WILEY S Drake, a Buena Park pastor and a former national leader of America’s Southern Baptist Convention, has called on his followers to pray for the deaths of two leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. 
Drake wants God to take time off from his favourite pastime of messing about with vegetables (see below) because the secularist organisation had the temerity to urge the IRS on Tuesday to investigate Drake’s church’s nonprofit status. This arose as a result of Drake endorsing former Arkansas Gov Mike Huckabee for president on church letterhead and during a church-affiliated Internet radio show.
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.”
Barry W Lynn, Americans United executive director, said it is telling that Drake declined to respond to his group’s charges of tax law violations.
“Instead of addressing our concerns of illegally melding religion and partisan politics, Dr Drake has launched an outlandish attack on us,” said Lynn.
“Calling for curses on us might distract Drake’s supporters, but it won’t help him with the IRS. I trust the tax agents will investigate Drake’s use of church resources to endorse a candidate for public office.”
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The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
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