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February 16, 2008

Pastor prays for foes' demise

IRS complaint draws calls for God to smite civil liberties groups

Sometimes Americans United for Separation of Church and State is misguided in its zeal. But, in this case, the one lacking wisdom was Pastor Wiley S. Drake, who last week used First Baptist Church of Buena Park letterhead and an affiliated radio program to endorse Mike Huckabee for president. That's a violation of tax laws for nonprofits, and Americans United filed a complaint. Drake's response was a bit vengeful.

In an e-mail Thursday, Drake urged action against Americans United and the American Civil Liberties Union.

As he had in August, Drake quoted Psalm 109, which speaks of wicked and deceitful people and asks God to let such a person's days be few and let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

"In light of the recent attack from the enemies of God, I ask the children of God to go into action with imprecatory prayer," he wrote.

Imprecatory prayers have been defined as praying for someone's misfortune or as appeals to God for justice.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, called Drake's appeal to his supporters "reckless and repugnant."

"Introducing this kind of religious extremism into American life is reprehensible," he said.

This article was cross-posted at The God Blog.

Comments

At leat CT is reporting on this. Baptist Press seems to have forgotten to mention a lot of important points. They didn't mention that he asked people to pray for the guys harm. They also forgot to mention that Wiley used his radio and internet program to support a particular canadate.

It is spelled "candidate," Adam. And Baptist Press mentioned the radio programm. The fact is, the radio program is not church-sponsored, and the endorsement was specifically identified as personal. It was sent by e-mail to a list of media and others and included no church members. Rev. Drake, whatever you think of his vindictiveness, did not violate tax laws. Americans United, as usual, is full of it.

It is spelled "program," Eileen. If you are going to criticize someone else's spelling, you may want to make certain yours is correct! A personal endorsement should not have been issued using church letterhead.

When we cease trying to be nicer than God, we'll start winning the cultural wars. Jesus is my Rock, and I often use Psalm 137:9 to pray for the conversion of the children of pro-aborts.

Rev. Drake's sentiments are, perhaps, understandable. When an individual or a group seeks to deliberately harm or destroy either God's work or another individual, it is evil, and believers have every right to pray that God will stop evil. Concerning the violation of IRS regs for non-profits- it seems like the way around that, while maintaining one's right to voice his or her opinion on issues relevant to our society, is to give up the 501(c)(3) status. Churches have automatic non-profit status anyways, and do not require special IRS approval for such.

So much for that ridiculous love your enemies thing...Who ever said
that anyway?

To my great pain, this kind of rancor has driven many of my friends out of the Evangelical, Conservative boat into the left wing side of life. May I ask us to decease from flaming each other and offer a bit more kindness?

Every time I read some of the message boards on christianitytoday.com, I'm amazed about how nasty many of the messages are - and from people who claim to be "good" Christians.

RJR_fan - where in Scripture are we instructed to "start winning the cultural wars"? Let us be in the world but not of it. 2 Cor 10:3. Let culture war against itself and crumble. Romans 12:2; 1 Cor 3:3.

The IRS should scrutinize pastors who use our Lords church as a pulpit for their personal views in the area of government. What happen to the role of preaching the Gospel? Have they forgotten the "Good News?". Stay with the message of our Lord, let's rely on the Holy Spirit to do it's work. If anything, the attitude of self-righteousness, arrogance and hatefullness do not reflect the fruits of the Spirit and the heart of our Lord.