Addressing 1,200 delegates representing 600,000 members of Missouri’s Southern Baptist Church at their annual state convention, Reverend David Clippard called up images of a fresh hell for trusting Christians: Muslims are headed for America, and “what they are after are your sons and daughters.”

According to Clippard, the Saudi government has secretly been funding Muslim Student Associations on the campuses of U.S. colleges with the intention of converting the infidels as part of their broader plan of “taking over America.” Detroit, he warned, was already on its way back to “the 15th century” and Islamic law.

“Your freedom is on the floor with their foot on it, with their sword raised,” Clippard prophesized. “And if you don’t convert, your head comes off.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, says Clippard’s brand of “hate-filled, ignorant rhetoric shouldn’t be coming from religious leaders,” but Clippard swears he doesn’t hate anyone.

“We need to love these folks,” Clippard said. “Go after them and love them one at a time.” And he’s not talking about the Ted Haggard, methed-up, angry bareback love, either. Clippard wants to “crucify them with Christ.”

» Scott Saxon