Conservative pens a harsh denunciation of Franklin Graham for abandoning his own integrity

Conservative commentator David French laid waste to evangelical scion Franklin Graham for hypocritically turning the other cheek for Donald Trump while criticizing gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.

In a National Review column, French noted that during Bill Clinton's Zippergate scandal, Graham mused that if the then-president would "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," the columnist wrote. "He’d lie to influence courts, Congress, and the American people."

Two decades later, however, the evangelical figurehead had changed his tune when it came to Trump and his alleged adult film mistress Stormy Daniels.

"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,'" French wrote.

When it comes to Buttigieg, however, Graham seems to be going back to his old ways.

"Now that the Democratic primary is gaining steam and a gay candidate is surging forward, Graham has rediscovered his moral voice," French wrote. He noted that the evangelical recently tweeted that Buttigieg could not be a gay Christian because his reading of the Bible "defines homosexuality as sin, something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized."

"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," French wrote. "Yet Graham says, 'God put him' in the presidency and we need to 'get behind him and support him.'"

The columnist then outlined what he considers the one proper evangelical political position: "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," he added, "Evangelicals can never take a purely transactional approach to politics."

Read the entire column via the National Review.