Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has some rabid followers in the clergy. In fact, a couple of them are so zealous that they are willing to break the law to endorse him.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Huckabee campaign volunteer Rev. Tim Rude, who sent an email to some Iowa Sam Brownback supporters, telling them that he and his staff were supporting Huckabee and they should too. In the process of heaping praises on Huckabee, he made a snide reference to Brownback’s conversion to Catholicism (”Frankly, as a recovering Catholic myself, that is all I need to know about his discernment when compared to the Governor’s.”) for which he later “apologized”, saying he was only trying to encourage Protestants to vote for Protestants and that he never intended for the email to be made public. I guess not. No word yet on whether the IRS plans to re-evaluate the tax exempt status of his church.
Not to be outdone, Rev. Wiley Drake, pastor of a Buena Park CA megachurch and former national leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, endorsed Huckabee on church letterhead and during a church-affiliated radio show. That bit of blatant law-breaking was reported to the IRS by officials of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. But Rev. Drake isn’t going down without a fight; last week he urged his followers to pray for the deaths of two AUSCS leaders.
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.”
Forgive me if I’m a bit confused. I thought we were supposed to be all aflutter because Muslim extremists believe God wants their enemies to die, and here Drake is, pointing out the ugly underbelly of Christian fundamentalism. He’d better hope nothing happens to either of these men. I don’t think God will take the blame if some kook decides to dispense a little fundie “justice”.
Speaking of ministers and politics, if you haven’t seen the speech the Baptist preacher made in behalf of Ron Paul at the West Alabama GOP Straw Poll in Tuscaloosa last Saturday, you missed a good one. Let me see if I can post the links to it:
Part One of Killian’s speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doA-FjYzkww
Part Two of the speech and announcing a winner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R83HhOy5v2U
No, see, it’s like this: Christians know they can trust their God, the all-powerful, true God, to respond to imprecatory prayer — to “git ‘er done,” so to speak. Since the Muslims are praying to a false God, naturally their “imprecatory” prayers yield no results, so they have to strap bombs on their children’s bellies in order to meet their destructive goals.
This instructive website on the benefits (and dangers!) of imprecatory prayer should clear everything up for you.
Thanks, Del. That cleared it all up for me. I particularly liked the cartoon fox.
Damn, Don, the guy starts out invoking Jefferson Davis. I guess that might go over well in certain parts of Alabama. I hope he made it clear that he was speaking as a private citizen and not as a pastor.
Kathy, when I said I thought it was a good speech, I didn’t mean the content of it, but his delivery. It seemed passionate, fiery, designed to arouse the listeners. I’d surely hate to be sitting in the front pew in his church when he delivers a hellfire and brimstone sermon.
(
“I’d surely hate to be sitting in the front pew in his church when he delivers a hellfire and brimstone sermon.
(”
Yeah — I suspect you’d need a face towel.
Now, Kathy, what on God’s green earth could you possibly be implying?
“Now, Kathy, what on God’s green earth could you possibly be implying?”
The inevitable product of overexcited speakers — spit.
How would you like to be judged by two crazy people who happen to like you. Huckabee did not support eithers action. I know him personally, He is what you see, I know it’s been a long time since a genuine person has run for President, but he is the real deal! By the way the guy in California is pastor of a small church and Would classify as a Barney Fife comment recipient “He’s a Nut!”
Larry, anyone who likes me would have to be crazy.
I wasn’t criticizing Huckabee.