Pastor Asks God to Smite President Obama
As if President Obama doesn鈥檛 have enough to deal with - what with civil unrest in Iran, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and economic malaise at home - now he鈥檚 also got a Southern Baptist minister praying for his death.
The Rev. , pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., told Fox News Radio earlier this month that he was practicing 鈥渋mprecatory prayer鈥� 鈥� a divine curse 鈥� that would bring about Obama鈥檚 death.
鈥淪o you鈥檙e praying for his death?鈥� asked the show鈥檚 host, Alan Colmes.
鈥渊别蝉.鈥�
鈥淪o you鈥檙e praying for the death of the president of the United States?鈥�
鈥渊别蝉.鈥�
The pugnacious pastor later elaborated: 鈥淚f 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鈥檚 correct.鈥�
A spokesman for the Southern Baptist Association, where Drake was second vice president in 2006-2007, responded to Drake鈥檚 comments by saying that he believes most Southern Baptists are praying for the president鈥檚 well-being.
Obama isn鈥檛 the first person for whom Drake has prayed for an untimely demise. In 2007, when Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a formal complaint with the Internal Revenue Service maintaining that Drake鈥檚 endorsement of Mike Huckabee for president violated tax laws, Drake called on his followers to pray for the deaths of the nonprofit鈥檚 staff.
And after Kansas physician George Tiller, a prominent provider of abortions, was murdered in church on May 31, Drake said his death was the answer to his imprecatory prayers. He called Tiller 鈥渁 brutal, murdering monster鈥� on his radio program. 鈥淭his man, George Tiller, was far greater in his atrocities than Adolf Hitler.鈥�
Drake is none too fond of homosexuals, either. He wrote the resolution at the Southern Baptist Convention in 1996 calling for a boycott of the Walt Disney Corporation after it afforded health benefits to gay and lesbian partners of employees. He urged followers to join him last year in praying for rain to fall on the Democratic National Convention in Denver. 鈥淚 too am still against killing babies and allowing sodomites to marry,鈥� he explained. [The weather was beautiful when Obama made his acceptance speech before 84,000 people in a football stadium].
Drake also is to the Minuteman Project, a group that President George W. Bush called 鈥渧igilantes.鈥� He was Alan Keyes鈥� vice-presidential running mate on the America鈥檚 Independent Party ticket in 2008. They were plaintiffs in one of several unsuccessful lawsuits filed last year claiming that Obama could not be sworn in as president because he supposedly wasn鈥檛 born in the United States.
