Posted on 07/01/2005 11:09:50 AM PDT by tyw
Friday, July 1, 2005 10:09 a.m. EDT
The Rev. Billy Graham said Friday that he didn't intend to endorse Hillary Clinton for president when he told her husband at a massive New York City revival meeting last weekend that she should "run the country."
His son Franklin Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, tells the Charlotte Observer:
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"For a long time, my father has refrained from endorsing political candidates and he certainly did not intend for his comments to be an endorsement for Senator Hillary Clinton." "My father, of course, was joking," the younger Graham said, when he hosted the Clintons onstage and told the crowd of 90,000, "They're a great couple. ... He should be an evangelist because he has all the gifts and he could leave his wife to run the country."
Although Billy Graham has called himself a Democrat, Franklin said that didn't mean he supported the former president, saying, "His political views, as well as mine, are quite different than the Clintons'."
The Clintons, however "remain good friends," he added.
The Rev. Graham felt compelled to issue the clarification after receiving more than 100 e-mails and calls of protest, the Observer said.
The Rev. Graham's words of praise for the former first couple prompted significant consternation among some of his most devoted followers.
National Clergy Council President Rev. Rob Schenck, for instance - who had traveled from Washington, D.C., to Queens, N.Y., just to hear his "role model" preach - walked out of the event after the Clintons were feted onstage.
"I was stunned and appalled," the Rev. Schenck told the Christian Wire Service.
"It was disturbing to watch Billy Graham, a man whom I’ve admired for years, being used by evil to mislead countless Christians," complained the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, head of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny [BOND].
I'm glad that's cleared up.
Like Zell Miller and others, Zell is STILL a Democrat, most in the South were Democrats and Democrats were conservative at that time. Graham was part of that. LBJ started the hijacking of the party and it continued through Caeter and Clinton.
Democrat???
When impeached and disgraced Bill Clinton was in trouble for lying about "sexual relations" with an intern, Billy Graham came to his rescue. During NBC's Today Show in February 1998, Graham said of Clinton, "He has such a tremendous personality that I think the ladies just go wild over him." Graham didn't think Clinton could be expected to resist having oral sex with Monica Lewinsky. The so-called evangelist said, "I know the frailty of human nature, and especially a strong, vigorous young man like he is."
Corrected
FYI ping
?!?!?
LBJ was the less competent heir of the ubersocialist FDR.
"i didn't mean to elect hillary".
oh, so sorry, dude!
cool looking thread ... lets try closing a center tag and see if things change ...
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I've been disappointed in Graham since he felt sorry for Clintoon during the Lewinsky scandal.
Billy Graham appears to be an ass-kissing liar to me.
If he was not endorsing them he shouldn't have shared the stage with them.
Actually Graham lives quite humbly, last I heard.
When then-President B.J. visited Pope John Paul II, he remarked that they had a good meeting, and got closer to each other on the subject of abortion. The Vatican immediately issued a statement that said something to the effect that unless Pres. B.J. had modified his views, there was no way they got closer on that issue.
Clear as mud. No quotes from Billy himself, only spin control from Franklin.
That is possible, but I'm sure his foundation will go on and his lovey-dovey act with the heathen klintoons had to hurt the foundation.
Billy Graham may be getting senile, but what on earth is wrong with his friends and advisers? Why were the clintons given special treatment and allowed on the stage? Was this an evangelical occasion to spread the word of Christ or a political endorsement? If it was not meant to be a political endorsement, how could they have dreamed of permitting a pair of snakes like the clintons on stage to predictably turn it into one?
Instead of being all about Jesus, as it was presumably meant to have been, it was all about hillary.
That's really over the top. If he is anything, yhe Rev. BG has always been on the up and up morally, ethically and financially. While I think he used poor judgment here, I don't think it's fair to impune his character, not after over 5 decades of the contrary. He IS an imperfect sinner. That's why he preaches the message he does. I also think that the Clintons used him for political advantage and he just didn't see it coming. They dirty everyone they come near. As conservatives who have watched these evil people for so long, we ought to know that and put the blame where it belongs.
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