Hmm, would this be considered a threat to the president? And if so whom does 
the FBI and Secret Service go after, the pastor or God?

http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4126&Itemid=53

Drake, former SBC officer, says he's praying for Obama to die (updated)
By Bob Allen   
Wednesday, June 03, 2009

A former SBC vice president told Fox News Radio's Alan Colmes he is praying 
'imprecatory prayer' on President Obama.

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.

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."

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."

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."

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.

"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."

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. 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."

"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.

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

Sing Oldham, vice president for convention relations with the SBC Executive 
Committee, was unavailable for comment until late on May 4.

He said that while Drake served one year as second vice president of the SBC, 
he is not now nor has ever been a spokesman for the convention.

"Mr. Drake does not represent Southern Baptist actions, resolutions, or 
positions in his interpretation and application of 'imprecatory prayers,'" 
Oldham said. "Any comments made by Wiley Drake on this subject represent his 
personal views, not those of the Convention."

Oldham said most Baptists view the imprecatory prayers found in the Psalms as 
private, heartfelt conversations between oppressed people and God, and reflect 
confidence that God will eventually vindicate the innocent. He said they 
generally close with a conscious decision not to bear malice and leave final 
judgment up to God.

"I think it is fair to say that the vast majority of Southern Baptists reject 
any call to pray imprecatory prayers of death over any individual," he said. 


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