Since Pastor Wiley Drake told the world he was praying for Obama’s death, he’s been trying to clarify what he means. You may think that he spends every hour of every day praying for Obama’s death. But he really only spends about 2% of his prayer time praying for the death of the US President:
“That doesn’t mean I spend every waking hour praying for the death of the president,” said Drake, who leads Buena Park Southern Baptist Church, near Anaheim, Calif. “Of our prayers, 98 percent should be good prayers, and 2 percent should be imprecatory.”
Imprecatory prayers are based on some of the Psalms where you’ll find great moral advice like “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones” (Ps 137:9). Thank God for the moral guidance of the Bible! Where would we be without such enlightening poetry?
So Drake is right in a way. He can find warrant for what he’s doing in the Bible. And others can point to other passages and show why it’s “against” the Bible. People have been cherry picking bible passages for eighteen centuries.
I wish they’d both wake up and realize it doesn’t really matter what the Bible says.
nomad: You’d love it, Custador. It looks and tastes just like it sounds. Nomnom. 
Matt: I find it very interesting that there are so many people out there with such sad lives as to sit... 
Tyrrlin: Wow… I’d like to buy apostrophes for most of those commenters. Apparently belief in a... 
Mathurine: I’m not so sure that they wouldn’t have. The father in the case is... 
JonJon: I agree. 
Siberia: That’s a question I always ask myself, though in other contexts, would I still be me if I’d... 
Mark Mukasa: I love the Paine pun. xD Awesome article. 
mikespeir: Amen, and amen. 
51 Comments
It frightens me to think that Obama might not last the four years of his first term. What would happen to the US if some cracker shot him? The results would be extremely unpleasant.
At least McCain wasn’t elected, because then when he died, we’d get… well. You know. HER.
That’s bothered me from the start, Custador. I’m almost amazed he’s lasted this long. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these kooks tried to answer Drake’s prayer himself.
after 8 years of the worst possible president you’d think people would be grateful for someone smarter and more, well more presidential.
Obama is the first president in some time who’s well spoken, intelligent, can think for himself, and is unafraid (and knowledgeable) about using technology. For some reason, the people who follow Drake are terrified of people like that.
In Europe people have big respect for Obama.
He is not perfect, he had a hard job to clean up the mess that Bush created.
The scary path was that during the election people actually voted to that Palin woman. A president that believes that the world is 6000 years old having a finger on a nuclear button. What would prevent her to believe that 2012 is all true that the Mayans predicted the end of the world and that it is her job to nuke the world since she is sent by god?
well if you didn’t already know, you’ll be happy to hear see no longer holds any public office. She resigned as governor of Alaska for reasons that aren’t really clear yet.
Probably a sign of God. LOL
Intelligence scares the hell out of inveterate morons.
What an a***hole.
It would be bad enough if he was privately praying for somebody to die. But publicising it is almost like asking other ppl to “do the job”. That’s almost as bad as to engage a hitman.
At least, we should said that that prayer will have an “answer”, Obama will die someday.
What does ” 2 percent SHOULD be imprecatory” mean?? Aren’t you praying right if you don’t ask for someone’s death?
Did Jesus say that 2% of prayer should be imprecatory? I’d think that this goes against what Jesus taught. And I’d say that this “pastor” doesn’t follow Jesus.
But if someone takes shot at Obama, I guess Drake could at least be arrested for instigating it (or for conspiracy or something. Anything to take him out of the real world where he could actually cause people harm).
“Of our prayers, 98 percent should be good prayers, and 2 percent should be imprecatory.”
By saying it like that, isn’t he admitting that imprecatory prayers are NOT good?
It would counter-intuitive for anyone to even try to assassinate President Obama. I can not think of worse possible way to obtain your own personal agenda then to get the masses behind the person you just shot at. Not that these lunatics actually have common sense, but once they stop to think about it for one second, they would realize it would be a very bad idea. Their pathetic attempts to assassinate his character earlier on was the best chance they had, sadly it was just a useless as they are.
Good point. I doubt JFK would be so revered if he hadn’t been gunned down in his prime.
But, we’re not talking about people who stop and think. We’re talking about people who hear voices and see faces and think it’s God trying to contact them. This is just a cowardly attempt to exploit mentally deficient people by inspiring them to believe they’ve been called. It has worked in the past, and the way free speech clauses currently work, apparently it can’t be prevented.
