April 21, 2003

Franklin Graham, Christian Crusader

Let’s see… Go to a country where we’ve just finished bombing the crap out of everything… where there’s still no water or electricity… where people are starving to death… and then offer them food, water, and shelter in exchange for some good, old-fashioned proselytism, courtesy of the son of one of Bush’s best buddies — who (not unlike his hypocritical Jew-bashing father) claims respect for non-Christian religions, yet “invalidates” Allah and implies that the Qur’an is just a rip-off of the Bible?

In the meantime, use “security concerns” as an excuse to stall the delivery of U.N. aid, and refuse to allow a British Save the Children relief plane into Iraq to do the most immediate good — sans sermons?

Gosh, it almost sounds like Bush & Co. are punishing legitimate humanitarian-aid organizations — and deliberately turning a blind eye to the hoards of Christian evangelicals already in Iraq, pumped up and convertin’ them danged-to-heck Iraqi heathens by the multitude.

Sounds like a sweet deal for the incestuous dyad of the Bush administration and the evangelical Religious Right. God might think it sounds more like blackmail. I’ll just call it opportunism. And a slap in the face to Iraqi Muslims who held out the belief that the “war on terror” would never be used as an excuse for a war on Islam.

We are not attacking Islam, but Islam has attacked us… Islam is a very evil and wicked religion.

Franklin Graham
October, 2001

…when asked to clarify his statement, Graham repeated his charge that Islam, as a whole, was evil. “It wasn’t Methodists flying into those buildings, it wasn’t Lutherans,” he said. “It was an attack on this country by people of the Islamic faith.”

Preacher’s Anti-Islam Remarks Mobilize White House
Charisma News Service

The administration’s sudden fastidiousness about civil liberties has everything to do with who Franklin Graham is: not only a friend of Bush’s, but, along with his supporters and the Southern Baptist Convention, arguably the largest and most loyal voting bloc in Bush’s re-election strategy.

Jesus in Baghdad: Why we should
keep Franklin Graham out of Iraq
Slate
April 11, 2003

Evangelist Franklin Graham, who has just about taken over his father’s group, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, runs his own relief agency… Called Samaritan’s Purse, it is one of the world’s largest Christian relief agencies, and it “is mobilized and poised to assist those affected by the war to liberate Iraq,” reports AgapePress, a Christian News Service. …

The Reverend Graham isn’t alone in pursuing a twenty-first century crusade. The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and the kingpin of proselytizers, is also planning a large relief effort in Iraq once the war ends. …

The Reverend Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association (AFA) also has a plan for a relief effort incursion. Despite a banner headline at the AFA Web site that reads “Is Islam a Peaceful Religion?” (the answer is no) the pastor-with-a-plan hopes “to help raise money to help the displaced people of Iraq rebuild their lives and let them know that Christians in America care for them and want to help them through their struggle against tyranny.” …

Then, there is Jeff Christopherson, pastor of the Sanctuary of Oakville, a Southern Baptist-affiliated church just outside Toronto, who reports AgapePress, “hopes to plan churches in Baghdad once the regime of Saddam Hussein is deposed.” …

Finally, the anti-abortion American Life League (ALL) is warning that if Planned Parenthood has its way, all the women in Iraq will be having abortions in the near future. In a press release headlined “PPFA [Planned Parenthood Federation of America] President Gloria Feldt Wants Abortion Forced on Iraqi Refugees In Spite of Muslim Beliefs,” ALL claims that when the shooting war ends, the war over abortion rights will commence.

What Are Those ‘Compassionate’ Christians Up To Now?
GayToday
April 21, 2003

Franklin Graham, the Christian evangelist who has branded Islam a “very wicked and evil” religion, was the honored speaker at the Pentagon’s Good Friday service. …

When Muslim groups complained that the Pentagon was “endorsing” his attacks on Islam, Mr. Graham asked for a photo op with Muslim Pentagon employees. They declined.

Muslims suspicious that America is on a crusade against Islam were inflamed to learn that Mr. Graham is taking his missionary act to Iraq. They are still scorched by his remarks to NBC News after 9/11: “It wasn’t Methodists flying into those buildings, and it wasn’t Lutherans. It was an attack on this country by people of the Islamic faith.”

He wrote in his last book that Christianity and Islam were “as different as lightness and darkness,” and recently told the Sunday Times of London, “The true God is the God of the Bible, not the Koran.”

Workers from Mr. Graham’s Christian relief organization, Samaritan’s Purse, were in Jordan, waiting to inveigle Iraqi infidels with a blend of kitchen pantry and Elmer Gantry. …

Maureen Dowd
A Tale of Two Fridays
New York Times
April 20, 2003

“Groups like Franklin Graham’s go in and exploit vulnerable people under the guise of humanitarian relief,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group in Washington, D.C. “It will be perceived as the U.S. government endorsing the activity, whether or not that’s the case. And that will confirm suspicions in the Muslim world that this is really a war against Islam.”
A Controversial Crusade
Newsday
April 21, 2003

Like the despised Carpetbaggers of yore, Graham plans to exploit the humanitarian crisis for his own calculating gain, by subjecting vulnerable Iraqis to his Faustian Christ-for-food program.

Franklin Graham: Spiritual Carpetbagger
CounterPunch
April 11, 2003

The purpose is to love and save them in “the name of Jesus Christ,” [Graham] said in an interview published Thursday on Beliefnet, a multifaith Web site. “God will always give us opportunities.”

Muslims were outraged. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called any plan to follow the invasion of Iraq with a conversion campaign “a public relations disaster” for Bush. …

Franklin Graham has been making headlines since he prayed in Jesus’ name at George W. Bush’s inauguration. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, however, Bush has distanced himself publicly from evangelists who condemn Islam.

On Thursday, Graham told USA TODAY, “I would not take advantage of these people in their hour of tragedy to force them or coerce them to make them Christian converts. I don’t do that at any time.”

But Hooper accused Graham of having a “deceitful track record.” In his 1995 autobiography, Rebel With a Cause, Graham detailed how Samaritan’s Purse sent Arabic-language Christian tracts and Bibles to the Persian Gulf region before Operation Desert Storm, which broke Saudi law and ignored complaints from the Red Cross and the U.S. military. …

Aid plan criticized as effort to convert Muslims to Christianity
USA Today
March 29, 2003

Gee — ya don’t think Samaritan’s Purse might just be eligible for faith-based funding, do ya? Gee… Surprise, surprise!

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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