“Death to Americans United for Separation of Church and State!”

By Frederick Clarkson | talk2action.org | Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 11:52:29 PM EST

So says Rev.Wiley Drake, the former Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC); current pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California; and current darkhorse candidate for president of the SBC — who has called for “imprecatory prayer” against Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU), especially communications staffers Joe Conn and Jeremy Leaming, and executive director Barry Lynn. In a press release, Drake invoked the 109th Psalm and called them “enemies of God.”

The occasion for Drake’s calling the wrath of God down on AU and its staff was an AU complaint filed against Wiley’s church for endorsing Mike Huckabee (also an SBC minister) for president — on church letterhead, in flagrant violation of the federal tax laws. Drake followed-up with his endorsement on his church-connected radio show with a Huckabee representative on hand. Drake singled out Conn and Leaming because their names appear on the press release announcing AU’s action. The bizarre and sensational actions by Rev. Drake are already making national news.

In light of the recent attack from the enemies of God I ask the children of God to go into action with Imprecatory Prayer. Especially against Americans United for Separation of Church and State. I made an attempt to go to them via Matt 18:15 but they refused to talk to me. Specifically target Joe Conn or Jeremy Learing. They are those who lead the attack.

(You can see their press release attack at http://www.au.org.) Here is part of the press release from Americans United that caught Drake’s ire:

In a complaint to the IRS, Americans United’s Lynn said Dr. Wiley S. Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, issued a press release Aug. 11 endorsing Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Drake’s press release was issued on church letterhead. He also endorsed Huckabee on a church-affiliated radio show and featured a Huckabee campaign official. Americans United’s Lynn says the church’s intervention in partisan politics merits an IRS investigation. “Although Drake may express his personal views on political candidates,” Lynn wrote to the IRS, “federal tax law prohibits such endorsements by religious leaders acting in their capacities as officials of non-profit religious organizations. The IRS has repeatedly warned non-profits not to use organizational resources to intervene in elections. “Use of church letterhead to endorse a candidate for public office appears to violate the provisions of federal tax law that prohibit non-profit intervention in political campaigns,” Lynn continued. “Drake’s endorsement of a candidate on a church-based radio show raises the same concerns.” Drake’s press release clearly endorsed Huckabee and urged other Southern Baptists to support the candidate as well.

AU issued a further press release denouncing Drake’s call for the death of its staff rather than deal with the substance of the issue. AU notes that Drake also left a mesage in Barry Lynn’s voice mail box stating that he had been urging his supporters to pray for God to punish Lynn as well, and would continue to do so.

In a section of his press release called “How To Pray,” Drake includes a long list of biblical citations that call on God to smite enemies. For example, the alleged enemies of God “shall be judged,” “condemned,” and “his days be few. . . .” Additionally, supporters should pray that the enemy’s “children be fatherless, and his wife a widow,” and “his children be continually vagabonds, and beg; let them seek bread also out of their desolate places.” “Let there be none to extend mercy unto him,” Drake quoted, “Neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.”

It is worth noting that Rev. Drake has been associated with the violently antiabortion Army of God — an association he now denies. However, his name appeared for years on the Army of God web site endorsing James Kopp’s assasination of abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian. (It has since been scrubbed.) Drake also maintained a close relationship with the late Robert Ferguson, who the Army of God considers to be a “Hero of the Faith,” along side James Kopp and other convicted criminals.

While these involvements are not incidental, what Drake means by calling down the wrath of god against his “enemies” is the main question here. There is helpful discussion of what Drake might mean by his call for “imprecatory prayer;” written by a Christian reconstructionist and past president of the National Reform Association, the openly theocratic Jeff Ziegler, in a back issue of The Forerunner. In it, he discusses what is meant by the biblical verses Drake invokes in his press release. Here is a brief excerpt explaining the verse highlighted by Drake — who points to the imprecatory prayers uttered by King David in the 109th Psalm. Ziegler says the psalm refers to

the lawbreaker as one who, under the crushing weight of Divine wrath, becomes chaff driven by the wind, who cannot endure the judgement and will by virtue of his wickedness, perish from the earth. This covenantal understanding is paramount if we are to comprehend, embrace, and emulate David’s imprecatory war Psalms and recapture our lawless society. Let us examine the controversial 109th Psalm. David is at prayer warring against the enemies of God. In verses 4 and 5, David gives himself to prayer and describes his enemies as those who act with disdain for God and righteousness. From this forensic, legal ground he proceeds to proclaim and enforce the covenantal negative sanctions against these very same enemies in verses 6 through 29.

OK. So, Americans United files a complaint with the IRS alleging possible violations of the federal tax exemption by Wiley and his church. The IRS, of course, may or may not find against Wiley’s church, and if they did, the sanction, if history is any guide, would no doubt be mild. Probabably a promise not to do it again.

But those government employees who do their job and investigate the hubris driven actions of Wiley Drake will probably want to keep in mind that anyone who crosses Rev. Drake is, in his book, an “enemy of God.”