Well he isn’t that bad. I mean he only spends 2% of the time talking to himself about the death of a fellow living creature.
Good point. It has to be at least 3% before it can really be considered bad.
2% is for wusses and wannabee haters.
He reminds me of the anti-abortionist minister who defended those who shot abortionists, and held signs up and shouted that “abortionists were murderers, murderers should be killed” — and then a couple years later, he was found guilty of killing a doctor and his family.
You preach hate, stir people up to do your dirty work, and then if you don’t get quick enough results, you take your message into your own hands.
Yes, Daniel. It has always amazed me how the first people to scream for the death of those they disagree with are the “God fearing good Christians”.
Out of curiosity, do any Christian denominations grant their followers the authority to out-right curse someone? Or can they only appeal to God to do the actual cursing/smiting (through imprecatory prayer)?
To be honest, this is the first i’ve even heard of imprecatory prayer, and I like to flatter myself that I know a lot about several denominations. I’ll have to look it up…
this is from a wikipedia entry, but i promise (cross my heart) that i checked out several other (by and large crazy) websites purporting to explain the idea.
“According to the Book of Proverbs, an undeserved curse has no effect (Proverbs 26:2), but may fall back upon the head of him who utters it (Genesis 12:3; Sirach 21:27), or may be turned by God into a blessing, as in the case of Balaam (Deuteronomy 23:5)…
In the Bible, cursing is generally characteristic of the godless (Ps. 10:7), but may serve as a weapon in the mouth of the wronged, the oppressed, and those who are zealous for God and righteousness (Judges 9:57; Prov. 11:26, 30:10)….
A righteous curse, especially when uttered by persons in authority, was believed to be unfailing in its effect (Gen. 9:25, 27:12; II Kings 2:24; Ecclus. Sirach 3:11). One who had received exemplary punishment at the hands of God was frequently held up, in cursing, as a terrifying object-lesson (Jer. 23: 22), and such a person was said to be, or to have become, a curse (II Kings 22:19; Jer. 24:9, 25: 18; Zechariah 8:13)…
It is especially forbidden to curse God (Exodus 22:28), parents (Ex. 21:17; Leviticus 20:9; Prov. 20:20, 30: 11), the authorities (Ex. 22:28; Eccl. 10:20), and the helpless deaf (Lev. 19:14)
Ok, that out of the way, lets look at that last bit, shall we?
I mean the bit about it being forbidden to curse the authorities.
Exodus 22:28– “Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.”
Ecclesiastes 10:20– “Do not revile the king even in your thoughts,
or curse the rich in your bedroom…”
I think those are pretty straightforward. Additionally, an effective curse seems to be the realm only of those who are given real authority to speak and act for God (like prophet or apostle level authority). And also, a curse which is against the will of God is guaranteed to fail.
So Wiley, I’m terribly sorry, but I don’t think you are in agreement with the will of God, and I am fairly certain that the 2% of prayer you spend praying misfortune on someone else is worse than wasted. May God take justice into his own hands, Amen.
:p
incidentally, imprecatory prayer seems to be incredibly similar to actual cursing, since biblical cursing relies implicitly on the power of God, and imprecatory prayer relies upon it explicitly. The difference is pretty tiny. If there is a difference.
I said that was Very interesting. But my reply did not appear. Don’t know why.
OK. This one did.
So, does this guy use a stopwatch and an excel spreadsheet to make sure he meets that 2% target? Or does he just mean that 2% of all prayers (no matter the relative lengths) should be imprecatory? In which case, he could forgo the stopwatch, but he’d still need a spreadsheet ….
I can just see this guy making sure he’s got the right percentage of “Dear God, please kill xxxx” compared to his other prayers, while being oh-so-sure that he’s a moral, righteous, good man.
If I believed in the power of prayer, I might be tempted to issue an imprecatory prayer or two against Wiley Drake.
This “Pastor”, like so many others has his identity wrapped up in his nationalism, patriotism, etc. He thinks he is of this world…and so he is even though we are told that we are in the world but not of it. He assumes he is John Doe of 1000 Main St, USA, etc. A regenerate and renewed man is a stranger here, his citizenship is not of this world, knows he is not from here, but has a heavenly (meaning spiritual) origin, and is therefore not attached to the temporal confines of his adamic lineage. The renewed man identifies with his spiritual ancestry which is his true origin and end. This way he owns nothing and neither can he himself be owned.
