Posted on 04/25/2019 2:44:58 PM PDT by Ennis85
It’s hard to think of a single prominent American Christian who better illustrates the collapsing Evangelical public witness than Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son. His commitment to the Christian character of American public officials seems to depend largely on their partisan political identity.
Let’s look at the record. In 1998, at the height of Bill Clinton’s sex scandals, the younger Graham wrote a powerful op-ed in the Wall Street Journal combating Clinton’s assertion that his affair was a “private” matter. Clinton argued that his misdeeds were “between me, the two people I love the most — my wife and our daughter — and our God.” Graham noted that even the most private of sins can have very public, devastating consequences, and he asked a simple question: “If [Clinton] will lie to or mislead his wife and daughter, those with whom he is most intimate, what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public?”
Graham was right: Clinton, it turned out, wouldn’t just lie to mislead his family. He’d lie to influence courts, Congress, and the American people.
Fast-forward 20 years. By 2018, Donald Trump was president — and helping to win important policy victories for religious conservatives — and Graham’s tune had changed dramatically. He actively repudiated his condemnations of Clinton, calling the Republican pursuit of the then-president “a great mistake that should never have happened,” and argued that “this thing with Stormy Daniels and so forth is nobody’s business.”
Graham was wrong: Trump, it turns out, doesn’t just lie to mislead his family. He lies all the time to influence courts, Congress, and the American people.
So is this the “new normal” for Evangelicals? Is politics entirely transactional now? Do we evaluate politicians only on their policies and leave the sex discussions to the privacy of their own bedrooms?
Apparently not, according to . . . Franklin Graham. Now that the Democratic primary is gaining steam and a gay candidate is surging forward, Graham has rediscovered his moral voice. Yesterday he tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/Franklin_Graham/status/1121070184922525701?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1121070184922525701&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalreview.com%2F2019%2F04%2Ffranklin-graham-and-the-high-cost-of-the-lost-evangelical-witness%2F
Yes, marriage is the union between a man and a woman, but Trump married a woman, then married his mistress, then married a third woman, then had an affair with a porn star while that third wife was pregnant with his child. Yet Graham says, “God put him” in the presidency and we need to “get behind him and support him.”
The proper Evangelical position toward any president is not hard to articulate, though it is exceedingly difficult to hold to, especially in polarized times when one party seems set on limiting religious liberty and zealously defending abortion: We should pray for presidents, critique them when they’re wrong, praise them when they’re right, and never, ever impose partisan double standards. We can’t ever forget the importance of character, the necessity of our own integrity, and the power of the prophetic witness.
In other words, Evangelicals can never take a purely transactional approach to politics. We are never divorced from our transcendent purpose, which always trumps political expediency. In scripture, prophets confronted leaders about their sin. They understood a core truth, one clearly articulated in the Southern Baptist Convention’s 1998 Resolution on Moral Character of Public Officials: “Tolerance of serious wrong by leaders sears the conscience of the culture, spawns unrestrained immorality and lawlessness in the society, and surely results in God’s judgment.”
All too many of our nation’s Evangelical leaders haven’t just “tolerated” serious wrongdoing by Trump, they’ve rationalized and minimized it. Some have even given the “thumbs up” in front of a Playboy cover. (What would Nathan, who dramatically confronted David over his infidelity and murder, say?) In so doing, they’ve seared the consciences of the culture and the church, and granted their secular opponents all the ammunition necessary to question our sincerity as believers.
Scripture repeatedly warns that Christians should expect to be despised by the world, and in many quarters of our culture (the academy, Silicon Valley, Hollywood), Evangelicals are among the most-hated members of all. But whenever someone hates us, we should ask why. If it’s because of our faith, we should rejoice; if it’s because of our sin, we should be humble enough to repent. Even the best of men are far from perfect, and our troubles can be our own fault.
Franklin Graham is under fire today. He should be. His double standards have cost the church. This mistake should not define him — he has done much good and preached the Gospel faithfully for many years — but it should grieve him. Through his blatant hypocrisy, he has earned his critics’ wrath.
