BUENA PARK, Calif. (ABP) — A former Southern Baptist Convention officer who made headlines in June when he said on national radio that he was praying for Barack Obama to die now says he wants to see the president live long enough to stand trial for treason.
Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., was second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006-2007.
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Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., issued a press release Nov. 19 calling for an end to "imprecatory prayer" — words of judgment from the Book of Psalms prayed back to God, directed toward Obama.
Drake said he is now "calling for all of God's people and prayer warriors to cease the imprecatory prayer, and pray for Mr. Obama's protection until he can be properly tried for treason."
Drake attributed his change of heart to "spiritual counsel" of James David Manning, pastor at ATLAH World Missionary Church in New York, contained in a 16 1/2-minute video recorded Nov. 18.
"I have asked men everywhere please do you no harm," Manning said in remarks he addressed to "Barack Hussein the long-legged mack daddy Obama." According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, "mack daddy" is slang for a slick womanizer or conspicuously successful pimp.
"I do not want to see anyone attempt, dream about, think about or ever discuss assassinating you," Manning continued. "It is most important to you and to my savior Jesus that you live, and that you live a long life, but that you live that we might be able to bring you to trial. You see if someone does you harm, and you are not able to be brought to trial, then we lose the opportunity of proving our statements that you are not the president of the United States of America. You are not. You are an illegal alien, a usurper."
Manning preached a series of harsh sermons last year against then-candidate Obama that prompted Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to ask the IRS to investigate him for violating rules governing tax-exempt charities against electioneering. He says he was visited by officials from the Department of Homeland Security after a recent video message in which he advised people who strongly oppose Obama to "be ready to die."
Drake, who was second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006-2007, said he was also questioned in his home by the Secret Service after he said in a Fox News Radio interview June 2 with Alan Colmes that he was praying for Obama to die.
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention criticized Drake's comment and said that most Southern Baptists believe it is their duty to pray for the well-being of government leaders. In June the SBC passed a resolution praising the election of America's first African-American president while criticizing a number of Obama's policies.
Drake, a third-party candidate for vice president from the American Independent Party on the California ballot in the 2008 presidential election, recently lost a round in an ongoing legal battle challenging the legitimacy of Obama's presidency.
U.S. District Judge David Carter dismissed a lawsuit filed by Drake and other plaintiffs Oct. 29, saying the Constitution does not give federal courts, but only Congress, the authority to remove a sitting president.
Drake said his attorney, Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation, filed an appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Nov. 16.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.