This is the danger of an “American” Gospel, the precious blood of Christ is red, not red, white and blue.
What are you talking about John C? Of course it is
damn, link fail
it is
Jesus vs Jeezus
Someone should shove a shotgun up this preachers ass…. and blow his miniscule brain up to geebus!
This from the article was interesting:
Ooooooh, I hate that guy soooo much! I wish he would just DROP DEAD!! is what this amounts to. Seriously, if you can’t live in a world where you don’t like everyone, the answer is simple as praying they would die? It’s just 2%, a harmless amount! This reminds me of the George Carlin essay in one of his books about legalizing murder for special occasions. People think it’s funny to imagine it’s legal on one day a year to kill your boss or your mother-in-law, but it sort of never dawns on people there are people who hate you and want you to die too.
Imprecatory prayer doesn’t seem that healthy to me if praying is already insane. Now you’ve regressed to your child-like place John C is always talking about, embracing negatives like jealousy and selfishness besides imaginary friends who are always on your side and never the other side; no matter how hard they pray, you’re safe, but you’re a crybaby. Instead of being holy and blessed like the animals we are supposed not to be, he is owning his animal urges to kill, he is suppressing them mostly, leaking about 2% per day so as not to let it build up inside him until he actually takes to murdering his enemies himself. I pray that someone would, so that is god’s decision, and let that person be punished in the legal system so I can sit at home and read my bible by the fireplace and pipe in some wanker music on the Bose, and concentrate my 2% allotment on the next guy down the list.
Wow.
Now christians aren’t even being covert about their hatred and hiding it. They’re coming right out in the open with their hatred.
Fortunately, god is a terrible hitman. He’s likely to miss Obama and just take out indonesia with a tsunami, or half of Mississippi with a hurricane flood.
Hahahahahaha! Yay! Ty is back!
If our lawmakers believe that this country belongs to god and that he answers our prayers, shouldn’t praying for the death of someone be illegal?
“That doesn’t mean I spend every waking hour praying for the death of the president,”
Crazy, some people order it in Bulk.
So much for the Romans 13…
13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
“Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.”
13:4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
13:5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
13:6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
13:7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
That only applies if the authority in question is a white christian male.
Not an uppity negra.
Thank you LRA! Yes. The bible is pretty clear (as far as I can see) that Christians are to respect the governments around them. I can’t think of a good enough reason to justify praying for the death of the ruler of the country. I think it shows a major disconnect between the direction people would like Christianity to point (for their own ideological or personal reasons) and the direction that it actually points (when considered carefully.) This is a huge problem in US Christianity, and I think it is terribly disrespectful to those who are simply and honestly trying to live in the way they believe is best.
But then there’s the verse were the Apostles disobey the government because “they must obey God and not men.” So the anti-abortion fundies would say that overrules Paul’s command.
So would MLK Jr.
Someone who is rational, well-read, curious, open-minded, free-spirited, scarily intelligent, classy, moral, and compassionate, and, well, “black”, is surely the greatest threat EVER to the right wing religious crazies. They abhor all these characteristics, and revel in lack of education, small-mindedness, intolerance, stupidity, and violence. And like LRA said, they are coming right out of the closet with it now. Incredible. The best thing to do is for people like those on this blog to speak, and speak loudly, so that the rational influence can hopefully spread. I just watched Real Time 2nite (never miss it), and I’m so inspired by Bill Maher. If I was witty, had a c*ck, and my own talk show, I would BE him!!!! He speaks the truth, the way I see it, about everything, and for a few moments makes me feel like the world can be sane again.
This is a little off-topic, but only slightly. It’s about the illogical craziness of the christian right. Did you hear Glenn Beck’s psycho freakout????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF4PbqJsRH4&feature=related
That was insane.
Janet….that was THE most disturbing thing I have ever heard. To me he was at least tolerable when he was on CNN, but as soon as he made the move to Faux News, he let all the crazy horses out of the barn….
I know! I couldn’t resist posting it, because I just saw it myself. Incredible.
What a douche!
2 Trackbacks
[...] http://unreasonablefaith.com/2009/07/17/praying-for-obamas-death/ [...]
[...] heard about Pastor Wiley Drake praying for God to kill Obama. Now it seems others are too. There’s a cafepress gift shop with slogans like “Pray [...]