Also, note how French equates claims that Trump had extramarital encounters ten years before he ran for president with Bill Clinton’s having sex in the Oval Office as president with his college-age intern and before that sexually harassing Arkansas state employees when he was governor.
This guy is nothing but a sophist and a propagandist.
Tell us Rich Lowry WHO FUNDS NATIONAL REVIEW???
WHOSE MOUTHPIECE ARE YOU???
Interestingly, Jesus Christ Himself "overlooked John the Apostle on the ballot."
John was the most beloved of the Apostles. His faith was so genuine and strong that he was the only Apostle not to die a martyr's death.
And yet when Jesus Christ wanted one of His Apostles to become "the Rock upon which I will build My Church," he picked Simon Peter -- perhaps the most flawed, imperfect Apostle of them all.
French seems to dance around the question in a circular argument, aka begging the question. Let’s ask frankly: what happens when God enters into a willing life?
The person begins to stop sinning and begins to embrace righteousness, that’s what.
Could Franklin Graham use more finesse? I think he could, but God can use halting, imperfect people right where they are because He is the name above all names. There is no “HTRN Ministry Foundation” and I am just another voice in the wilderness at this time. This is according to His plan. Maybe the kinds of things I would want to say, people aren’t yet prepared to hear.
I have heard a story that John survived a boiling-in-oil ordeal. Being a confessor might be harder than being a martyr — John had the tougher thing to go through.
The lying media is still defending Bill Clinton, rapist.
The way the Clintons’ handled the Pamela Jones cases is the blueprint for the other investigations - perjury, paying others to commit perjury, threatenging, smearing and intimidating witnesses,...
This French guy is an idiot.
As for: “His commitment to the Christian character of American public officials seems to depend largely on their partisan political identity.”
That’s due to how partisan politics has evolved. Who’s fault is it that Democrat liberalism has become so anti-Christ.
$130,000??
Are you referring to money paid to the slut? Mark Levin explained that has shut-up money, it was blackmail from democrats with the election to close to offer any defense.
Any proof of this?
I don't think Trump is guilty on this one because 1) he said so; 2) she's not exactly his type.
By the way, the reason Clinton got caught is because he actually broke the law.
David French, nevertrumper extraordinaire. He still doesn’t get it that we didn’t e!ect Trump because of his morality, or lack of it, but because he was interested in draining the swamp, and cheesey as it may sound, MAGA. There is no such thing as an innocent man, for ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But the Bible has shown over and over, that God uses imperfect people, to perform justice.
Barf alert is right.
And what Trump has done pales in comparison with the Clintons and their ilk.
Pedo Island anyone?
There’s a world of difference between garden variety adultery and child sex exploitation.
WELL SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Really? That’s what he said? WOW - That’s really offensive!
OMG the replies are brutal mostly millennials, this generation of millennials is LOST these parents should NEVER have sent them through the University System they are TOTALLY brainwashed with Liberal propaganda!!!!
its beyond me how he got elected ....
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Your memory needs a nudge - hint _Ross Perot
and Americans are stupid (and smart, all at the same time
Apparently, the “journalist” has no concept of the term, “redemption”, both for Trump and Franklin. Both led early lives that weren’t always the best. Both had come-to-Jesus moments. Both were redeemed, or so I believe.
Peter is my favorite of the 12, largely because his imperfections and impulsiveness are easy to relate to.
So, did Jesus pick Simon to become the Rock (your capitalization)? Or did Jesus build the church on Simon's statement of faith "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"? What is the Greek word used for "Peter", and what is the Greek word used for "rock"? Are they the same words, or was the Gospel written with two different words to show similar but different things, as Jesus Himself said two different things when he gave Simon the new name Peter while also saying "upon this rock I will build my church"?
The President’s greatest sin in the eyes of Bush League Republicans is that he sides with the citizens and the rule of law.
We weren’t supposed to be able to elect a President who would stop the Bush Plan for North Mexico (aka USA)
David French should know better, that Franklin Graham is a symptom rather than a cause of division. The Leftist church has long condemned me for not embracing the latest apostasie masquerading as Gospel.
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