Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
John Avlon at the Daily Beast writes about Wiley Drake, the nutball Baptist preacher from California, telling his parishioners that they have a duty to pray for the death of President Obama:
Pastor Wiley Drake kicked off this Presidents' Day Weekend with an email blast to his supporters saying "Imprecatory Prayer is now our DUTY" and announcing a daily teleconference call to advance the cause. Drake has been an enthusiastic advocate of imprecatory prayer since he announced that God answered his call with the murder of Kansas abortion clinic doctor George Tiller in church last May. "George Tiller was far greater in his atrocities than Adolf Hitler," Drake said at the time, "so I am happy. I am glad that he is dead." This emboldened him to add "the usurper that is in the White House ... B. Hussein Obama" to the list said in his church on Sundays.
And as Avlon notes, Drake is hardly some lone nut in the wilderness:
Sadly, Drake is not a complete fringe figure. He served as a second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in '06 and '07. In '08, he received 47,000 votes as the vice-presidential nominee of the American Independent Party, alongside conservative activist Alan Keyes, Obama's GOP opponent when he was elected to the Senate in 2004.
And of course, he's into the whole suite of anti-Obama bullshit:
"I'm known as a birther, you know. I don't believe Obama was born in this country. He's an illegal alien and so forth," Wiley told me, matter-of-factly. "And so I began to pray what the Bible teaches us to pray and that is imprecatory prayer. An imprecatory prayer is very strong. Imprecatory prayer in Psalms 109, for example, says if you have an evil leader above you, you pray that Satan will stand by his side and you ask God to make his children fatherless and his wife a widow and that his time in office be short... Other Psalms say when they speak evil, God will break out their teeth and when they run to do destruction God will break their legs."To those offended by the idea of praying for death, Wiley shrugs. "I'm praying the word of God. I didn't write it. Don't get mad at me."
I find this bizarre. God hasn't struck down Obama yet. Does Drake think it takes some magic number of people praying to get the old man moving? And what about all the people praying for God to bless Obama and keep him safe? Maybe, just maybe, the fact that God hasn't yet killed Obama is evidence that those people's prayers are being listened to and not Drake's. Maybe - gasp - God thinks Drake is full of shit. I know I do.
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I predict that in 40-50 years, way after Obama is finished with public service... and perhaps after an unrelated stroke or heart attack... that Drake will finally be claiming victory for his imprecatory prayer.
lol
Posted by: doctorgoo | February 18, 2010 9:30 AM
I'm glad to no longer be associated with that organization.
Posted by: MartyM | February 18, 2010 9:31 AM
His interpretation of Psalms neglects to consider Romans 13: 1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
Posted by: lmf3b | February 18, 2010 9:32 AM
Considering that Dr. Tiller was murdered, and Drake claims credit for his death. It seems that this call for prayer is a pretty much an open call for someone to assassinate the president.
Posted by: topher | February 18, 2010 9:45 AM
And I bet Drake calls himself "pro-life". If you can actually wish for real humans lives to end, and commend murderers, and still call yourself "pro-life", you're a deluded fool.
Posted by: catgirl | February 18, 2010 9:49 AM
My questions:
1. Isn't illegal to threaten the President (even if you want your imaginary friend to do the deed)?
2. What is the basis for this death threat? What has Obama done that is so harmful that the only recourse is ask for his death?
Posted by: Brent | February 18, 2010 9:50 AM
Wiley: "I didn't write it. Don't get mad at me."
What's next? Blaming the dynamite when all he did was light the fuse?
Posted by: Reverend Rodney | February 18, 2010 9:57 AM
You mean, aside from being openly, brazenly, unrepentantly non-white?
Posted by: Rick R | February 18, 2010 9:58 AM
If an Imam were preaching the same rhetoric, and it got out, wouldn't they be looking at being 'detained indefinitely'?
Posted by: Martin | February 18, 2010 9:58 AM
Well, so much for the idea that fundie Christian theocrats are more civilized than the Taliban.
Posted by: Raging Bee | February 18, 2010 10:26 AM
To those offended by the idea of praying for death, Wiley shrugs. "I'm praying the word of God. I didn't write it. Don't get mad at me."
