Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and a former Southern Baptist minister, is considered by many to be the Christian’s leading choice for president. One would expect, however, that Huckabee is thinking some very unchristian thoughts today about one of his most vocal supporters, the Rev. Wiley Drake of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif.

Recently Rev. Drake sent out a letter offering his personal endorsement of Huckabee for President. Just endorsing Huckabee as an individual would not have gotten him in trouble but he made the technical error of sending out this endorsement on church stationery. That puts him in the position of a church leader endorsing a political candidate and, under Internal Revenue Service rules, that jeopardizes his church’s tax exempt status.

The IRS probably would not have even known about Rev. Drake’s folly had it not been for a group called Americans United for Separation of Church and State. They found out about the de facto Huckabee endorsement by a church and reported it to the IRS.

So while other ministers are praying for peace or praying for blessings from God, and encouraging their followers to do the same, Rev. Drake is asking his parishioners to pray for revenge; he is calling for an imprecatory prayer for the punishment and/or deaths of officials of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Today’s International Herald Tribune reports the following:

“On his Internet show, in a news release on ChristianNewsWire and in an e-mail to Americans United, Drake called on others to pray that the Americans United officials be punished. He gave as examples of imprecatory prayer: “Persecute them. … Let them be put to shame and perish.” “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” “Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg.”

Rev. Drake claims that this is what God wants — he says (correctly by the way), that the Bible calls for imprecatory prayer when someone “attacks the church.”

Reverend Drake is clearly a man who would make a great Muslim Imam — he has the same values as the ones who call for the deaths of all those who do not submit themselves to Allah. The Rev. Drake, however, should not hold a position in any Christian church. I would hope that, as I write this, there are two statements being drafted for release A.S.A.P.:

One from the national leadership of the Southern Baptist Church, chastising Rev. Drake and, more importantly, removing him from his position as a Southern Baptist minister.

The second statement that should be in the works, even at this late hour, is a statement for Mike Huckabee, denouncing Rev. Drake in no uncertain terms and rejecting his support.

If Huckabee does any less than that, we may have to question his sanity as well.

News Links:

Los Angeles Times: Pastor asks followers to pray for his critics to die

International Herald Tribune: US minister asks followers to pray for deaths of those questioning backing of Republican

What Bloggers are saying:

Notes From the Dreamtime: “Death to Americans United for Separation of Church and State!”

The Rev. Chuck Currie: Southern Baptist Minister Mistakes Mike Huckabee For God

News and commentary by: Whymrhymer can also be found at the My View from the Center and at The American Chronicle Family of Journals