Pastor who prayed for Tiller's death now prays for death of the president

June 9, 12:37 PMDenver Roman Catholic ExaminerTheresa Navarra

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  Baptist Church demonstators at Tiller's funeral services

Pastor Wiley Drake prayed that abortionist George Tiller's wife would become a widow. Tiller is now dead. Drake claims that his death is an answer to imprecatory prayer. Now he is praying an imprecatory prayer for the death of our president.

Imprecatory Psalms are psalms that contain curses or prayers for the judgment of a nation's enemies, invoking evil upon them. Psalms 7, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 109, 137 and 139 are ones that Drake finds his prayer material in.

Drake repeats words from the book of Psalms in his imprecatory prayers such as Psalm 109:9 where it is written "May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow." This is what he prayed for the late-term abortionist before he was murdered. He says that it is our Christian duty to pray along these vengeful and vindictive lines for religious, political, and personal reasons when other means for change have been exhausted. http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/44143894.html

"Imprecatory prayer is agreeing with God, and if people don't like that, they need to talk to God," Drake told syndicated talk-show host Alan Colmes. "God said it, I didn't. I was just agreeing with God." http://tinyurl.com/lvn6bw

Drake is the ignorant pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, California; and he would do well to follow the example of Jesus, who teaches us just the opposite application for responding to injustice.

From Luke 6:27-36:

"[27] "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, [28] bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. [29] If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. [30] Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. [31] Do to others as you would have them do to you.

[32] "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. [33] And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. [34] And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. [35] But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. [36] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

Drake's prayers did not cause the death of the late-term abortionist. His ridiculous ritual is akin to black magic or spell casting. He may have taken certain Scriptures to use in a self-made formula for what he believes to be a prayer to God, but he is gravely mistaken. He is, in fact, not only not agreeing with God, but acting in defiance to instruction given by our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what Catholicism teaches us about imprecatory psalms:

"The Psalms are at once most human and most superhuman; they sink to the lowest depths of the human heart and soar to the topmost heights of Divine contemplation. So very human are the imprecatory psalms as to make some to wonder how they can have been inspired of God. Surely Jahweh cannot have inspired the singer who prayed:

"As for them that plan my soul to destroy, Down to the depths of the earth shall they go; To the grasp of the sword shall they be delivered; A prey to the jackals shall they become". -- Psalm 83:10-11 (82:10-11)

Such an objection is based upon a misunderstanding. The perfection of the counsels of Christ is one thing, the aim of the good Levite is quite another thing. The ideals of the Sermon on the Mount are of higher spirituality than are the ideals of the imprecatory psalm. Yet the ideals of the imprecatory psalm are not bad -- nay, are good, are Divine in their origin and authority. The imprecatory psalms are national anthems; they express a nation's wrath, not an individual's. Humility and meekness and forgiveness of foe are virtues in an individual; not necessarily so of a nation; by no means so of the Chosen Nation of Jahweh, the people who knew by revelation that Jahweh willed they should be a great nation and should put out their enemies from the land which he gave them."  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12533a.htm

Please pray for the end of abortion with virtue--humility, meekness, and forgiveness, as Jesus taught us to pray. Pray for abortionists and those who assist them but as our Lord would. As Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann wrote in his column, "We need to continue to speak the truth about abortion, but always with love.  Those who perform abortions and those who procure abortions are not our enemies.  We must recognize in them the same God-given dignity that inspires us to be so passionate in protecting the lives of unborn children." http://www.theleaven.com/columnist/archbishop_column.html