More infantilism from the "Christian" "right." This guy doesn't even have the guts to stand behind his own words, let alone step up and do the deed he prays for. He's nothing but a disgraceful, ridiculous, vindictive, hateful, cowardly wimp, hiding behind the trouser-legs of an imaginary father-figure while projectile-excreting his pointless hatred in all directions. This guy obviously never grew up at all.
Posted by: Raging Bee | February 18, 2010 10:33 AM
Wiley Drake is black himself, so I doubt Obama's color has anything to do with it. He's just nuts.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | February 18, 2010 10:37 AM
Drake probably doesn't acknowledge that IF imprecatory prayer were indeed effective, there would be nothing stopping others from using imprecatory prayer on HIM. And just a small historical note: used to be, when someone sought to cause harm to others through supernatural means, they were called witches and were burned at the stake by righteous, god-fearing christians. How many irony meters can we bust with just one man's stupidity?
Posted by: gary l. day | February 18, 2010 11:03 AM
If he has said he the doctor's death by praying for it, isn't that a confession of murder? Let's try him for murder in some state where the jurors are likely to believe in god.
Posted by: cdrealist | February 18, 2010 11:04 AM
I am a pro-choice Republican (although I find the concept of late term abortion despicable). This guy is a nut for someone to pray for the death of our President (no matter how awful a president he is) is terrible. This guy is just as bad as many on the radical left who called for the death of Bush when he was President. Criticism of the president is fine but calling to harm him is criminal.
Posted by: AFSGTSAM | February 18, 2010 11:09 AM
Ed,
Are you sure?
He doesn't appear to be black to me.
Posted by: heddle | February 18, 2010 11:17 AM
This guy is just as bad as many on the radical left who called for the death of Bush when he was President.
Who, exactly, has done this, and how central were those people within the Democratic Party or any left-of-center movement? Were any of them as central as this guy is in one of America's major denominations?
I sense yet another cowardly false-equivalency argument from yet another right-wing extremist looking to distract attention away from his faction's obvious toxic evil.
Posted by: Raging Bee | February 18, 2010 11:18 AM
When I saw this headline, I thought it was because Obama didn't show up at the press conference yesterday with an smudged ash cross on his forehead (like Biden did).
Then I read this, and thought, "No, this craziness is even more crazy than wishing evil of a man who didn't (yet?) go through a Christian ritual to get ash smeared on his temple -- or washed it off."
Posted by: mercurianferret | February 18, 2010 11:21 AM
If that guy's black, then I'm Uzbek.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | February 18, 2010 11:51 AM
Everyone knows that his god has a threshold number for prayer requests - that's why the major ones are never answered (how many pray to regrow limbs) while the minor ones always are (guess how many pray to find a parking spot). If this pastor can get enough prayer to get over the threshold, then his god will have no choice but to act - it's in his contract.
Posted by: Badger3k | February 18, 2010 12:05 PM
I don't know where Ed got the idea that Drake is black. He isn't. You can see for yourself here:
http://www.totaltalknonsense.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/wiley-drake3.jpg
Posted by: Wes | February 18, 2010 12:12 PM
I just did a Google search for Drake and a few pictures of a black man popped up along with those of a white man.
Posted by: Jeremy Shaffer | February 18, 2010 12:28 PM
God would never have time to kill Obama anyway. After all, he's spending all His efforts on feeding the starving in Africa and Asia, housing the homeless in Haiti, curing illness in poor countries all over the globe. ...
Oh, wait, maybe He DOES have time to kill Obama.
Posted by: Fifth Dentist | February 18, 2010 12:43 PM
Pastor Wiley Drake or Pastor Wiley Drake? - Dingo
Posted by: DingoJack | February 18, 2010 12:52 PM
Perhaps Ed was refering to Wiley's heart.
Posted by: Abby Normal | February 18, 2010 12:53 PM
On February 18, 2010 10:33 AM, Raging Bee @17 wrote:
More infantilism from the "Christian" "right." This guy doesn't even have the guts to stand behind his own words, let alone step up and do the deed he prays for. He's nothing but a disgraceful, ridiculous, vindictive, hateful, cowardly wimp, hiding behind the trouser-legs of an imaginary father-figure while projectile-excreting his pointless hatred in all directions. This guy obviously never grew up at all.
