Pastor Wiley Drake, the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park California, has garnered public attention for his prayers calling for the death of President Obama.

Check out this excerpt from an article on Salon.com:

What has garnered him the most media attention is what he said to national radio talk show host Alan Colmes in June.

“Are you praying for his death?" Colmes asked Drake, referring to President Obama. "Yes," Drake replied. "So you're praying for the death of the president of the United States?" Colmes asked. "Yes." "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."

Drake says he regrets the media frenzy caused by the Colmes interview, but he stands by his use of imprecatory prayer, a form of prayer he says is biblically mandated -- an appeal to God that is, unlike most prayers, a request not for something positive but for misfortune, a kind of curse meant to fall on those considered evildoers.

No doubt people of faith can have deep convictions, but to wish death on anyone who dares to disagree - is a terrifying distortion of prayer into a form of hate speech. Even when Jesus was angry, or confronted with those who admitted to sinful lifestyles, we never see him responding with hate.

Comments (1)

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That's right.
written by Becky, November 24, 2009

Kick it, David! You are absolutely right.

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