Because You Can Never Have Too Much Pee Wee Herman

Reluctant Citizens Gear Up for First Election

by SONYAH FATAH | The Globe and Mail

August 11, 2007

THIMPHU, BHUTAN — Monarchies have inspired bloody revolutions, internal dissent and anti-royalist demonstrations. But not in the remote, Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Here, it’s the King who is trumpeting democracy and calling for a one-person, one-vote system.

So far, the citizens have resisted the call. The consensus among the Bhutanese is that democracy is a bad idea. Bhutan will become another India, people say, pointing to the host of internal conflicts in the neighbouring country. They also fear democracy might widen class differences and increase social conflict.

Under the benevolent eyes of the monarchy, peace has been Bhutan’s inheritance, they say.

Still, democracy is the King’s wish, and the reluctant Bhutanese are gearing up for their first general election.

Bhutan’s transition toward democracy was led by former king Jigme Singe Wangchuck as part of a plan to develop and modernize Bhutan. He stepped aside in December, making his eldest son, Oxford-educated Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, King.

It was the father who first determined that Bhutan would turn toward democracy, and speculation on the reasons for his decision includes the self-destruction of the Royal Family in nearby Nepal and the rise of a Maoist guerrilla movement there. Early in his reign, the Royal Family of neighbouring Sikkim was overthrown after India stirred up trouble among Sikkim’s Nepalese population. Bhutan’s Nepalese community, many of them living in refugee camps, has reason to resent the existing powers in Bhutan.

The country is also largely rural — the majority of its people are farmers — and although its development has been impressive over the past 40 years, with increased life expectancy, literacy and income, the country will have to face more complex challenges as time goes on.

Bhutan has been making baby steps away from absolute monarchy for years.

“Democracy is not a new concept,” said Lily Wangchuck, who heads the governance unit for the United Nations Development Program in Bhutan. “That’s a Western perception. There has been an unprecedented process of decentralization over the last four decades.”

Devolution of monarchial power began in earnest in 1981 for this country of fewer than 700,000 people. People elect their own village and town representatives, but those votes are cast on a one-household, one-vote basis. A council of ministers, appointed by the King and handpicked from Bhutan’s civil service, took over the handling of daily government affairs in 2001.

But this time out, in elections scheduled to be held in two rounds in February and March — academics from the University of Canberra and the Australian National University helped to set up the election process and the shape of the government that will follow — the individual right to vote will be embraced for the first time.

The idea isn’t appealing to most people — yet.

“We like only the monarchy,” said Kinley Chuki, 18, who is getting a diploma in education and helps run the family-owned general store on the main street in Paro. “If democracy comes, we will become like India.”

Bhutanese feel that the monarchy has been a force for stability and unity. They have awful tales to tell about the “former times,” a general reference to the turbulent period that predates 1907, the year the monarchy was born.

Ms. Chuki’s grandmother, Nimdem, 80, who spent most of her life picking apples in an orchard near Paro, says she fears democracy will create greater class cleavages.

“Under democracy, only upper-class people with backgrounds will be successful.”

Citizens have been slow in engaging in the nascent political process, even the creation of parties to vie for votes has been a struggle.

A former minister and the brother of Bhutan’s queens — four sisters who are married to the former king — lead the People’s Democratic Party. Bhutan’s Prime Minister Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuck and six cabinet ministers resigned to contest elections, a move widely seen to bring legitimacy to the election process, but one that has also brought dissatisfaction as would-be candidates, having given up their jobs, find they have been sidelined by political candidates.

This year the government held two rounds of mock elections to prepare voters for the real thing. Still, the Bhutanese are struggling to understand the process and its purpose.

“The King’s concern is to develop Bhutan, which is why he is asking for democracy,” said Pema Gyeltshen, 49, a junior high school teacher in Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital, who also sells prayer flags at a monastery. “But hardly 50 per cent of the people know what democracy is.”

Not everyone is afraid of a future in a democratic Bhutan. For students like Ugyen Tenzing, 24 and Tenzing Dorji, 25, graduates of Bhutan’s only degree college, political change is healthy.

“People haven’t recognized it yet but democracy is a good thing for people because they can participate in a democracy,” Mr. Tenzing said.

The country, romanticized by many as the “last Shangri-La” on Earth, also has its skeletons.

Many fear that democracy will result in accusations of human-rights violations against the country’s Nepalese population.

The Bhutanese-Nepalese, known as the Lhotshampa or southern Bhutanese, came and settled in the southern part of the country in the early 20th century.

In the 1980s, a new law required all Bhutanese to wear their national dress at public and official events, to school and at work. Nepali, which had been introduced as a language in schools around 1950, was cut from school curriculums.

Many Nepalese saw this as a direct threat to their inclusion in Bhutanese society.

An exodus of Bhutanese-Nepalese occurred between 1988 and 1993 after a series of brutal acts, including rape and murder, were committed against the southern Bhutanese, many of whom still live as stateless people in camps on the Nepal side of the border.

There are no human-rights groups in Bhutan at the moment but that, like many other things, is likely to change when the first Bhutanese-elected government comes to power next year.

For Dorji Wangmo, 24, and a graduate of Sherubtse College, reform in Bhutan is inevitable.

“There is no choice. Change had to happen. That is the future.”