This "don't blame me, talk to god about it" meme seems to be catching on amongst Christians lately. At least, I have been seeing it more often lately. It does seem pretty infantile: "I need the bible to tell me what to think."
Somewhere I saw a "Motivation"-style jpeg on the internet of a preacher with a caption saying: "The Bible: If it's God's Word, why is it always people doing the talking?"
Posted by: Blue Nine | February 18, 2010 1:11 PM
Praying for someone to die isn't a threat to their life, as prayer is completely ineffective.
Posted by: Miko | February 18, 2010 1:32 PM
@#1: Look how well it worked for Castro. ;-)
Posted by: Kenn | February 18, 2010 1:35 PM
This particular Pastor Wiley Drake is white, at least based on the picture in this article about him from the Associated Baptist Press.
http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/4119/53/
Posted by: Long Time Reader First Time Poster | February 18, 2010 1:35 PM
I think you are confusing him with Pastor manning, who is black and has called Obama the "Long legged, mack Daddy."
Posted by: Chilidog | February 18, 2010 2:57 PM
I think this is like threatening someone with a toy gun that you don't realize is a toy. Would that still be illegal?
Posted by: catgirl | February 18, 2010 3:05 PM
Arrest them & prosecute them for attempted murder.
Doesn't matter that prayer isn't effective, the motive is there just as much as if they were using a rifle that jammed or misfired.
And SAM, you say you're a Republican? In the other thread you said you were a Libertarian. Can't you tell the difference?
Posted by: Rob Jase | February 18, 2010 3:31 PM
catgirl @31:
Well that is, in fact, illegal, assuming the victim can't tell the difference. It's like a hate crime; even if the victim isn't actually gay (or Middle Eastern etc.), it's the intent of the attacker that matters.
Posted by: Kyorosuke | February 18, 2010 4:35 PM
"Well, so much for the idea that fundie Christian theocrats are more civilized than the Taliban." -Raging Bee @ 10
No, just more cowardly.
Posted by: Tamarron | February 18, 2010 4:46 PM
Actually, I think it's like threatening someone with a bag of cotton candy that you think is actually a gun. I'm not sure that's a legal matter, as much as one for the medical professionals.
Posted by: James Hanley | February 18, 2010 4:55 PM
I'm sorry, but that's crazy talk. It's veering too close to advocating punishment for thought crime....Unless my sarcasm meter is broken again.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | February 18, 2010 5:04 PM
Southern Baptists are usually pretty crazy. Wikipedia has an interesting article about the shift in cultural policy from varied to extremely fundamental here. Essentially, conservative members of the SBC worked to elect strictly wing-nut clerics to power till all moderates and liberals were replaced. It's an interesting example of American culture war.
Posted by: Tamarron | February 18, 2010 5:10 PM
Actually, it would be great to challenge him on this.
Are you 1) advocating that people employ supernatural means to brings direct harm to the president, and therefore inciting murder, or 2) are you advocating something harmless because we all know praying doesn't work anyway.
It's one or the other - he has to admit that he is either conspiring to commit murder (at the very least trying to hire a supernatural hitman) or he is a fraud. It has to be one or the other.
If prayer works, then he is actively working to kill somebody. The only way he can be innocent of attempted murder is if he admits prayer doesn't work.
Oh please, please, get him on Rachel Maddow's show and let her present that dichotomy to him.
Posted by: DexX | February 18, 2010 6:33 PM
topher - "Considering that Dr. Tiller was murdered, and Drake claims credit for his death. It seems that this call for prayer is a pretty much an open call for someone to assassinate the president."
Exactly. Just a matter of time before some unemployed and frustrated loser who lacks any other apparent opportunities and outlets to decide to step up as 'an agent of God' and make a little history with his otherwise unremarkable life.
Frustration and a strong sense of victimization underlay suicide assassins. Both Christian and Muslim. All they need is someone to provide the logic of violence as a noble act and a viable excuse, usually redress of victimization and return to halcyon days before the good guys were 'stabbed in the back'. Revenge and the positive vision of return to a better time made a heady combination.
Posted by: Art | February 18, 2010 7:42 PM
@#15: This guy is just as bad as many on the radical left who called for the death of Bush when he was President.
