Buena Park pastor asks followers to pray for the death of his critics Los Angeles Times (8/16/07):

Wiley S. Drake, a Buena Park pastor and a former national leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, called on his followers to pray for the deaths of two leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The request was in response to the liberal group’s urging the IRS on Tuesday to investigate Drake’s church’s nonprofit status because Drake endorsed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for president on church letterhead and during a church-affiliated Internet radio show.

Drake said Wednesday he was “simply doing what God told me to do” by targeting Americans United officials Joe Conn and Jeremy Leaming, whom he calls the “enemies of God.”

“God says to pray imprecatory prayer against people who attack God’s church,” he said. “The Bible says that if anybody attacks God’s people, David said this is what will happen to them. . . . Children will become orphans and wives will become widows.”

Imprecatory prayers are alternately defined as praying for someone’s misfortune, or an appeal to God for justice.

“Let his days be few; and let another take his office,” the prayer reads. “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

You learn something new every day. I need to hurry up and convert so I can get some of those imprecatory prayers. All jokes aside, the Prophet Drake saved his best quote for last:

“I don’t believe in the separation of church and state and I believe the IRS should stay out of church business.”

This is really breaking new ground. Separation of church and state is a one way street. You can use the government to to further religious goals like discriminating against teh ghey, but you can not use the government to enforce laws that the church may be breaking. I think Drake deserves a Pulitzer to go along with the Nobel Peace Prize that is surely coming his way.