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Pastor calls for followers to pray for Obama’s death
Notorious religious nutbar Rev. Wiley Drake of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, CA is inserting himself into the news again. Well, that’s assuming you don’t find the phrase “Fox News” to be a non sequitor.
Drake is now calling for imprecatory prayers, calling upon God to visit death and misfortune, on President Obama. On Fox’s Alan Colmes Show, Drake said, “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 also claimed that his imprecatory prayers against Dr. George Tiller have been answered. Which is kind of odd because Drake had previously called upon his followers to pray for the death of the Rev. Barry Lynn, head of Americans United For Separation Of Church And State, along with AU’s staff members, their spouses and offspring. Since Lynn is still very much alive, along with pretty much everybody at the First Amendment advocacy organization, I guess we can take that to mean God approves of AU. See AU for the full story and links.
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10 comments for “Pastor calls for followers to pray for Obama’s death”
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Frankly, I’m uncomfortable with Obama’s continual references to his faith. I think this political need to show that you are a “person of faith” in order to court certain segments of the population is getting out of hand. Religion, specifically Christian religion, has become this mantel that Presidential candidates have to wear, lest they be branded as “anti-God” and thrown into the cellar. I’m not saying that that is the only reason Obama was voted in, but you can be dang sure that if he hadn’t professed his faith so often he wouldn’t have made it out of the primaries.
And some segment of Republicans STILL think he’s a muslim. Crazy.
People like Rev. Drake make me ill. He ranks right up there with the Westboro Baptist Church members.
@Dave: I think that Obama constantly talks about his faith in part because his faith is constantly called in to question. If a large group of kept saying “Mrs. Ward may say she is an atheist but we really know she is a Scientologist” I’d take every opportunity to say “No, really I am not a Scientologist.”
O.K., so in 2003 the Dixie Chicks get tons of hate mail and even death threats for publicly saying they are “ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas”. One would of thought they were calling for Bush’s death with the overreaction they received from the country music industry.
Fast forward to 2009, where a religious zealot goes on FOX news and acknowledges he is praying for Obama’s death.
So, keeping with Skeptigator’s recent post regarding Free Speech, shouldn’t this “Man of God’s” words be held accountable? Maybe even warrant a visit from a few guys in suits who want to know exactly what this screwball is advocating for ???
I don’t really care what Southern Baptists pray for. There are far more important issues for people to concern themselves with.
@Dave: I get queasy too every time I hear Obama reference his faith.
@K Ward: Good point, but it would be nice if our leaders had the fortitude to say, “Yes, I’m a Christian, but my faith is independent of the Constitution and how I govern.”
@Andy S: AU’s blog post relates how even Alan Colmes questioned Drake on that. Drake, of course, says he doesn’t fear men in black suits.
@ellecdr: The Southern Baptists are scurrying to separate themselves from Drake. “No true Scotsman…,” you know.
@ ellecdr
That’s a good point to make. There are far more important issues for people to concern themselves with. For the sane, rational folks who think this guy is just jerking chains and trying to get airtime, its easy to blow his statement off. But for some folks, especially followers of some of these religious fanatics who hinge on every word their pastor says, these words have meaning. Some may even say DIVINE meaning.
My concern is similar to that of the recent abortion doctor’s murder in Kansas. Somewhere, some person MAY turn words into action, as Dr. Tiller’s killer did.
Should Pastor Drake’s publicly stated desire to have Barack Obama killed be brushed off, or do his words tilt just a wee bit over the threshold into what I would consider to be murky waters and potentially threatening territory ?
@Andy S.: I think one of the ways we defuse the toxic words that people like Drake spew is by mocking them. While I generally think paying attention to these people is pointless, it doesn’t hurt to, every now and then, laugh at the most ridiculous of their crazed utterances. Which was mostly my point in posting this.
It is very interesting as Andy S. pointed out that the Dixie Chicks suffered greatly because of their statements toward President Bush, (and they were not praying for his death btw) But a “preacher/man of God” decides to publicly state his prayer for President Obamama’s death?? What has he suffered?? Just because he is a preacher shouldn’t mean he gets a free pass.
I learned my new word for today!
[HomerSimpson]
Mmmm…enlarged vocabulary.
[/HomerSimpson]
Andy S: I don’t know if I’m on point, but I think you are concerned that some crazy will hear stupid comments like, “pray for the president’s demise” and go out and take a shot at the president as someone, perhaps Roeder, did at Dr. Tiller. Is that right?
I’m sorry, but I am not particularly worried that such statements are apt to lead to mayhem.
The Southern Baptist dude called for praying, albeit for mean-spirited stuff. Praying, it seems to me, won’t hurt anybody. It might waste time, but people have the right to waste time as they see fit.
The crazies who mutter to themselves, “He SAID to pray, but I think he really meant KILL…heh HEH, heh HEH”
I just think trying to protect the country from crazy actions from truly demented people is virtually impossible.
The president has the Secret Service to protect him. They do a pretty good job, and I believe I’ll leave them to do it.