Over the past couple of weeks a story about Wiley Drake, the 2nd vice president of The Southern Baptist Convention and  his name and comment on an online petition  raised a lot of questions and created quite the buzz on Southern Baptist blogs. I wanted to get this up, I am not surprised, but not satisfied with none responsiveness. It is frustrating for reasonable reporters such as Allen when they can’t get straight answers. It is frustrating when they don’t get answers from primaries at all and ranks close.

A key question unanswered is whether The Southern Poverty Law Centre has it’s facts straight. Given their reputation, that matters a great deal, and I am inclined to believe Drake is aware of that.

Endorsement of domestic terrorism is a matter the church and denominational leadership need to take very seriously. This issue needs to grow beyond blogs and into the hands of competent law enforcement and traditional media. Delegates to The Southern Baptist Convention vote on behalf of 16 million Americans, and loyalties aside, they need to be able to make informed decisions about their leadership.

The original posts here and here.

Bob Allen, Ethics Daily:

Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., said he had never heard of James Kopp before a friend told him about the controversy. Drake said he is “against killing babies” but “killing a doctor that is a baby killer is never right,” because “two wrongs do not make murder right.”

The Web site that carried Drake’s signature took his name down soon after EthicsDaily.com sent Drake an e-mail asking questions including whether he would take steps to have it removed. An EthicsDaily.com e-mail to a contact listed at the Army of God Web site asking if anyone requested the removal went unanswered.

The Army of God Web site said the “Declaration of Support for James Kopp,” also titled “Declaration of Support for the Defenders of Unborn Children,” appeared originally on the Missionaries to the Unborn Web site.

Steve Wetzel, who runs the Missionaries to the Unborn site, told EthicsDaily.com he created the original declaration before Kopp’s first trial, and before he admitted guilt to a Buffalo newspaper. Many in the pro-life movement believed Kopp was being railroaded by the government, Wetzel said, and they did not what to “throw Kopp under the bus.”

Wetzel said in an e-mail that no one actually “signed” the declaration, which existed only online. He said he added names as he received e-mails from those wishing to sign on.

“I do know that names were added that should not have been,” Wetzel said. “Fraudulent e-mails were sent in by the God-haters, but as I was going the verification process, Kopp stunned everyone by admitting he did it. Rather than continue the process, I simply deleted the file, as it no longer had meaning.”

Drake did not respond over the weekend to Friday’s e-mail from EthicsDaily.com, which also asked if he had any knowledge of Missionaries of the Unborn.

I don’t think this is going to put this to rest. The Army of God and Wiley Drake have chosen not to speak. The ball is in the court of the congregation I guess. This is filler basically, good background.

EthicsDaily.com also asked Drake if he knew Ferguson, who wrote of protesting with Drake at a Planned Parenthood facility in Orange County, Calif., in 2004.

“I got there about an hour early and watched as pro-abortionists hid their faces as they learned that their shame was to be exposed to their neighborhood,” Ferguson reported. “Rev. Wiley Drake came and shared in this outreach. This man is unlike so many pastors and we in So Cal are most fortunate to have him.”

Ferguson also appealed on Drake’s behalf in 2003 to raise funds when Orange County tax collectors tried to seize the church-owned parsonage where he lived for unpaid taxes. He passed on an e-mail from Drake describing “the devil and his jack-booted thugs” attacking his church while he was out of town.

The homeless ministry of Drake’s church was beneficiary of three-and-a-half pallets of donated restaurant grade tuna delivered in 2005 by an Operation Rescue “Truth Truck,” emblazoned with banner graphics of aborted fetuses.

Drake worked again last fall with Operation Rescue, a group best known for demonstrations at the 1988 Democratic Convention in Atlanta and for blocking access to abortion clinics during the 1991 “Summer of Mercy” in Wichita, Kan., supporting a “Save Wal-Mart” campaign timed with the busiest day of the year for Christmas shopping to pamphlet stores protesting the retailer’s outreach to homosexual groups.

Wetzel said in hindsight the document supporting Kopp now looks bad, but it didn’t at the time. Pro-lifers didn’t want to throw Kopp under the bus, at least before his trial, Wetzel said, but when he admitted to the shooting, “He threw himself under the bus.”

Frederick Clarkson has one of the better posts: An Earnest Denial or a Wiley Evasion? 
He knows his subject matter well.

08/05/07  More details and background, including Drakes history of associations and partnerships with known hard line activists.

Update: 22.05.07 -  Wiley Drake, the Los Angeles-area pastor, radio crusader and Southern Baptist Convention gadfly, has announced he will not allow himself to be nominated for a second term as second vice president of the convention.

The news comes as a surprise to those who follow Southern Baptist news, since Drake had publicly stated in 2006 he would be nominated to the vice president position in 2007 and then ascend to a presidential nomination in 2008.  DallasNews Religion Blog