Posted on 11/19/2001 11:54:59 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
But `evil and wicked' quote doesn't cancel Christian love, he says
While saying he is called to love people regardless of their faith, evangelist Franklin Graham on Sunday wouldn't back away from his recent statement on a national news program that Islam "is a very evil and wicked religion."
In a prepared statement released to The Observer through a spokesman, Graham said his Samaritan's Purse ministry in Boone will continue providing millions of dollars in aid to Muslims in need around the world. But he did not take back the controversial comments aired Friday night on "NBC Nightly News" and repeated on cable stations.
Those pieces were based on an interview Graham gave last month near Wilkesboro, at the dedication of a chapel in his parents' name, when he said: "We're not attacking Islam but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion."
In his prepared statement Sunday, Graham said: "It is not my calling to analyze Islam or any other religions, though I recognize that all religions have differences. In the past, I have expressed my concerns about the teachings of Islam regarding the treatment of women and the killing of non-Muslims or infidels."
Graham, 49, does not plan to comment publicly on the issue, and only will release Sunday's statement in response to questions.
His response comes a day after his ministry's Operation Christmas Child began processing 1 million shoe boxes in Charlotte for needy children overseas - including thousands destined for largely Muslim nations.
His comments were challenged by former Charlottean Ali Akber, who helped organize a meeting between local Jews and Muslims after Sept. 11, before he relocated to Maryland.
"That's spreading hatred," said Akber. "It is the same God. We just don't worship the same way. We all believe in God and charity and worshipping and not doing any evil."
Franklin Graham's views run counter to those expressed on Sept. 17 by President Bush, who called Islam "a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world."
It also stands in contrast to the message delivered by Graham's father at the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance service at the National Cathedral in Washington, on Sept. 14. "We come together today to affirm our conviction that God cares for us, whatever our ethnic, religious or political background may be," Billy Graham preached. "The Bible says that he is `the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.'"
. . . showing pictures of the planes flying into the WTC;
. . . showing pictures of the crumpled, emaciated bodies at the bottom of the WTC;
. . . showing people diving to their deaths from the top of the WTC;
. . . showing the thousands of people in tears because a family member was murdered at the Pentagon, WTC, or PA;
. . . showing the number of Hertz's driving down to cemetaries with coffins in their bellies; and
. . . condemning the evil people who did this to us!
No message beyond the above request for forgiveness by all!!
However, when one actually looks at the Qu'ran, one immediately sees the huge disparities between their God and the Judeo-Christian God. Franklin Graham is right in that sense, then, when he draws that distinction. I believe he's absolutely right--the Islamic faith is not built around the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible. I'm not sure whether Muslims actually believe they worship the same God, or whether they simply say that in order to be more acceptable to Christians. But regardless, I'm convinced that the God they serve is not the Christian God at all, but a false god...an idol, if you will...
While they believe in the God of Abraham, from what I've seen they would not swear allegiance to the God of Isaac and Jacob, but rather the God of Ishmael. But God identifies Himself in the Old Testament as the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
And that is the beginning of the dividing line between the different religions.
-penny
Thanks for straightening that out...I was a little worried there for a moment... ;)
-penny
I will not be surprised if in a few years he will be thrown to the lions in a stadium packed with roaring pagans. (See the life of Paul the Apostle, John the Baptist, Abel, etc).
The success of Harry Potter shows that this nation is rapidly descending into the grips of Satanic darkness. (Witchcraft if for KIDS, now!)
Just the opposite. We are to flee Satan and expose evil. Graham is "exposing evil".
Franklin may mean well in his heart but he's getting sloppy on the facts.
On the contrary. Franklin is exactly right on his facts and is not sloppy in the least. His detractors are the ones who are "sloppy on the facts".
He needs to go back to "Who God is and what He demands from His children" 101 class.
And just what might that be...? According to the Bible, one of His major tenets is to notworship false gods, of which Allah is a prime example.
For Graham to say this, even in his heart, let alone publicly, can destroy the foundational beginnings of weaker and beginner Christians who sometimes look to the wrong messengers for food whereby their faith can grow.
If he is looking to the wrong messengers for food, the "weaker or beginner Christians" will assuredly get the wrong food. That food will be poison to his genuine faith. He needs to look to messengers that only support what The Bible says, not what they wish it says or what some other religious book like the Koran says.
Islam is a false, cultic religion that is totally foreign and inimicable to The Bible. There is no meeting of the minds whatsoever on "God", salvation, or anything else, except very superficially and in a narrow, moral sense. Sorry, but that's not "close enough" for argument, much less God's Word.
This, apparently innocently presented, statement needs to be withdrawn and forgiveness asked for by Franklin Graham from God as well as the people who will be mislead by it.
I see nothing at all misleading about it. It is dead on.
Graham said his Samaritan's Purse ministry in Boone will continue providing millions of dollars in aid to Muslims in need around the world.
Is it just me?
Or is there a profound contradiction in the two statements above which in itself borders on "evil"?
I'm with you brother!! It's great to see someone with the guts to tell the truth and then to stand by it in the face of attacks by the P.C. police. Way to go!!
Kinda brings to mind the verse (forgive the paraphrase), "By their fruit you shall know them..." And in this case, their fruit speaks loudly of what their religion is about, particularly when it is rare to find a Muslim leader who will outright condemn Islamic terrorists and when these terrorists instead command a huge following among their Muslim brothers...
-penny
It must have been a rogue element since they it longer exists.
Islam, on the other hand, has an unbroken 1300 year record of brutality, intolerance and evil.
There's been trouble in the UK over Muslims and dogs. One Muslim girl took it upon herself to stone a beagle which approached her in a London park. Naturally, the park patrons took exception, and were a little forceful in rescuing the poor dog. And the UK press took it upon itself to lecture the dog lovers on what awful, xenophobic, intolerant cretins they were....(Source : Either Games Pets Play or Pets and Their People.)
Count Daniel in that crowd, too.
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