[citation needed]
Posted by: Ray C. | February 18, 2010 8:11 PM
"
I am a pro-choice Republican (although I find the concept of late term abortion despicable). This guy is a nut for someone to pray for the death of our President (no matter how awful a president he is) is terrible. This guy is just as bad as many on the radical left who called for the death of Bush when he was President. Criticism of the president is fine but calling to harm him is criminal.
"
AFSGTSAM, I agree with you, but just a small, off-topic detail: Most really late abortions occur because of the imperfections of ultrasound scans. Sometimes really horrific pathologies -such as the brain extending outside the cranium- can escape detection until late in pregnancy, and the pregnancy will either result in a miscarriage, or in the child dying hours after birth. Under such special circumstances, even most Republicans would probably approve of abortion.
I am told Dr. Tiller performed precisely this kind of late-term abortions.
Posted by: Birger Johansson | February 18, 2010 8:16 PM
I don't believe Obama was born in this country. He's an illegal alien...
Not only is Drake nuts, but he's logic-impaired as well. Even if his first claim is true (and it isn't), that doesn't mean that Obama is "an illegal alien,"...unless Drake has literally no concept of "legal immigration."
Posted by: daniel rotter | February 18, 2010 8:41 PM
If Mr. Drake is aware of the all the relevant passages of the Bible, and as a fundie preacher he may very well not, he's probably attracted to the birfer meme for one reason.
If the President is not a natural born citizen, then his description of President Obama as an 'usurper' is arguable, which in his mind possibly rationalizes that he can avoid God's commandment (through Paul if you are an inerrant) in Romans 13 to submit to the President in both action and conscience. Here's the passage:
There is also at least one passage commanding that Mr. Drake pray for his governing leaders' well-being though I don't remember the passage reference.
I haven't studied the intercessory prayer passages Mr. Drake is leveraging to pray for the President's demise and horrible harm to his family so I don't know whether Mr. Drake is interpreting those passages incorrectly or whether those passages are just one more example of a biblical contradiction. My guess is the former given this guy appears as intelligent as Rep. Bachmann or Ray Comfort.
Posted by: Michael Heath | February 18, 2010 9:41 PM
This might be what you're thinking of Michael.
Posted by: Dr X | February 18, 2010 10:58 PM
I presume this church is NOT a non-profit one and if it is the IRS should look into it as this loopy pastor is espousing a deviant form of religion and at the same time advocating political over-kill.
Posted by: The_Observer | February 19, 2010 8:45 AM
Drake knows what he is saying.
He does not imagine a bolt of lightning will strike the President of the United States. But he hopes he can fire up one individual to murder Obama. After which, of course, he will deny all responsibility.
Posted by: mark | February 19, 2010 1:01 PM
The FBI is aware of issues related to imprecatory prayer as a call for assassination of the President and other public officials.
This I know because I sent in a 40-page "Facts-In-Evidence" report on the subject last year. (And that's why this posting has to be anonymous.)
The way it works, these preachers use "imprecatory prayer" as a cover for publicly calling for the death of public officials in a manner that is likely to incite "lone wolves" to attempt to do the deed. I managed to prove that pretty conclusively in my report last year, by dissecting the Biblical references and even the grammar of a couple of the most egregious ones. Basically the tortured grammar was designed to put them at enough of a distance from the actual incitement, to serve as a legal cover. Yet once you work your way through it and subtract out the noise from the signal, what you get is them saying roughly "I want you to kill the President in the name of God."
Looks as if I have another one to add to the watchlists.
Posted by: anonymous | February 21, 2010 1:07 AM
Hasn't that last commenter revealed himself to his bosses. Surely there can't be too many FBI workers submitting 40 page reports on the issue? Just aa thought
Posted by: The_Observer | February 21, 2010 4:39 AM
Who says I'm an employee of the FBI? In point of fact I am not.
You'd be surprised at how many civilians there are who know how to do this and have channels for doing it. You would be more than surprised.
I didn't reveal enough of anything in my posting to compromise any investigations in progress.
And last but not least, my primary concern with anonymity is to minimize the risk of meeting someone like Scott Roeder under any circumstances other than when they are in custody.
Posted by: anonymous | February 22, 2010 7:13 AM