'Funeral sermons': Baptist News publisher pens epic takedown of 'liar' Franklin Graham
The late Billy Graham's son Franklin was shredded on a Baptist news site Friday for his involvement in the Republican National Convention and "Christian nationalism."
Baptist News Global is a nonprofit site about issues of faith that is "Baptist in heritage and ecumenical in spirit." Executive director and publisher Mark Wingfield penned a column where he accused Graham of being a "liar."
Graham was brought to the convention Thursday to pray. Each evening, someone different offers a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. The first night, pro-Trump Harmeet Dhillon offered a Sikh prayer and was met with a "barrage of hate from far-right Trumpists," the Guardian reported. She was called "satanic" and accused of "witchcraft."
Graham, on the other hand, "gave as much of a speech as he did a prayer," characterized Wingfield. "His claim that he was speaking as a 'private citizen' was meaningless to separate his public comments from both Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which he leads."
Among the things Graham said is that God chose to spare Trump's life on Saturday when father and firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed.
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"This played like an excerpt from the worst kind of funeral sermons — where the preacher or eulogist just skips right over the pain of death to make sure everyone present in the room is going to heaven," said Wingfield.
He quoted Graham as saying that experiences like Trump's “cause us to examine our lives and to reevaluate our priorities."
Wingfield noted, "Trump made no adjustments to his America-first, anti-immigrant isolationist agenda that night. Instead, adoring fans behind him held up signs saying, 'Mass Deportations Now.' Remember, the same Bible that calls us to salvation calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to welcome the stranger among us."
The lies came next, he continued, as Graham reportedly described Trump as a "man of his word."
"Apparently, Graham hasn’t listened to any of the small-business owners who have been jilted by Trump through the years," Wingfield wrote.
The next comments were about "religious liberty," a euphemism those like Graham use to talk about liberating evangelicals from responsibility and rules. Graham doesn't mean "the liberty of all people," Wingfield wrote.
During Graham's actual prayer, he told God the country was being flooded by "millions of people seeking refuge and hope." He's talking about refugees and asylum seekers.
"See the link there between Trump being the only hope to implement God’s plan for America — which apparently should involve mass deportations, persecution of political enemies and allowing the free flow of guns?" said Wingfield.
He closed by saying that "both Graham and Trump demonstrate, the power in the blood behind isn’t just America first, it’s conservative evangelicals first. And, as always, truth be damned."
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