Last month, Wiley Drake declared that the murder of Dr. George Tiller was the answer to his imprecatory prayers. He followed that up a few days later by unapologetically admitting to Alan Colmes that he was also praying for President Obama’s death.
Now Drake wants to clarify his position and make it known that while he does want Obama to die at the hand of God, he doesn’t want to come off as some crank who is obsessed with it. After all, he explains, he’s really only spending at most two percent of his prayer-time in seeking the president’s death:
Ever since Pastor Wiley Drake declared not once, but three times, on national radio that he was praying for the death of President Barack Obama, he has been trying to clarify.
Yes, he really does want God to smite Obama. No, it’s not a partisan prayer. Yes, it’s in the Bible, he says, and no, he wasn’t kidding. He’s deadly serious.
The former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention said he’s merely practicing the age-old art of “imprecatory prayer” — a theological term for praying that bad things happen to bad people.
Imprecatory prayer can turn a verse into curse through reciting Scripture aimed at one’s foes.
Rather than asking for, say, healing or a win in the big game, these prayers request that God smite one’s enemies with — among other things — plagues, death and eternal damnation.
“That doesn’t mean I spend every waking hour praying for the death of the president,” said Drake, who leads Buena Park Southern Baptist Church, near Anaheim, Calif. “Of our prayers, 98 percent should be good prayers, and 2 percent should be imprecatory.”
I knew that Drake has called for imprecatory prayer against Barry Lynn and Americans United, but i was not aware that he has been targeting others as well:
For his part, Drake is an equal-opportunity prayer warrior. His intercessory hit list has included Lynn, California megachurch pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren, and former Presidents Bill Clinton and even George W. Bush, whom Drake once maligned for not pardoning two border guards.
