

In 2007, he urged his followers to pray for the deaths of Joe Conn and Jeremy Leaming (which Drake misspelled as "Learing"), two staffers at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. You see, they apparently got on Drake's bad side by reporting that Drake's church was under investigation for specifically endorsing Mike Huckabee's presidential run and thus violating IRS tax-exemption rules.

Well, nothing happened. Conn and Leaming are still very much alive and well.

Last week, he openly celebrated the murder of Kansas doctor George Tiller: "I am glad George Tiller is dead. I said to the Lord, 'Lord I pray back to you the Psalms, where it says that they are to become widowers and their children are to become orphans and so forth.' And we began calling for those imprecatory prayers, because he had obviously turned his back on God again and again and again." Not surprisingly, this did not go over well with Christians and other people who see murder as, you know, bad.

Undeterred by the resulting criticism, Drake is now trying again. This time, he's setting his sights a tad higher than two staffers and a doctor - he's going for the big kahuna, the whole nine yards, all the marbles.

Yes, he's praying for the death of President Obama himself.

One day after cheering Tiller's murder, Drake went on Alan Colmes' radio show and specifically said that since Obama's policies somehow show that he follows the "wrong" form of Christianity, he has to go.

Colmes: When you say you are praying for the death of someone using imprecatory prayer, you then said - I asked, then, "for whom else are you praying in that fashion?" And you said "President Obama." Are you praying for his death?

Drake: Yes.

Colmes: So you're praying for the death of the president of the United States.

Drake: Yes.

Colmes: Do you, are you concerned that by saying that you might find yourself on some kind of a Secret Service call or FBI wanted list or, uh, do you think it's appropriate to say something like that, or even pray for something like that?

Drake: I think it's appropriate to pray the Word of God. 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.

Colmes: Uh, you would like for the president of the United States to die?

Drake: 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, uh, that would cause him, uh, death, that's correct. I think we'll see, in the days ahead, other imprecatory prayers answered. God says clearly in his word that we are to continue to pray, and he will answer our prayers.

Since Drake is supposedly a Southern Baptist, the group's president backed away from his comments as fast as he could. Johnny Hunt called it a "terrible statement, [a] very unbiblical statement."

Is Drake determined to prove that Christian demagogues can be just as insanely bloodthirsty as their Muslim counterparts? He's certainly doing a good job at it.