Huckabee spokesperson calls Wiley Drake's comments "evil"

Thanks again to Melissa Rogers for this heads up. This is a bit of good news/bad news. One one hand, I really not considered just how batshit crazy Drake's attack was. I kind of thought he was just calling on God to disfavor these individuals. I guess I hadn't considered just how bloodthirsty Drake is, or how fond he is of the OT God here. But he is calling for these people to die, for their children to be "fatherless." A Southern Baptist fatwa, in other words. Truly unbelievable and horrifying.

And Drake isn't backing off. Of course, as a true crazy wingnut, he is just blaming God for it.

“The prayer does call for serious, serious punishment on people. But I didn’t call for that, God did,” said Drake, who completed a term in June as second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The whole "God did it" is nice, isn't it? I always love the passive aggressive "your argument isn't with me, but with God" that is so often used by fundamentalists. No, Mr. Drake (I won't call you a minister--ministers don't do this. Mob bosses and terrorists do this) our argument is with you and your pretense to represent something approaching Christianity.

Oh, and all of this was because Americans United suggested that Drake be investigated for using Southern Baptist letterhead to endorse Mike Huckabee for President. As Barry Lynn noted, that is beyond the allowable endorsement for someone trying to keep their tax exempt status. Never mind that Drake is free to endorse whoever he wants as a private citizen. That is not enough for the crazy wingnut.

Drake said in a telephone interview Thursday that neither he nor the church violated the law and insisted he could use church stationery and the Internet program to “personally” endorse a political candidate. He said the Bible calls for imprecatory prayer when someone “attacks the church.”

Because Wiley Drake IS the church, evidently. Maybe when he dies, the Southern Baptists who have allowed him to have this voice will put up a shrine to him along with eternal flame and bus parking.

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.”

This makes me want to vomit. A supposed minister hoping that children be poor and fatherless.

The only good news here is that Huckabee's spokesperson responded forcefully:

Huckabee was campaigning Thursday. Alice Stewart, a campaign spokesman, said the campaign did not coordinate with Drake on any of the material he’s distributed regarding the Americans United complaint.

“We certainly don’t condone the evil comments he’s made,” she said.

Yes, they are evil. I think I need a shower.